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Tubridy is the totem for
RTÉ as an ideas-free
oasis that as a rule
avoids challenging or
subversive reporting or
analysis
RTÉ
is an ideas-free bundu and
as a rule avoids challenging
or subversive reporting or
analysis. This is most clearly and disappointingly
evidenced by the self-consciously banal daytime
gabfest of Radio 1. It ignores poverty and
inequality, working-class voices and even
unions. It has been horribly slow to recognise
the reality of climate change, typically covering
the environment in contrived and inflammatory
rows. In general it too often recycles its own
talentlessness on its jaded chat and politics
shows. It settles defamation actions too easily.
RTÉ shies away from serious allegations of
corruption against the government It has paid
its stars too much, though it has been
addressing that and there is no doubt there are
some people of exceptional talent or at least
unflappability among the timeservers. If the
goal is to be the Nation on the Airwaves, it
always appears like a clique.
In 2019, David Cullinane, a Sinn Féin TD, told
the Dáil: “There are issues with regard to class
in RTÉ, something I have raised with the director
general and RTÉ. I do not believe it reflects
modern Ireland or modern Dublin at all times. It
reflects what many see as a couple of postcodes
in Dublin but does it reflect working-class
communities? Do we hear their stories?”.
The incarnation of these structural problems,
at least for a magazine that is obsessed with
analysing power, is Ryan Tubridy.
Tubridy
The Tigger of Montrose (born 1973 but ageless
in appearance) has rarely made an unforced
error (unless you count appearing at an election
event for his younger brother Garrett), or
appeared hubristic over a 38-year career there
despite, perhaps because of, immense
confidence, relentless charm and peerless
emotional intelligence. That is a significant
recommendation and suggests a temperament
dramatically and perfectly suited to
broadcasting.
Career
Tubridy started in broadcasting at the age of
12, reviewing books for the then Radio 2 show
Poporama presented by Ruth Buchanan. He
hasn’t really stopped since. By 2004, he had
bagged ‘Tubridy Tonight’, a live Saturday night
chat show described by TV critic Hillary Fannin
as “sub-Lettermanesque”. From 2006 he had
been doing The Tubridy Show, on weekday
mornings on RTÉ Radio 1. In 2009 he
appropriated the Late Late Show and the next
year he took over his friend Gerry Ryan’s slot
after the bullish broadcaster’s premature
death. Unfortunately it is possible that 2010
was the height of it, Listenership dropped by
an extraordinary 40% and he returned to Radio
1. His 9-10am slot there showcases his
schmoozey fluidity. For a man who often
reminds his listeners that he is a reader and a
fogey, however, its content is surprisingly low-
brow and vapid. It is remarkable that Tubridy
has become so comfortable touting base
celebrity.
Personality
Tubridy has the skill of a Wogan or a Byrne but
he lacks their depth.
Tubridy,
Tigger
no more
Despite great
broadcasting talent,
Tubridy never
challenged power
and in the end lost
his bounciness so
that, when exposed
as not just Renault-
funded and greedy
but disingenuous, he
got little support
By Michael Smith
He is great with children, though perhaps not
Greta Thunberg (now an adult anyway). And he
loves their toys. He even likes young people and
keeps saying that he promotes their agenda.
This avoids him having to say that he promotes
their agenda of anger and stopping climate
change. That would be too far.
He has not always had support from his
colleagues though he is popular in RTÉ. Before
Tubs replaced him at RTÉ, Pat Kenny said, “He’s
a young man in a terrible hurry”. Gay Byrne
thought Tubridy’s TV show very disappointing
in its early days, though he was well-disposed
to Tubridy himself: “And he’s a lovely fellow, but
I think he’s as much to blame, because he wants
to adapt to whatever RTE1 wanted him to be and
that’s a pity”.
Politics
Young Ryan was a member of the Kevin Barry
Cumann of Fianna Fáil while in UCD and was
active in the UCD Students’ Union, as well as in
the Dun Laoghaire branch of Ógra Fianna Fáil.
His brother Garrett (their parents liked 1970s
voguish names) stood unsuccessfully for FF at
the 2009 local elections, in Pembroke/
Rathmines.
Like many Irish broadcasters, including Gay
Byrne, Eamon Dunphy, Pat Kenny and George
Hook he is dead to wokeness. The Irish Times’
radio critic, Mick Heaney wrote in 2017 that
Tubridy “regularly complains about the
supposed absurdities of political correctness in
public discourse while pouring scorn on
She knew
MEDIA
56 July-August 2023 July-August 2023 57
He has thrown his hard-earned reputation
out the car window because of a grubby and
greedy secret agreement
pretentious notions that deviate from the milieu
of having a few pints and praising the Beatles”.
He has said “I abhor political correctness”.
You can’t get past the car-park attendant in
Montrose unless you feel this in your cojones.
Nor are these views unusual for one of his
privileged and homogenous background and he
is said to carry them into his life o-air. In May
2011, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland
upheld a complaint against Tubridy after he
called a paedophile a “monster” and “creature”,
read out his address and added: “From what I
gather these guys cannot be quote-unquote
cured. Only one way to deal with them, and
that’s physiological ... these guys should have
bits taken o”.
Tigger sounded for once a lot like Eeyore.
Tubridy has a particular lack of interest in
environmentalism and anti-consumerism. It
would be naive to think this isn’t fuelled in part
by the sponsorship of the Late Late Show by
Renault Ireland, the prevalence of ads on his
programmes by car companies and by his
€75,000 annual payment by Renault Ireland for
hosting three events, The razzmatazz giveways
on the Late Late Show smack of avaricious
abandon. But materialism and optimism won’t
do it for anyone in the age of Trump, Putin,
Climate Change and rent-oppressed radical
Youth.
Above all politically, and unlike the instinctual
Gaybo (though like Pat Kenny), Tubridy sees no
reason to challenge power and class structures,
the ones that have served him so well. He stays
out of trouble: some sort of political vanilla.
This, for me, constitutes a betrayal of his
privilege and, it is not too much of a stretch to
speculate, may account in part for the reason so
few people were fired up enough about him to
support him in his current travails.
There was an excruciating moment during the
tribute Late Late Show when Gay Byrne died
when an unusually consummate Tommy T