Disappointing Béal na Bláth TV coverage

RTÉ SPENT a lot of time last week telling us all about the plans for live coverage of the Beál na Bláth commemoration on its news channel. It was, perhaps, a way of distracting the audience from the fact that over 10,000 people gathering in a remote part of the country, joined by both current and past Taoisigh, commemorating the life of one of the modern State’s founding fathers, did not warrant time on either of the two main public service news channels.

But when the ‘live stream’ began on the little-known news channel, and viewers found it bereft of commentary, it was a bit of a disappointment, for such an auspicious occasion, to put it mildly.

And when, some hours later, this one-in-a-100-years event was relegated to the third item on the Six One news, it was yet another indication that the times they are, indeed, a-changing.

One wonders if the occasion had been held inside ‘The Pale’ would the powers that be in Dublin 4 have deemed it worthy of more airtime?