W2C-013 Sunday Tribune-0.txt
Gay Byrne: no regrets over Adams interview
I don't believe he was isolated... the format of the programme was agreed beforehand, says Late Late host
GERRY Adams is an extremely skilled man. He is nobody's eejit or fool There was absolutely no point put to him on The Late Late that hadn't been put to him a thousand times before.

I have no regrets. I thought we did it very well. No matter how we did it, it was going to be wrong as far as some people are concerned. It's up to others to decide who won and who lost. I don't go for this sort of thing. Did Gay Byrne or Gerry Adams win or lose? The proof of the pudding is in the eating.

Right now, there is a feeling that he did very well. On the other hand, if Gay Byrne had thrown his arms around him there would have been an outcry from the other direction. If we had ignored the past and the 3,000 people people dead, Gay Byrne would have been criticised for having left all that out. I believe strongly that talking about the past is part of the peace process.

People say I didn't shake hands with him. That's wrong. I did. And the thing about me standing in front of the audience is wrong. Before the show went on air, I went down to the audience, as I often do, to see who wanted to talk. That's why I was there when it began.

The format of the programme was agreed beforehand. We had discussions with Rita O'Hare [Sinn Fein spokeswoman] and he knew who was going to be there. I don't believe he was isolated. The panel was pretty well as balanced as we could get. We had hoped to get Mary Harney on but she thought about it and decided not to but asked that Michael McDowell go on.

The antipathy shown to him, especially by Hugh Leonard and Austin Currie, represents a point of view held by a huge number of people. I believe that Dermot Ahern and Jim Kemmy did alleviate that.

If most people say the audience was with Gerry Adams, so be it. I know the audience pretty well on The Late Late. There were no invited people, they were the plain people of Ireland. Roughly half the audience applauded - and it was a weak sort of applause and both sides got it.

He was very reluctant to talk about personal matters. After the show, he was chatting and joking and incidently told me a story about Joe Cahill. A couple of years ago, I did a New Year's Eve show and said to the audience: 'Now I know you are all going to give up smoking and I know too that you 'll all be smoking again tomorrow'

Well apparently Joe Cahill, who was smoking 90 a day then and had a heart problem, was watching and because he hates me so much he said 'F you you bastard' and he gave up smoking there and then. Now his heart is stronger than ever!

We do the hard job on The Late Late: talking about subjects about which people have strong feelings. And long may it continue that way.

Gerry McNamara's

TV verdict, A2
