After a week-long radio campaign against Head Shops, which saw a legitimate business burned to the ground, RTE insiders have declared the exercise a ‘100% success’ and revealed it to be a test case through which social change can be made.

Joe Duffy reacts to news of Capel Street fire

A source told the Irish Sentinel last night “The Head Shops thing was just the start. There was a meeting of the stations chiefs late last year in which they decided to use their influence as the national broadcaster to shape Irish life on a day to day basis. They felt there was a niche there now that the church’s control has dwindled. And what better way to do it than through the nation’s second most listened to radio show, Liveline?”

Before Joe Duffy’s radio show began its campaign of scaremongering and misinformation Head Shops had been legal in Ireland for years without anybody batting an eyelid, but store owners hadn’t counted on Duffy’s production team shamelessly exploiting the death of one man in 2005 to sway public opinion against them. As more and more people rang into tell Joe how disgusted they were with these shops that none of them ever used and were in total, blissful ignorance of until they heard about them on the radio, the more pressure grew to do ’something’ about them.

Listeners, who both smoke and drink alcohol, lambasted the owners for selling dangerous products which could adversely affect one’s health. Ultimately, it appears that the crusade resulted in the arson attack on the Nirvan head shop on Capel Street, destroying it and several nearby buildings, and resulting in the closure of one of Dublin’s main thoroughfares to traffic.

“We had a fuckin’ party!”, said the RTE insider. “At best we thought there might be a bit of legislation in 18 months or a few people out with placards but getting the whole place burned down was beyond our wildest dreams. It just shows that Liveline is the voice of the people when we tell them what it is they should say. The plans have been ratcheted up now and with our new two week long offensive against foreigners we’re sure Ireland will be a proud, and much less swarthy nation, once again”.

It’s not the first time Liveline has been embroiled in controversy. Transport Minister Martin Cullen and his advisor Monica Leech sued the show over allegations made by a caller and in 2006 there was outrage as a Daily Mail journalist accused gays and lesbians of wanting to adopt children so they could practice legal incest.

: We spoke to the people of Dublin and asked them for their reaction to the Capel Street fire and Liveline’s Head Shop campaign.

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