A chara, - Flann O Riain writes about the "Montrose Accent" and challenges RTE to explain why it favours its use on the airwaves. I have no way of knowing whether RTE "requires" its broadcasters to use this abominable accent, but I do know that its use is spreading through the range of RTE programmes.
A few years ago, we were mildly amused at the peculiar pronunciations of the Roadwatch girls - "rind-abite", "syth-bind", etc. They provided material for comedians and we all tittered. Gradually, however, the disease spread within RTE, notably to the sports departments and more recently, horror of horrors, to the newsrooms.
To many of us who are interested in sports, it has become painful to listen to the nightly bulletin on Radio 1 which is almost invariably littered with such grotesque mispronunciations as "Kinety Dine", "Kinety Lithe", etc.
To my mind, RTE newscasters have had an honourable record of clear, unaccented news presentation. Unfortunately, there has been a noticable slippage of standards of late with some newscasters drifting into "modern" pronunciation. This deterioration should not be allowed to continue. - Is mise,
Micheal O Connachtain An Charraig Dhubh, Contae Atha Cliath.