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TE’s ‘Prime Time’ programme on th March was very much
a programme of two halves. The first part of the show was an illu-
minating piece on the surrogacy issue. It was called ‘Born Identity’
and looked at many of the aspects involved. The panel of two were
invited on as experts and the viewers had the chance to listen to their exper-
tise. The second part of the show was in stark contrast to this.
At the beginning of the ‘Prime Time’ programme, Pat Kenny framed this
second part, which was on Travellers, in a very particular way by stating that
Travellers face many problems, before asking the viewers “...but to what
extent do Travellers bring it on themselves?”. If the programme was deal-
ing with inequality experienced by women or gay people would he ever ask
“to what extent do they bring it on themselves?”.
Pat Kenny introduced the second part with what I consider was a dread-
fully simplified synopsis of the root causes of prejudice. A Traveller is then
quoted saying “Travellers are creating problems for themselves... But that’s
not all Travellers” implying that it may, nevertheless, be nearly all. He then
moved to a video piece on recent events, entitled “Fear and Loathing”.
This set the tone for the rest of the programme and included the gra-
tuitous airing of multiple prejudiced views, often with the anti-Traveller
sentiment denied by the very person articulating it.
Pat Kenny wondered whether the anti-Traveller racism portrayed and the
anti-social Traveller activity portrayed were “two sides of the one coin”. In
general he tended to lapse into generalisations – which it is elementary should
be avoided - failing acutely to sideline the offensive over-generalisations of
others, including sometimes those who were set up to be ‘neutrals’ or even
on the ‘Travellers’ “side”’. Kenny clearly felt it was appropriate to attribute
prejudice to people, as if it was just normal. He assumed, for example, that to
the Gardaí, “Travellers mean sulkies going down dual carriageways… people
breaking the law all the time”. Not just some of the time, mind.
We as a community were being problematised. This issue seemed to run
through the whole item. Pat Kenny stated that it was not just a “few bad apples,
it’s more than a few bad apples, isn’t it?”, with the question insidiously sug-
gesting a personal view. The programme was not objective or impartial in
its content or the facilitation of the discussion. RTÉ, in my opinion, were
in breach of the Broadcasting Act with particular reference to sec-
tion ():
“Every broadcaster shall ensure that…(b) the broadcast treatment of
current affairs, including matters which are either of public controversy
or the subject of current public debate, is fair to all interests concerned
and that the broadcast matter is presented in an objective and impartial
manner and without any expression of his or her own views”.
Pat Kenny, on several occasions, employed what he conceded were
negative “caricatures”, imputed negative views as justifiable or re-phrased
comments made by speakers as negative statements about Travellers. I felt
his questions were frequently quite leading rather than open-ended. The
general approach to the programme seemed to be to emphasise the contro-
versial and the emotive. This did not help to illuminate the issues. At times
I felt I was on the Jerry Springer show.
There should have been plenty of scope to examine the root causes of
the issues and how different ethnic groups can co-exist and feel valued and
respected. Instead the topic of cultural diversity and Traveller ethnicity was
largely overlooked. The programme, in general, assumed a social delinquency
on the part of the Traveller community.
According to the MacPherson report into the Stephen Lawrence mur-
der inquiry in Britain, which was in the news again last year, racism can
be understood as “conduct or words or practices which disadvantage or
advantage people because of their colour, culture, or ethnic origin. In its
more subtle form it is as damaging as in its overt form”. This reflects the
definition in the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination. With this in mind, I believe some of Pat Kenny’s words could
be perceived as having racist undertones, though that is not to say they are
unusual in this society.
Issues affecting Travellers are complex and cannot be dealt with by sound-
bites. What we need on programmes like this is calm, rational and intelligent
discussion. This, unfortunately, was absent.
I felt that I and the other Traveller representatives in the audience did
not get a fair hearing. Pat Kenny regularly interrupted those who spoke for
Travellers’ rights. Three non-Traveller people in the audience spoke with-
out interruption. Only one Traveller, Brigid Quilligan of the Irish Traveller
Movement, was given an opportunity to speak for a minute before being
interrupted.
There are lessons in this for Traveller organisations. We have been too
keen to accommodate and facilitate requests from different sections of the
media and quite often do so without discussing, much less agreeing, the terms
of engagement. The media are very important in getting our message across
but we need to reflect and be a bit more strategic about when and how we
engage with the media. Sometimes that means saying no to requests.
In the meantime we need to hold ‘Prime Time’ and RTÉ management to
account for what was to me the insensitive and disrespectful portrayal of
Travellers. Racism towards Travellers is increasingly becoming normalised
in public discourse including on mainstream media and we must not allow
this to go unchallenged.
Martin Collins is Co-Director of Pavee Point Travellers’ Centre.
martin collins
Prime Partiality
Kenny on prime Time: “controversialist”
Pat Kenny’s ‘Prime Time’ item on Travellers was controversialist, leading, partial,
negative and offensive, and could be perceived to have racist undertones
