DAVID DUNSEITH:FOR 20 years, the BBC broadcaster David Dunseith, who has died aged 76, hosted the Radio Ulster Talkback current affairs programme which he correctly dubbed Northern Ireland's "people's parliament".
Talkback was a forum for political debate – an “alternative peace process”, as described by one reporter – between the unionist and nationalist, and republican and loyalist protagonists, at a time when politics appeared in a quagmire and notions of ceasefires and a political powersharing agreement seemed fanciful.
His work may have largely escaped the notice of people from the South. However, he was the North’s foremost presenter – professional, objective and fair, but not immune to the frustrations of dealing with Northern Ireland’s incorrigible politics but not falling into the weary cynicism that afflicted some journalists after too long at the front line.
His journalistic career, which began relatively late when he was in his 30s, spanned virtually the whole of the Troubles and the transition period from “war” to peace, the paramilitary ceasefires, the Belfast Agreement and the formation and stabilising of the Stormont institutions.
He hailed from a Protestant background in Derry, his early career was in the Royal Ulster Constabulary and included a stint in its drugs squad. He landed a job with UTV without realising he was a candidate.
“I got a phone call sounding me out, would I be interested in trying reporting?” he recalled. “I got another call inviting me to come in to write something and do a screen test and try an interview, that sort of thing. A few days later I got a call saying I had a job if I wanted it. I didn’t know I’d applied. I always remember going down for my first day and going in to see the boss. He said to me, ‘we can only offer you a short six-month contract’. I said, ‘I’m sorry that won’t do’. I’ll only take a three-month contract on the grounds that you may hate me and also I may hate you so much that I don’t want to be here’. But that was the start of it.”
He was, in fact, much loved, particularly for his work on Talkbackfrom 1989 to 2009. After moving to the BBC, he took over the programme which ran, Monday to Friday, first from noon to 1pm, and later until 1.30 pm, from the late Barry Cowan.
Outside of the presenter’s chair Dunseith was a shy, occasionally dishevelled, slightly awkward man. But in front of the microphone he was calm, courtly, assured and sometimes mischievous.
He was a great animal lover, a vegetarian and a devotee of theatre, once comparing himself to an actor. “They are all shy, a bit introverted. But the minute they go on stage it’s a very different business. I suppose I’m a bit like that. When that [studio] light goes on, I go for it.”
In 1993 he won a Gold Sony Award as local broadcaster of the year and Talkbackwon further Sonys in 1997 and 2006. He was a humane and passionate man, a mediator who gave the key players of the Troubles their voice, and in very angry, fraught and stormy times, illustrated that there just might be a chart to guide everyone to calmer waters.
Talkbackwas a programme that dealt with the lighter as well as the darker side of Northern life. The Independentnewspaper's Ireland correspondent, David McKittrick, worked as a producer on Talkbackfor a period and remembered how Dunseith could manage even the most unexpected problems.
He recalled how one interviewee, a distinguished Protestant clergyman, after talking very articulately “suddenly stopped making sense and started making strange noises”.
The broadcaster brought the interview to a “dignified close” with Dunseith later privately explaining that the minister’s “dentures had broken . . . and were rattling around” in his mouth.
“He could rise to the big occasion and also rise to the small occasion,” said McKittrick.
Dunseith died a year after his beloved wife Roisin died from motor neurone disease. The couple are survived by sons, Philip, Benny, Conor and five grandchildren.
While not a Catholic, he accompanied his wife Roisin to Mass in the south Down area for 30 years. And at his own request his funeral Mass was held on Monday in the Star of the Sea Church in Strangford where her funeral Mass was held.
Dunseith’s friend of 26 years and officiating priest Fr Gerry McCloskey said: “He was open to those of all creeds and none . . . and this was key to his success as a fair and impartial broadcaster.
“He had that fundamental respect for the dignity of every human being, and that’s what gained him such enormous respect throughout our society.”
David Dunseith: born October 2nd, 1934; died June 30th, 2011