Late Late axes brave teen’s interview again
Frances Cahill, eldest daughter of notorious criminal The General, Martin Cahill, is promoting her memoir, Martin Cahill, My Father.
The interview with Ms Cahill, whose father was shot dead in Dublin in 1994, goes ahead despite major controversy.
It’s the second time within two weeks that Alan Doherty’s appearance has been axed.
Producers decided to postpone an interview two weeks ago because they also had an item on plastic surgery and felt it would have been inappropriate to have Alan on the same programme.
His interview was re-scheduled for tonight and his family changed their New York flight for the operation to accommodate the Late Late.
Then, last week, as the controversy developed over the interview with Ms Cahill, the invitation to Alan was again withdrawn.
Executive producer Larry Masterson refused to confirm that Ms Cahill is being interviewed tonight. But he insisted: “The interview with Alan was postponed for no other reason than the show is full.
“Pat looks forward to interviewing him when he returns to Ireland after his operation.”
Alan, from Letterkenny, Co Donegal, flies to New York tomorrow with his parents Bernie and Danny for a 12-hour operation next Wednesday at the Mount Sinai Medical Centre in Manhattan.
He was born with a rare condition called otofacial syndrome. He has no chin and has to breathe through a tube in his throat.
He gets nutrition through a tube inserted in his stomach and communicates by typing messages on a keyboard attached to a computer that speaks for him.
Alan is one of just two people with the condition and he will be the first person in the world to undergo the operation.
Paul McBride, spokesman for the Friends of Alan Doherty Fund, said doctors agreed to carry out the surgery after Alan “walked in off the street” and asked for a new chin.
Alan was in the US last year for an athletics event put on by the Physically Challenged Irish and American Youth Team. Irish-American organiser Bill Broderick asked the youngster if there was anything he wanted.
Mr McBride said: “Bill meant did Alan want a burger, or a hot dog or an ice cream, something like that, but Alan simply answered ‘a perfect chin’.”
The answer prompted a search for a cure and Mr Broderick brought Alan to the Mount Sinai centre for assessment.
Alan prepared for a series of three operations and supporters back home set about raising the necessary €350,000.
A piece of Alan’s hip bone will replace his lower jaw. In June, surgeons moved the bone to his back where it has been nourished and gathering nerves.
In next week’s operation the bone will be moved to his face and shaped into a chin.
