The Gaybo Revolution: How Gay Byrne Challenged Irish Society by Finola Doyle O'Neill

Author:Finola Doyle O'Neill
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Orpen Press
Published: 2016-10-01T00:00:00+00:00

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On Your Bike: The Final Years of The Late Late Show

Posturing and Politics on the Late Late Platform

By 1990, The Late Late Show was still the most popular forum for debate on Irish television. In October of that year, the Irish electorate watched at home as a discussion on the suitability of Ireland’s three prospective presidential candidates, Brian Lenihan, Mary Robinson and Austin Curry, was played out on live television. 485

For the most part, Byrne was never publicly accused of overtly pushing a social agenda. He usually appeared on both his radio and television show as ‘Uncle Gaybo’, benefactor of ‘one for everybody in the audience’ and devil’s advocate. Moreover, by the beginning of the 1990s, The Late Late Show still held consistently high audience ratings and continued to set the agenda for public debate. The Sunday Independent ’s television critic commented on the significance of the show and the centrality of Byrne in popular culture. He noted how impossible it was to think of any major issue of public concern that had not been thrashed out on the Late Late platform. He saw Gay Byrne ‘woven into the very fabric of Irish life’ in a way that is unique. 486

Yet, the show began to grow quite dull in the 1990s. Perhaps it was the fact that people were less shockable and there was a lack of new material coming to the surface. Irish people were now ready to embrace change, even to initiate it, without having to look to The Late Late Show to define appropriate social parameters. To many critics, the dullness of the programmes seemed due to the fact that Byrne himself was aging and his opinions becoming more transparent and more unpopular. Examples cited include his veneration of presidential candidate Brian Lenihan on a programme ostensibly to celebrate the former Minister’s birthday. 487 Byrne’s additional role as Executive Producer of The Late Late Show is an important factor in his perceived unbalanced interviewing style on the show at that time.

The interview was supposed to centre around the publication of Lenihan’s book To Mayo and Back, recounting his recent illness and liver transplant. However, there was much criticism, from both opposition political parties and the public in general, of what was termed ‘a stage-managed Fianna Fáil love-fest.’ 488 Lenihan was portrayed in a roguish light, telling anecdotes of Ministers pub-crawling and deals being done with a wink and a nod, revelations that would have been deemed inappropriate on other programmes. But The Late Late Show was different. This aspect of the show – its ability to get away with things by being under the banner of ‘light entertainment’ – was a constant source of irritation to those in the news and current affairs division, where such revelations would not be permitted.

This particular episode, however, demonstrated something very significant about Ireland’s political culture at that time, a point best articulated by journalist Fintan O’Toole, who claimed that it was not unreasonable to present Brian Lenihan as the epitome of Irishness, because we, as Irish people, are amused at our own follies.

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