Scannal returns with three new episodes.
Scannal – Where’s My Iodine?
Back in September 2001 the World Health Organisation advised all nations to prepare an emergency response to chemical or biological attacks following 9/11. Cora Ennis, a young reseacher on the Marian Finucane show on RTÉ Radio 1, went in search of the person responsible for Ireland’s National Emergency Plan. Less than two weeks after 9/11 she spent a fruitless day ringing different governmental departments. The following morning she received a phone call from the Department of Enterprise and was told that Junior Minister Joe Jacob was the man in charge. What followed was one of the most bizarre radio interviews ever broadcast as Marian Finucane tried to obtain the information from Minister Jacob that would reassure the Irish public that the Government was prepared for a terrorist attack. Many listeners thought they were listening to “Scrap Saturday” as Joe Jacob seemed unable to give a clear account of the National Emergency Plan and instead caused panic and mirth, in equal measure, across the nation. It a was a shocking indictment of the times that were in it and the Government of the day, but for many it was one of the funniest half-hours of radio ever broadcast.
The Minister and his department, it seemed, had spent the previous two years updating and upgrading the National Emergency Plan, however when Marian asked him what we should do in the event of an attack, he was like a rabbit caught in the headlights! Pressed on how prepared we actually were, in the event of an attack on Sellafield, the Minister spoke of ‘expertise’ and ‘international consultants’, ‘factsheets’ and most infamously of all ‘iodine tablets’.
Joe Jacob told the nation that he didn’t want to send out any ‘alarmistic vibrations’ and while trying to read from a factsheet, which he said contained all the information needed in the event of a nuclear attack, he referred to us as ‘a small nuclear country’.
Marian Finucane: – ….”.a small neutral country..?….”
Joe Jacob : – “Yes Marian….I have nuclear on the brain after our long conversation…”.
SCANNAL revisits a story that reminds us of the power of radio, with a masterclass in interview technique by Marian Finucane and a Junior Minister who caused more fallout than a nuclear attack ever could!
“If you listen back to the interview…..you’d be forgiven for thinking it was a clip from The Savage Eye…” – Harry McGee, The Irish Times
“ There was reams of newspaper coverage…..one journalist wrote , not since Orson Welles’ “The War of the Worlds” had there really been a radio broadcast that created such fear and panic….”.
Cora Ennis, The Marian Finucane Show 2001
“Joe Jacob would have broken Twitter…” – Paddy Courtney, writer and comedian
Reporter: Sinéad Ní Churnáin
Producer/ Director: Michael McCormack