Obituaries

Rodney Rice obituary: Skilful and influential RTÉ broadcaster

Co Antrim man had major role in evolution of journalistic attitudes towards Troubles

Broadcaster and journalist Rodney Rice who has died following a short illness. He was 76. Photograph: The Irish Times

Sat Sep 4 2021 - 05:10

Rodney Rice
Born: October 12th, 1944
Died: August 29th, 2021

Rodney Rice, who has died aged 76, was a journalist who had a major career as one of RTÉ's most skilful, influential and thoughtful current affairs broadcasters, as a deeply committed member of the National Union of Journalists, and as a perceptive contributor on international development issues on RTÉ and for Action Aid Ireland, of which he became a trustee.

Born in Whiteabbey, Co Antrim, to parents who were both moderate supporters of the Union, he received his secondary education at “Inst” – the liberal Belfast Royal Academical Institution.

After graduating in political science at Trinity College, Dublin, and a brief period working for the Belfast Telegraph, he joined Raidió Teilifís Éireann in 1968, where he first reported on the television current affairs programme Seven Days. He later became vice-chairman of the Dublin Broadcasting branch of the NUJ at a time when the conflict in Northern Ireland was generating substantial tensions, not only between the government and broadcasters but within broadcasting itself.

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In 1972, while working on Seven Days, he recorded the last broadcast interview with the Republican leaders Seán Mac Stiofáin and Cathal Goulding, an event closely followed by Kevin O’Kelly’s indirect report of an interview with Mac Stiofáin which led to the imposition of the Section 31 ban. He then moved to radio, the medium in which he steadily enhanced his reputation as a fair, knowledgeable and forensic interviewer, and played a key role in current affairs broadcasting over several decades. First with Here and Now, and subsequently on Saturday Review, which he subsequently presented for 25 years after 1974, his measured tones and deceptively mild but highly effective interrogation became a staple of the station’s current affairs output.

This was also, of course, a period when tensions between broadcasters and government – and among the broadcasters themselves – began to rise in tandem with the tide of violence in Northern Ireland.

As an office-holder in the broadcasting branch of the NUJ, Rice played a major role in the evolution of journalistic attitudes and policies towards the deepening Northern crisis. He was also one of the earliest of the Dublin journalists to report from the North, where he was inevitably faced with loyalist hostility to the Dublin media. As he observed some years later, while initial discussion of the issues involved was largely theoretical, the journalistic climate worsened as time passed, violence increased and tensions between journalists and government intensified.

His own subtle but effective broadcasting skills were often on view, not least in his interview with Pádraig Flynn and Michael McDowell during the presidential election eventually won by Mary Robinson

There was an undeclared cold war between many broadcasters and the Fianna Fáil Minister for Justice, Gerry Collins, on this issue. When Collins was succeeded by the Coalition’s Conor Cruise O’Brien, the guidelines on reporting political violence were amended, purportedly in a liberal direction. Rice, however, correctly interpreted them as more restrictive, and continued to play a key role, particularly as an adviser to younger colleagues, as broadcasters subsequently navigated the whirlpools of political opprobrium and public sentiment as best they could.

Always critical of the crude reactions which painted RTÉ reporters and presenters in garish colours based on their real or presumed political allegiances, or alleged incompetence, his own view was that the primary purpose of political interviewing was to get useful information from the interviewee, a process which –skilfully managed – significantly reduced the opportunities for flag-waving of any kind.

His own subtle but effective broadcasting skills were often on view, not least in his interview with Pádraig Flynn and Michael McDowell during the presidential election eventually won by Mary Robinson. On that memorable occasion, the Fianna Fáil man’s wildly unguarded, over-the-top comments on Robinson had a dramatic political effect, but one plainly the opposite of what Flynn had intended. Rarely has access to national media led to a more spectacular own goal.

His other major interest was connected to the realities, needs and priorities of the developing world. He presented and produced RTÉ's Worlds Apart radio programme, dealing with the problems of people in that part of the globe, and his reports for memorably featured Africa, Asia and Latin America, for a period of 23 years. One of these, on bride price in Africa, had an unexpectedly wide circle of listeners, including his friend Frank Cluskey of the Labour Party, whom he subsequently took to task privately for Irish adherence to the papal principal of subsidiarity, involving heavy dependence on charities and voluntary bodies, instead of on public resources.

Cluskey, Rodney later recalled, then admonished him in mock exasperation: “Listen,” he said, “when I need to know how many cows and sheep I need to get a wife in Africa, I’ll ask you. When I want advice on Labour’s policy I won’t!”

This pioneering broadcasting initiative memorably resulted in a ban on him visiting South Africa which lasted for a decade after a programme he made about apartheid in 1981. It also involved his substantial, unfussy and dedicated service to Action Aid , Trócaire, and the Simon Cumber Memorial Award fund, where his altruistic effectiveness was heightened – as was his broadcasting generally – by the modesty and good humour that were the hallmarks of his generous personality.

He is survived by his wife Margo (nee Collins), who was involved in the Northern Ireland civil rights movement when they met in 1971 and whom he married in 1974, and by their children Cian, Caitríona and Eoghan and their families.

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