Irish Examiner View: An unfortunate error of judgement

Peter Brooke is best remembered for his appearance on the Late Late in 1992, when he sang ‘My Darling Clementine’ — a jarring note given seven Protestant workers had been killed that day by an IRA bomb

 Peter Brooke's Late Late mis-step shows how one error of judgement can throw a shadow over an entire political career. Picture: RollingNews.ie

The passing of Peter Brooke, former secretary of state for Northern Ireland, will bring many readers back to the terrible days of the Troubles, when accounts of atrocities were almost a daily feature of news reports.

Brooke played his role in helping to bring peace to Northern Ireland, as has been reported since his passing, in his time as secretary ‘deniable’ talks got under way between an MI5 agent and Republican paramilitaries in 1990, while he also helped with moves to bring constitutional parties and the Irish Government towards negotiations — ‘talks about talks’, the so-called Brooke initiative.

Unfortunately, he is best remembered for a serious misjudgement while appearing on The Late Late Show in 1992, when he sang ‘My Darling Clementine’ at the bidding of host Gay Byrne — a jarring note given seven Protestant workers had been killed that day by an IRA bomb.

Brooke survived that controversy but was demoted by UK prime minister John Major months later, though he returned to the British cabinet when David Mellor resigned.

Mellor’s widely publicised affair with Antonia de Sancha, which contributed to his downfall, is as potent a marker of the early 90s in Britain as Brooke’s Late Late Show appearance is in Ireland. The latter’s mis-step shows how one error of judgement can throw a shadow over an entire political career, and, at a time when hosting duties of The Late Late Show are up for grabs, shows how powerful an institution that television programme was not so long ago.