Obscene: The Dublin Scandal

I’m a Radio4 fan and this is definitely a Radio5 documentary. It appears to be dumbed down to hold the interest of a tabloid audience like so many podcasts. 4 stars for effort and Adrian Dunbar

What a shame. Such an interesting story but it uses interviews from a who’s who of Ireland’s most inane “journalists” & gives voice—without adding comment or context—to the kind of people who say the accused was “off” or evil because he didn’t holler at convent school girls or play GAA. What’s worse is to direct Adrian Dunbar to narrate with an odd ghost story/bogeyman voice which detracts from a serious & really interesting subject matter.

I enjoyed learning about this story and the great narration. About 2/3 through the bonus episode the female journalist declared that this was not a true crime podcast. Hmm I’m not sure that’s accurate. She went further to decry true crime podcasts and those who listen to them. Did she understand she was speaking to a majority of her audience? Does declaring this work both separate and superior from true crime podcasts appease her aversion to the genre? It leaves a bad taste in my mouth after having listened to the full podcast only to be told by listening I’m part of a schism of society. Don’t throw stones at your audience as a mechanism to separate yourself from the work you produced.

The story seemed interesting but the dialogue cannot be heard well.