Hot Press’ Best of Ireland special, which is on the shelves now with Jessie Buckley giving excellent pose, features an in-depth interview with Pat Kenny.
It ranges from the personal – reflections on childhood, his life-long love affair with the Phoenix Park and what makes his corner of Dublin, Dalkey, so special – to the professional with the veteran broadcaster reflecting on his from move from RTÉ to Newstalk.
“There’s much more freedom on Newstalk to comment as well as simply report,” he states. “When I first arrived, I was told, ‘It’s not like back in RTÉ; you can confront things in a much more adversarial or sceptical style.’ Don’t get me wrong, RTÉ have some brilliantly adversarial and sceptical people of their own, but there is a certain freedom that comes from not being on the state broadcaster.”
Pat pulls absolutely no punches when we ask him what his first question would be if he got to interview Donald Trump.
“It would be, ‘Have you no shame?’” he tells our man Stuart Clark. “There’s never a depth he won’t plumb. Slagging off John McCain, a fellow Republican and bona fide American hero, when he’s dead is a new low but he’ll doubtless sink even further. There’s no doubt Trump has skills like bullying China into a trade deal, but in terms of domestic policy America has never been so divided. And often violently so.
“We’ve arrived at the very interesting stage of seeing who from the Democratic ranks might be able to beat him in 2020. I’m looking at all the candidates. A lot of the time, Elizabeth Warren seems to be a bit charisma-free; very earnest and possibly too Hillary-esque. Her big thing at the moment is getting rid of the Electoral College, but of course, that requires a constitutional change. Kamala Harris is doing well for a beginner. The debate is raging over whether you can have an aging white guy taking on another ageing white guy Do you need someone who’s female and/or of colour? Let’s not forget that Bill Clinton and Barack Obama both completely came out of leftfield, so the Democrat who’ll end up taking Trump on might not even be on our radars yet.”