The Lowry Tapes refers to a 2013 scandal in Ireland involving the Tipperary North TD

Michael Lowry Michael Lowry may refer to: * Michael Lowry (politician) Michael Lowry (born 13 March 1953) is an Irish independent politician who has served as a Teachta Dála (TD) since 1987, currently for the Tipperary North constituency. He previously se ...

, formerly a

Fine Gael Fine Gael ( ; ; ) is a centre-right, liberal-conservative, Christian democratic political party in Ireland. Fine Gael is currently the third-largest party in the Republic of Ireland in terms of members of Dáil Éireann. The party had a member ...

government minister. They feature a telephone conversation between Lowry and the land agent Kevin Phelan. The conversation featured foul language and reference to an undeclared payment of €250,000. It is believed to date from 30 September 2004 and raised uncertainty over whether Lowry had misled the

Moriarty Tribunal The Moriarty Tribunal, officially called the Tribunal of Inquiry into certain Payments to Politicians and Related Matters, was an Irish Tribunal of Inquiry established in 1997 into the financial affairs of politicians Charles Haughey and Mich ...

which had previously investigated him. Much of the controversy focused on the following comments by Lowry: Journalist Michael Clifford, writing in the ''

Irish Examiner The ''Irish Examiner'', formerly ''The Cork Examiner'' and then ''The Examiner'', is an Republic of Ireland, Irish national daily newspaper which primarily circulates in the Munster region surrounding its base in Cork (city), Cork, though it is ...

'', drew comparisons between the response - or lack thereof - from the Irish government and the British government's past responses to tamer crimes such as

Jeffrey Archer Jeffrey Howard Archer, Baron Archer of Weston-super-Mare (born 15 April 1940) is an English novelist and former politician. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Louth (Lincolnshire) from 1969 to 1974, but did not seek re-election after a fina ...

's perjury and

Chris Huhne Christopher Murray Paul Huhne (born 2 July 1954) is a British energy and climate change consultant, and former journalist, business economist and politician who was the Liberal Democrats (UK), Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Eastleigh ...

's perverting the course of justice. Clifford wrote that the Lowry scandal "tells us much about what passes for democracy in this State. tinvolves ''

prima facie ''Prima facie'' (; ) is a Latin expression meaning "at first sight", or "based on first impression". The literal translation would be "at first face" or "at first appearance", from the feminine forms of ' ("first") and ' ("face"), both in the a ...

'' evidence that at least one crime may have been committed by serving TD and former government minister, Michael Lowry. In a proper democracy ..this would be a matter for the police." The '' Sunday Independent'' published a transcript of the Lowry Tapes; however state broadcaster

RTÉ (; ; RTÉThe É in RTÉ is pronounced as an English E () and not an Irish É ()) is an Irish public service broadcaster. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, ...

's coverage was roundly criticised and deemed inadequate. The ''Sunday Independent'' said RTÉ's self-censorship had become the story and ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

'' featured a piece captioned "Our state broadcaster must learn to confront, not cower." One of the few mentions was provided by

Marian Finucane Marian Finucane ( ; 21 May 1950 – 2 January 2020) was an Irish people, Irish broadcaster with RTÉ. Finucane began working with the national broadcaster in 1974, starting as a continuity announcer. She went on to host ''Women Today'' (1979– ...

, one of RTÉ's highest earners, who brushed over the Lowry Tapes in two minutes at the end of her show when one of her panelists brought up the topic. ''

Morning Ireland ''Morning Ireland'' is an Irish breakfast news programme broadcast by RTÉ Radio 1 and is noted as the country's most listened to radio programme. It is broadcast each weekday morning between 7 am and 9 am and alternate items are normal ...

'' preferred to focus its political coverage on what were termed more trivial topics, such as

Luke 'Ming' Flanagan Luke 'Ming' Flanagan (born 22 January 1972) is an Irish politician who has been a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Ireland for the Midlands–North-West constituency since 2014. He is an independent, but sits in parliament with The ...

's driving technique and tweets by

Gerry Adams Gerard Adams (; born 6 October 1948) is a retired Irish Republican politician who was the president of Sinn Féin between 13 November 1983 and 10 February 2018, and served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for Louth from 2011 to 2020. From 1983 to 19 ...

. On 14 March 2013, the Lowry Tapes were broadcast in full on national television, on the

TV3 Channel 3 or TV 3 may refer to: Television *Canal 3 (Burkina Faso), a commercial television channel in Burkina Faso * Canal 3 Niger, a commercial television channel in Niger * Canal 3 (Guatemala), a commercial television channel in Guatemala * Can ...

programme ''

Tonight with Vincent Browne ''Tonight with Vincent Browne'' (formerly ''Nightly News with Vincent Browne'') was a news analysis, Current affairs (news format), current affairs and politics programme which was broadcast on Republic of Ireland, Ireland's Virgin Media One, T ...

''. On 9 May 2013,

Taoiseach The Taoiseach (, ) is the head of government or prime minister of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The office is appointed by the President of Ireland upon nomination by Dáil Éireann (the lower house of the Oireachtas, Ireland's national legisl ...

Enda Kenny Enda Kenny (born 24 April 1951) is an Irish former Fine Gael politician who served as Taoiseach from 2011 to 2017, Leader of Fine Gael from 2002 to 2017, Minister for Defence (Ireland), Minister for Defence from May to July 2014 and 2016 to 201 ...

responded to "real concern" among the public over the Lowry Tapes but said he would not reopen the

References

{{Reflist 2013 in the Republic of Ireland Michael Lowry Political corruption Political scandals in the Republic of Ireland RTÉ controversies

See also

References