Patrick 'Dutchy' Holland to be interviewed on Late Late Show

Dave!

Hey folks,

this was being discussed on Newstalk106 recently. Holland is being released soon, and the day he is released, he's appearing on the Late Late Show.

The main discussion was around the way the media and sometimes the public, glamourise criminals and make them into celebrity figures. Martin Cahill is the example usually given -- the film 'The General' portrays him mainly as a funny, charismatic, caring bloke, and the result is that alot of kids especially, respect him to an extent, and think "I want to be like him."
There was a journalist on Newstalk who had previously interviewed Holland, and said that he has good points, he's intelligent, he is the victim of a miscarraige of justice, etc., so maybe it's right to let him speak. I don't know the specifics of his crimes, so I can't really address that.

So the question is whether or not letting Holland appear on the LLS will be dignifying him too much, and letting him get his story across is the right thing to do.

There was a bit of a bidding war (for speaking rights, not money) between the LLS and Primetime about who'll get the interview, and he went for the former. But is Pat Kenny too polite to be able to handle it? Will Holland take over?

Will you be watching the show? Will the audience applaud him?

Discuss!

Just close this if there's already a thread on the subject (as I would suspect that there is!) -- I searched the forums for "Pat Kenny" and "Dutchy Holland" and didn't see one.

mike65

I have no problem with an interview, and if Kenny has his 'radio current affairs' hat on it should be good. But if its a panel type debate it'll quickly end up a bunfight and Holland will proberly get away with a lot.

Mike.

Dave!

hmmm, not much response, eh?

Did he appear on the show or not? My mother said that he was supposed to but he didn't show up...

r3nu4l

No idea if he showed up or not but I really don't agree with allowing any former criminal profit from their crime, financially or otherwise, by encouraging them with interviews, or giving them book deals.

Dave!

Well nobody has actually paid him for an interview AFAIK -- Sky, RTÉ, Newstalk, etc. And I don't think that anybody would have the guts to do it now, since it's fairly unanimous that it shouldn't happen.

Re: interviews, is it not the job of journalists and broadcasters to interview these people, deplorable as their crimes or actions or lives might be? Journalists get paid to ask important questions on our behalf, and print the answers for us to read. It can be argued that they shouldn't glamourise them so much, and there's debate going on about that at the moment, but that's a different matter.

lostexpectation

im sure i read in the sindo that rte nixed the interview