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

Michael Lowry 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 constituency. He previously served as Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications from 1 ...

, formerly a

Fine Gael Fine Gael (, ; English: "Family (or Tribe) of the Irish") is a liberal-conservative and 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 � ...

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 Michael ...

which had previously investigated him. Much of the controversy focused on the following comments by Lowry: Journalist Michael Clifford, writing in the '' Irish Examiner'', 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, life peer, convicted criminal, and former politician. Before becoming an author, Archer was a Member of Parliament (1969–1974), but did not ...

's perjury and Chris Huhne'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'' 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'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 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 News UK, w ...

'' 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 broadcaster with Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ). She began working with the national broadcaster in 1974, starting as a continuity announcer. She was the first presenter of '' ...

, 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 the breakfast news programme broadcast by RTÉ Radio 1 in Ireland and is noted as that country's most listened to radio programme. It is broadcast each weekday morning between 07.00 and 09.00 and alternate items are normall ...

'' preferred to focus its political coverage on what were termed more trivial topics, such as Luke 'Ming' Flanagan's driving technique and tweets by

Gerry Adams Gerard Adams ( ga, Gearóid Mac Ádhaimh; born 6 October 1948) is an 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. ...

. On 14 March 2013, the Lowry Tapes were broadcast in full on national television, on the TV3 programme ''

Tonight with Vincent Browne ''Tonight with Vincent Browne'', (formerly ''Nightly News with Vincent Browne''), was a news analysis, current affairs and politics programme which was broadcast on Ireland's TV3 from 2007 to July 2017. Its time on air coincided with the premie ...

''. On 9 May 2013,

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

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 from May to July 2014 and 2016 to 2017, Leader of the Opposition from ...

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