Simon Clark - Taking Liberties

John Mallon, spokesman for Forest Eireann, sets off on a two-week tour of Ireland today.

The Road To Prohibition tour will take John from Cork, where he lives, to Dublin via Waterford, Kilkenny, Limerick and various other towns.

The aim is to replicate the success of John's previous tour, in October 2011, when he was interviewed by almost every local radio station en route and also made his television debut, on TV3.

This latest tour didn't off to the best of starts, however, because yesterday we received the following tart response from Sue Nunn, head of news at KCLR in Kilkenny.

Declining our offer of an interview with John, Nunn wrote:

John was on before with me. I don't feel comfortable when so many people have died from smoking related illnesses. I also understand that John's campaign has support from the tobacco industry.

Nunn's name rang a bell. Then I remembered. She interviewed John on his previous tour in 2011.

I was with him in Kilkenny that day and I remember it well because we visited the best smoking room in the world.

I don't remember John having much to say about Nunn. Today, though, from her lofty position as head of news, she has decided to ban him (there's no other interpretation) so listeners to KCLR are denied an interesting discussion about creeping prohibition.

Some might call that ironic. I couldn't possibly comment.

Update on Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 9:17 by

Simon Clark

John Mallon writes:

I remember that woman well. She was very hostile to begin with and when she went to an ad break I decided to try to charm her. I heard her Cork accent and enquired about it. It turned out that she lived in an estate close to my own and we grew up around the same time. Our chat was 'civilised' but when we got back on air she tore into me again. In response, I was gentle and mannerly throughout.

In the car afterwards I tuned to the station and heard many listeners' comments which she read out. We Irish are quite hospitable and one listener, who came on live, complained bitterly to Susan that she had been very nasty to me to me and told her she should be ashamed of herself. This of course was the truth but she dismissed it anyway. Rather than risk the ire of her listenership this time, it seems she has settled for censorship instead. The prohibition continues to creep forward!