Listening on as his caller despairingly describes the conditions of the “modern-day concentration camp” where he’s confined, Kieran Cuddihy adopts a sombre tone, punctuated by the odd disbelieving sigh. But the host of Liveline (RTÉ Radio 1, weekdays) could be forgiven if, amid it all, he also experiences a frisson of grim satisfaction.
For while he’s clearly stunned by the stark testimony of Seamus Culleton, the Irishman detained in an Ice facility in Texas for the past five months, Cuddihy must also know it’s the kind of interview that ignites the wider news agenda, as indeed it does.
What’s more, having presented the phone-in show for three months now, he would be justified in thinking that his conversation with Culleton is the first real Liveline moment of his tenure, a marker that he’s moving out of the shadow of his predecessor, Joe Duffy.
That being the case, Culleton’s ordeal is the proverbial ill wind. Speaking from the tented camp where he has been held since being seized by Ice agents in Boston, the Co Kilkenny man paints a bleak portrait of his incarceration.
Locked in a room with 70 other men, served three “kid-sized” meals a day and forced to use filthy hygiene faciliti
Continue Reading on The Irish Times
This preview shows approximately 15% of the article. Read the full story on the publisher's website to support quality journalism.