Claire Byrne and Matt Cooper flog the dead horse
Radio: Meanwhile serious public issues, like the Central Bank’s €4.1m fine of Davy, got little airtime
Gordon Elliott: the story of the trainer sitting atop a deceased racehorse makes all the running. Photograph: PA Wire
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.