Far more Irish people will watch the coronation of Britain's King Charles III on Saturday than will admit to it.
That's according to Newstalk Breakfast host Ciara Kelly, who was commenting on a decision by RTÉ to broadcast the event from London.
The coronation will take up four hours of airtime on RTÉ One from 10am.
Ciara believes there is nothing wrong with this approach.
"I don't really give a monkeys about the royal family," she said.
Britain's King Charles and Queen-Consort Camilla. Picture via @RoyalFamily on Twitter"I very likely won't watch the coronation, but people want to see it.
"This is, to me, a spectacle - it is like the Eurovision or the World Cup - or the inauguration of a president from another country that we might look at, like America.
"People want to watch it - far more people will watch it than will admit they're going to watch it - and what harm?"
Ciara said people all around the world will also be watching.
"I don't care if people watch this or not; I don't think it takes in any way from the sovereignty of Ireland," she said.
"There are people all over the world who will watch this that don't have the relationship that we have with Britain.
"It's just a spectacle: why beat people up about wanting to watch something on the telly that might be mildly interesting?"
Rehearsals in London, England ahead of the coronation of King Charles III. Picture via @RoyalFamily on TwitterShane Coleman said the issue is not about the coronation itself, but RTÉ's decision to broadcast it.
"If you want to watch the coronation, I'd say there's about 15 different channels you can watch it on," he said.
"RTÉ is a public service broadcaster, and I don't understand why it's broadcasting it.
"It'll be everywhere.
"We do live in a republic, I'm not sure why RTÉ is broadcasting a coronation that is available on 10 other channels.
"If people want to watch it that's totally fine: this is about RTÉ and should they be showing it when it's available elsewhere?" he added.
