Mickey Harte has distinguished himself ahead of tomorrow's All-Ireland final by granting a lengthy interview to Kieran Shannon of The Irish Examiner. It is terrific, and can be read in full here.
Threaded through the interview is Harte's deep faith, and the strength it has given him in light of a series of unimaginable personal losses. During the course of the interview, Harte spoke of the importance of forgiveness, as is taught by the prayer 'Our Father'.
Shannon then asks a pertinent question: will Harte ever forgive RTE? Just five months after Harte's daughter Michaela was killed in Mauritius, RTE Radio One broadcast an ill-judged sketch mocking Harte for attending a Dalai Lama conference a couple of months earlier, along with playing the song 'Little Girl From Omagh'.
Harte has boycotted the state broadcaster ever since, and explained to the Examiner as to why he won't be speaking to them tomorrow.
I'm not taking this as anything personal, really. It's an institution that I'm against her, and the institution to me here is a faceless thing, and there are certain individuals within it who have done things they should not have done.
RTE, to me, as an entity, is not something that I feel I have to be forgiving in any way towards. My challenge is that I don't feel any angst towards individuals, even the individual who did the skit bit.
It's just like the people who killed Michaela: I am not in this daily thinking: 'God, I despise them', or 'I'd love to do this or do that to them'. Through the grace of God, I just leave them, leave them be, but as a point of principle, as far as RTE is concerned, I am not speaking to them, because they didn't do the right thing at the right time.
Harte will be speaking to Sky around tomorrow's showpiece event, but not to RTE.
The interview is excellent, get it here.
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