In a busy news week of financial shenanigans and unravelling civic obedience, one story in particular makes the running – if that's the right phrase to use about the photograph of the trainer Gordon Elliott sitting atop a deceased racehorse. It says something about racing's place in Irish life that, despite many other pressing public issues, the Elliott controversy dominates talkshow agendas: seemingly every host starts off by flagging a dead horse.
Matt Cooper, for example, deals with the subject throughout the week on The Last Word (Today FM, weekdays), starting with Monday's discussion between the sports journalist Philip Quinn and the animal-rights campaigner John Carmody. Quinn details how Elliott has been "hung, drawn and quartered in the court of public angst" for the photo, while Carmody thinks the matter underscores the broader "cruelty" of the sector.
It’s an oddly unbalanced conversation, with the two guests not so much arguing as talking at cross-purposes. But Cooper looks to open up the story beyond knee-jerk condemnation, callous and ill-judged though Elliott’s actions may have been.
'If every child in this country benefited from the level of care and attention that thoroughbreds get in Ireland, we'd be living in a better country,' the journalist and breeder Kevin Blake, stressing that he's 'choosing his words carefully'
The host revisits the story the next day with the racing journalist Brian Flanagan, who says it represents horseracing’s “worst nightmare” for giving the impression that the sector is uncaring towards its equine charges. By Wednesday, however, Cooper is wondering whether horses are merely regarded as commodities. “A horse is a business asset,” the host states while chairing a debate on whether the racing industry should continue to receive €77 million in public funds.
The journalist and breeder Kevin Blake dismisses Cooper’s characterisation, saying most racehorses actually lose money, while also rebuffing the suggestion of the Sinn Féin TD Matt Carthy that State funding should be examined, especially on the grounds of animal welfare.
“If every child in this country benefited from the level of care and attention that thoroughbreds get in Ireland, we’d be living in a better country,” Blake says, stressing that he’s “choosing his words carefully”. It’s certainly a telling statement about inequality and broader priorities in this country.
Cooper isn't the only one covering the Elliott story so extensively. Today with Claire Byrne (RTÉ Radio 1, weekdays) also carries items on the issue two days running. As well as talking to Blake, who says the scandal has done "unquantifiable" damage to horseracing, Byrne also talks to the veteran trainer Ted Walsh, who is "disappointed" at Elliott's "crazy act" but clearly sorry for him too. "It's going to be a long road back," a glum Walsh predicts.
Byrne doesn’t explore the wider ramifications as much as Cooper, but she does seek some perspective on the affair: “Maybe the reaction to this is completely out of kilter to what has happened.”
Public hand-wringing by racing insiders was less obvious on the radio this time last year, when the industry insisted on the Cheltenham Festival going ahead as the first wave of Covid hit, with explosive superspreading consequences
Sure enough, with owners and bookmaking firms withdrawing their custom from Elliott, guests on both shows sympathise with the heavy price being paid by the trainer (and his staff) for his silly if upsetting error. As Cooper remarks, “It says something when the betting firm is dumping you.”
But amid all this discussion, what’s left unsaid is also striking. Aside from issues of State funding and gambling, such public hand-wringing by racing insiders was less obvious on the radio this time last year, when the industry insisted on the Cheltenham Festival going ahead as the first wave of Covid hit. As Carthy notes, the horse has a special place in Irish culture, but with respect to equestrian sensibilities, some stories clearly have more legs than others.
Both Byrne and Cooper deal with other topics, of course, though it’s notable that less time is devoted to crucial issues like the Central Bank of Ireland’s €4.1 million fine of Davy stockbrokers for breaching market regulations.
As the journalist Tom Lyons explains to Byrne on Wednesday, the penalty was imposed after a property developer approached Davy to sell an asset, which was promptly bought by several of the firm's employees, even though a better price could have been fetched on the market.
Even caught bang to rights, the financial firm, whose radio ads proudly claim “We take our responsibilities personally” – well, quite – stays silent on the matter, despite Lyons stating that there’s no legal impediment to stop the company talking. (Davy eventually cedes to Government pressure and issues a statement on Thursday.) Moreover, Lyons notes there have been no sanctions for the executives involved: “They continue to hold senior positions in finance.”
The Davy scandal highlights the opacity that surrounds much of the financial industry here, with vast amounts of money sluicing through Ireland largely unnoticed and untaxed. But the issue is rarely covered on current-affairs radio
Overall, the scandal highlights the opacity that surrounds much of the financial industry here, with vast amounts of money sluicing through Ireland largely unnoticed and, of course, untaxed. But the issue is rarely covered on current-affairs radio, with the complexity of the sector making it a less arresting topic for casual listeners than human- (or equine-) interest stories.
Even with a concise contributor like Lyons, Byrne’s item is informative rather than compelling. Of course, the omerta exemplified by Davy’s reticence also plays a big part: in contrast to the parade of anguished horseracing figures commenting on the Elliott affair, no financial insiders talk to Byrne or Cooper on this vital matter, further curtailing on-air investigation.
The presenters are on happier ground when it comes to the Limerick street party broken up by gardaí on Tuesday night, with the story providing scope for personal, political and social dimensions. There are some pertinent moments. Byrne hears from a local resident who complained about the party yet was threatened with a fine by gardaí, while on Cooper’s show the student entrepreneur Harry McCann notes that many rural students need to live in rented accommodation to access broadband.
Such points hint at wider issues that lurk behind the selfish antics of the revellers. But though the coverage rightly emphasises the distress caused to other law-abiding residents, there’s also a twitchy-curtain undertone thprecludes broader analysis.
In contrast, John Cooke’s excellent reports on student misbehaviour in Limerick for RTÉ Radio 1’s Drivetime show the week before last provided a vivid if dispiriting snapshot of declining compliance – a week before the party actually occurred. Such prescience isn’t accidental. The misdemeanours of students and, indeed, horse trainers make for juicy content, but sometimes it pays to look deeper.
Moment of the Week: Nature versus nurture
The rowdy street party in Limerick may have garnered disapproving coverage, but more novel analysis comes from Ciara Kelly on Wednesday's edition of Newstalk Breakfast. As she and her cohost, Shane Coleman, ponder the incident, they express disappointment but also sympathy for young people cooped up. But when Coleman complains of "the minority of eejits" who "don't give a flying you-know-what about the regulations", Kelly, a former GP, offers an explanation that's more genetic than splenetic.
“That’s personality – 85 per cent of us are rule followers and about 15 per cent are rule breakers,” she proclaims. “That’s in our DNA – at times like this we want to pull together, but we’re all individuals at the end of the day.” In other words, though everyone is asked to be smart, there’ll always be those with frayed genes.
