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Turn off, tune out: Is RTÉ going bust?

The latest subscriber-only journalism from David McWilliams, Brianna Parkins, Roe McDermott and more this weekend on The Irish Times

Technology can blindside a legacy business, or bad management, but sometimes it’s just that the world moves on. In the case of RTÉ, it’s probably a bit of all three, writes David McWilliams. Photograph: Alan Betson

Sun Mar 3 2024 - 08:00

Welcome to this week’s IT Sunday, a selection of the best Irish Times journalism for our subscribers.

In a week where the unfolding drama at RTÉ gripped the country’s news media, David McWilliams offers a stark prognosis for the national broadcaster: it’s going out of business.

“Businesses go bust all the time,” writes McWilliams. “Technology can blindside a legacy business, or bad management, but sometimes it’s just that the world moves on. In the case of RTÉ, it’s probably a bit of all three. The young have switched off and are unlikely to come back. I have never seen my children tune into RTÉ. Their friends are the same. Whereas my mother is a devotee, and I am agnostic, maybe catching a bit of current affairs, the kids are gone.”

Brianna Parkins is listening to the debate surrounding the upcoming referendum on the family. A lot of that, she writes, is the sound of knickers getting in a knot over the proposal to recognise other durable relationships alongside marriage. She has this to say: “Someone once said my parents were ‘living in sin’. Which is a funny way of describing two retirees who have been together for 46 years and are very strict about separating their recycling. If you ask them why they never bothered to get married the answer ranges from ‘the bathroom needed retiling’ to ‘can’t be arsed now’.

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Paul Cullen asks what’s wrong with University Hospital Limerick? “The imminent publication of a report on the death of a teenager at University Hospital Limerick promises to thrust one of the worst black spots in the health service back into the limelight,” he writes. “In truth, UHL has seldom been out of the public eye, thanks to chronic overcrowding and a series of tragic deaths of patients, often occurring after long waits for care.”

“You like hearing the patrols coming back in the gate each day”: Conor Gallagher reports on Irish peacekeepers caught up in rising tensions in the Golan, on the Israel-Syria border. The Defence Forces first deployed to the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force in 1998 and remained for a year. In 2013, with countries pulling out their troops due to the outbreak of civil war, the UN asked Ireland to return. Irish troops have been there ever since.

In books, we have an interview with author Tana French, who says “I feel like I’m just getting started”. You can also read reviews of How the World Made the West by Josephine Quinn; Power, Politics and Territory in the ‘New Northern Ireland’ by Elizabeth DeYoung; and Neighbors and Other Stories by Diane Oliver.

Meanwhile, Donald Clarke asks why is mouthy Hollywood so quiet on Israel and Gaza? “The most preposterous complaint made against the Academy Awards is that the ceremony has become a soapbox for dissent,” he writes. “The argument seems particularly hollow this awards season. As we passed the Golden Globes, moved on to Baftas and tripped from there to the Screen Actors Guild awards, winners and red carpet attendees were, with a few exceptions, notably silent about the continuing conflict in Gaza.”

Laura Kennedy tackles the subject of burnout among women. “It has become a catch-all term for the rising sense of dissonance and disengagement that sees people increasingly reconsidering their relationships with career and the future under conditions of economic strain and political polarisation,” she says.

And in her weekly column, Roe McDermott responds to a reader who says she doesn’t know how she can trust someone again after her boyfriend of two years suddenly broke up with her. “I really thought we would end up moving in together and getting married,” the reader says. “Last year we went on a holiday for two weeks and it was so easy being around each other and relaxing, but two days after we came home he told me he wanted to break up. He couldn’t give me any reason other than ‘he wasn’t into it any more’ and wouldn’t give me any details.”

In sport, Gordon Manning looks at the lasting influence of Cormac McAnallen, the Tyrone footballer who died in his sleep 20 years ago at the age of 24. “His death sparked mourning on a scale rarely seen in Ireland for any sportsperson, before or since,” writes Manning. “Among the sympathy letters received by the family was one signed by the Republican inmates in Portlaoise Prison and another from the Imperial Grand Black Chapter of the British Commonwealth, an elite society of Orangemen.”

In this week’s On the Money newsletter, Dominic Coyle writes about preparing for the worst: The importance of letting loved ones know your wishes while you can. Sign up here to receive the newsletter straight to your inbox every Friday.

As always, there is much more on irishtimes.com, including rundowns of all the latest movies in our film reviews, tips for the best restaurants in our food section and all the latest in sport. There are plenty more articles exclusively available for Irish Times subscribers here.

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