Sunday Sequence

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BBC Radio Foyle

From the North West of Northern Ireland -local news, sport, weather, speech and music

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Audrey Carville and guests debate the week's religious and ethical news.

Audrey Carville and guests debate the week's religious and ethical news and explore the world of culture and ideas.

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Sunday Sequence: Handclap for heroes - Richly deserved applause or virtue signalling on a grand scale?

31/05/2020

Handclap for heroes - Richly deserved applause or virtue signalling on a grand scale?

BBC Radio Ulster - Sunday Sequence, Handclap for heroes - Richly deserved applause or virtue signalling on a grand scale?

The Thursday night handclap - was it a collective salve to the conscience? 


Do public gestures of support for frontline workers really make a difference or are they more about than the people we're applauding? 

This week brought to an end the weekly handclap for heroes - that point, at eight o'clock on Thursday nights when people emerged from their homes to applaud those on the front line in the pandemic - the NHS staff, the retail workers, the delivery drivers and so many other people who've been doing so much in the past few months.

Few would argue the applause was not deserved but was it of any real value or could it be said it was simply virtue signalling on a grand scale, a salve for our collective conscience? 
Presenter Audrey Carville in conversation with the medical ethicist Dr Melissa McCullough and the commentators Patricia MacBride and Dr Leon Litvack.

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Handclap for heroes - Richly deserved applause or virtue signalling on a grand scale?

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