Loud and Clear review: The lonely passion of RTÉ legend, Charlie Bird

Paul Whitington

Charlie Bird at the base of Croagh Patrick ahead of the Climb With Charlie fundraising event last April. Photo: Gerry Mooney

June 25 2022 02:48 PM

Straight to camera, eyes wide open, Charlie Bird speaks. “I remember the very moment when I felt there was something seriously wrong with me,” he says. “I felt all my arms twitching and shaking: at that stage, I had no definite diagnosis of motor neurone, and then four weeks later, bang, it came.”

That was last October, and within weeks he was feeling the condition’s effects, as his voice began to falter. And then came that memorably emotional appearance on The Late Late Show, when the broadcaster shared his pain with the nation.

That remarkable interview and much more besides are covered in Loud and Clear, a raw but excellent and oddly inspiring documentary, which was shown on RTÉ on Monday night and is available on the RTÉ Player. In it, cameras follow Bird and his wife, Claire, as they navigate the strange new world that has landed on them.

Motor neurone disease (MND) is a rare and devastating degenerative condition that weakens muscle tone and movement, and can rob the sufferer of the power to voluntarily swallow, and speak. Bird is one of Ireland’s most distinguished news reporters, and at age 72 was enjoying his well-earned retirement until everything suddenly changed.

At Christmas, backstage at the Late Late, Bird has an emotional chat with Ryan Tubridy. “This is probably the last time I’ll be in a studio in my life,” he tells Tubridy, “I don’t believe I’ll be alive next Christmas.” His spirits, understandably, are low. Within weeks, however, ‘Bird’, as his wife calls him, has bounced back, announcing his assault on Croagh Patrick.

It would be easy to take the very public way in which Charlie Bird has dealt with motor neurone disease for granted — after all, he doesn’t have to. But Bird has become a compelling voice for those afflicted with that dreadful condition, and an advocate for the power of positive thinking, whatever the circumstance.

He’s hard on himself, though, brutally honest. “People say to me, ‘Oh Charlie you’re so brave’, but I’ll be honest, I haven’t been brave in this fight.” And his real concern is for his two grown-up daughters, “who are my life”, and his wife. “That’s what makes me so sad, that I’ll be leaving this relationship.”

His biggest fear is losing his voice, but a team of experts at Maynooth University come to the rescue. Led by Trevor Vaugh, they explain to him that they may be able to use 40-plus years of archive footage from RTÉ to give him a computerised voice that sounds like his own.

Claire agrees to trawl through the archive assembling footage that will be useful for the team, and this in turn becomes an emotional trip down memory lane for the couple, and a whistlestop tour of Bird’s greatest hits.

He talks about his Dublin childhood, and his difficult relationship with his parents, especially his father, a seaman, who was often away, always remote. “The only thing he gave me was my name.”

He recalls that when he first arrived at RTÉ, he was terrified — “I couldn’t spell”. He settled down though, and various high points followed, from his coverage of the IRA ceasefires to various banking scandals, the Stardust tragedy, the election of Mary Robinson and the Marriage Equality Referendum, in which Bird campaigned.

Old colleagues come to visit: George Lee calls him “the Duracell bunny”, as he describes Bird’s tireless work on the NIB scandal. Tommie Gorman reminisces about their experiences covering the Troubles, and calls Bird “a dog with a bone”.

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He discusses the ethics of journalism, the evils of doorstepping, and goes back to Inis Iar, a favourite spot, to visit the windy graveyard where his ashes will be spread.

And the documentary culminates in ‘Climb with Charlie’, an emotional ascent of Croagh Patrick that raised €3m for Pieta House and the Irish Motor Neurone Disease Association.

What emerges from this film, and the footage Claire tirelessly trawled through, is that the Irish thought of Bird as one of the people, rather than some elitist media personality.

In an archive clip, while Bird waits outside Leinster House for politicians to sheepishly appear, a gathered crowd begins chanting his name. He was one of them, in spite of what he did.