Liveline: The most controversial and memorable shows in 27 years

Extra.ie​

11-05-2025

There are few topics Joe Duffy hasn't covered in his 27 years behind the Liveline microphone.
While some broadcasts provoked outrage, activism and government action, others generated mirth and national ridicule.
For days on end, his show would drag needlessly taboo subjects into the spotlight and give voice to the ignored, including survivors of residential institutions and clerical abuse. Joe Duffy. Pic: Marc O'Sullivan via RTÉ
Here are some of the most influential, controversial and memorable moments.
During the financial crisis, callers spoke of withdrawing all their savings over their lack of confidence in the banking system. Financial crash. Pic Collins Photos
Duffy asked how it felt to carry tens of thousands around in public and echoed the sentiments of his listeners towards the banks.
Then Finance Minister Brian Lenihan was moved to phone RTÉ's then director-general Cathal Goan to complain, and also told RTÉ that people shouldn't withdraw their savings 'on the basis of unfounded allegations made on radio programmes'.
Duffy's reach – and power to do good – was demonstrated on Liveline when an appearance from screenwriter Frank Deasy led to a record uptake of applications for organ donor cards, below. Organ donor card. Pic: File
Deasy talked to Joe about his liver cancer mere days before his death, prompting 5,500 people to apply for organ donor cards in the next 48 hours – more than five times the number that had applied after a similar appeal on the Late Late Show two years earlier.
In a crotchety monologue on the state of the 'dead' capital, the host decried the pound shops and fast food joints where once stood department stores and bank branches. 'Unadulterated kip'. Pic: Getty Images
'Dublin city centre is turning into an unadulterated kip and nobody is shouting stop,' Duffy said.
'[The Business Improvement District initiative] would want to get up off their arse and do something about that.'
A welcome spot of entertainment during the early days of the pandemic, when callers voiced their disgust at the raunchiness of RTÉ's Normal People. Pic: Element Pictures/Enda Bowe/BBC
One caller compared the Sally Rooney adaptation directed by Lenny Abrahamson, to what you would 'expect to see in a porno movie', prompting a classic response from Duffy in full faux-naif mode: 'What would you see in a porno movie, Mary?'
Pride ended its media partnership with the national broadcaster over discussions about the transgender community across several days on Liveline. Pic: Getty
A statement said the LGBTQ+ group was left 'angered and disappointed' by the 'anti-trans rhetoric' aired by some callers.
Duffy let rip on the rebel song revival led by the Wolfe Tones, accusing singer Brian Warfield of 'glorifying slaughter' in songs like Celtic Symphony. Brian Warfield. Pic: Kieran Frost/Redferns
Warfield came on to defend the long-running group and their appeal to young people, and insisted that 'Up the Ra' could refer to the Egyptian god Ra.
Duffy was having none of it, and the spat resulted in Warfield taking a defamation case against the station last year.