GAA star Philly McMahon says RTÉ shows Kin and Love/Hate glamourise crime

The sports star was speaking as RTÉ prepares to air its new crime drama Kin, which follows a fictional family based on the notorious Kinahan cartel as they get entangled in a gangland war.

Speaking to Newstalk Breakfast, he said that recent media portrayals of gangs glamourises criminals by giving them nicknames and showing their hardships.

Philly explained: “I do think there are examples of the way the media glamourise drug dealers, and I think that has happened a lot - they have nicknamed them and they are showing CAB taking a lot of their materialistic things and money - and that does have an effect and it glamourises it and it heightens the opportunity.

“However, I would say there is probably more an impact with, let’s say a young person’s home getting searched or raided, maybe because a family member has been involved in drugs and them then having a bad relationship with the gardaí because they feel they are the enemy."

The eight-time All-Ireland champion works with at-risk youth and said that crime dramas can be attractive to people from these backgrounds.

He continued: “There is no doubt that when you watch some of these series that when you are form areas where you see poverty and you see criminality you can kind of relate and see some of things happening.

“You can probably at some stages you kind of know some of the stories and you can picture some of the people in these stories and you know where they are coming from.

“That can very relatable and that can be very serious and have impacts on young people or families that have been impacted by crime. So that can be quite difficult for communities that can relate to these shows.

“Sometimes also it can open your eyes if there is truth to what is going on as well though.”

Philly said that crime can be glamourised from a young age for children who see family members “going down that route.”

“It is generational,” he said.

“Some of these young people have seen their parents or seen some of their siblings going down that route or their friends.

“This is the fast-track to success for them because they have very little.

“If we were nit-picking at these series we should be looking a bit deeper to what has happened over generations and why it is still happening and why are prisons are still getting busier rather than just nit-picking at TV shows.”