WARM TRIBUTES from all shades of Northern society were paid yesterday to David Dunseith, one of the “great civilising” influences in Northern Ireland over the period of the troubles.
The BBC broadcaster died on Thursday aged 76 after a relatively short battle with cancer.
Mr Dunseith enjoyed a journalistic career of some 40 years after a short earlier period in the RUC drugs squad. He particularly made his mark hosting BBC Radio Ulster's Talkbackprogramme for 20 years.
The programme ran daily Monday to Friday, first from noon to 1pm and later until 1.30pm, during some of the most difficult times of the Northern conflict, and also at a time when the North made the transition from “war” to peace.
Talkback, which he chaired with a distinctive courtly professionalism, was in the absence of real politics a hugely important weathervane of how the key protagonists – the paramilitaries, the politicians, the people – were thinking.
At times when the adversaries were not talking to each other he helped, over the airwaves, kickstart debates that were often angry and confrontational, but productive and important in moving politics and society forward.
He reluctantly bowed out of chairing the programme two years ago, moving on to host Seven Dayson Sundays. He was broadcasting up to fairly recently but finally stepped down due to his illness.
His wife, Roisin, a former UTV broadcaster, died last year from motor neurone disease.
First Minister Peter Robinson said he was a “consummate professional” and “one of our greatest broadcasters” while Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said he was “quite simply the voice of radio here”.
Former SDLP leader John Hume, who had many jousts with Mr Dunseith during the early days of the peace process and the Hume-Adams talks, said he was “for so long the voice of broadcasting in the North and indeed a voice for the people of the North”.
Ulster Unionist leader Tom Elliott said he made a “massive contribution” to broadcasting in Northern Ireland.
Talkback, presented by William Crawley yesterday, was inundated with similar tributes from hundreds of listeners. A comment from one man to The Irish Timessome years ago – that he was "one of the great civilising influences in Northern Ireland" – also captured the man perfectly.
Callers to the programme spoke of his humanity. Helen McKendry, whose mother Jean McConville was murdered by the IRA in 1972 and her body finally recovered in 2003, described him as the man “who gave the disappeared a voice”. She said: “People had known there were people who had disappeared, but they were too afraid to speak. David came to my home. He was the first person who listened to me speak and helped me when I needed it.”