The Maire Cullen Affair: KBOO Rallies Around Host

July 9th, 2003 Taylor Clark | Rogue of the Week

Brogue of the Week
Maire Cullen

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MAIRE CULLEN, CENTER, with Irish musicians Susan McKeown (left) and Aidan Brennan (right)
Thursday mornings, listeners of community radio station KBOO are treated to an hourlong slice of Irish music and politics in a show called Radio Free Ireland. Each week, host Maire Cullen talks up all things Celtic in her distinct Irish lilt and waxes nostalgic about her youth on the Emerald Isle. There's just a wee problem with all of this, however.

Apparently, she's not as Irish as she seems.

On the show, Dame Cullen, 46, makes frequent reference to her Irish homeland. "This is an old favorite where I come from," she told listeners last Thursday, introducing a lively ditty. "This one's called 'The Foggy Dew.'"

When WW put in a call to KBOO's studios to ask from which part of Ireland Cullen hails, she balked.

"Uh...from the North, actually," she replied, before swiftly ending the conversation.

But unless New Jersey has recently been annexed by Ireland, it seems Cullen may have been sprinkling a little leprechaun dust in her listeners' ears.

According to Portlander Bill Large, who was married to the host for seven years, Maire Cullen was actually born Lisa Ann Dobranski (of the famed clan Dobranski, perhaps?) in Jersey City, N.J. A search of Oregon public records last week turned up a state identification card for Lisa Ann Dobranski; it had been registered to Cullen's current Northeast Portland address. As of 1993, when the two split up, Large claims she had never set foot on the isle.

"I couldn't believe she would endanger KBOO's credibility," Large says. "If anybody can get on KBOO and say that they're anybody they want, that makes KBOO look like idiots."

Cullen declined to speak to WW after our first short call. But it's pretty clear that she uses her Irish accent both on and off the air. Not only does the brogue in question appear on her home answering machine, but none of her KBOO comrades had any clue that she may have been having them on.

"She definitely has an Irish way about her," says Jeff Rosenberg, a WW contributor whose show Dharma Wheel comes on right after Radio Free Ireland.

While we admire Cullen's chutzpah, we can't help but feel there's something a little weird, and sad, about a wholesale adoption of another accent--especially when it rightfully belongs to a people so proud of their heritage and history. We hope Cullen keeps her show on the air--but with a little less blarney, please.

August 6th, 2003 Taylor Clark | News

KBOO Rallies Around Host

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KBOO radio personality Maire Cullen
The songs say that when Irish hearts are happy, all the world seems bright and gay, but since WW revealed that KBOO radio personality Maire Cullen isn't the Emerald Islander she claims to be, some Irish eyes definitely haven't been smiling on her.

Four weeks ago WW reported that Cullen, hostess of KBOO's weekly program Radio Free Ireland and avowed brogue-laden native Irishwoman, was really born Lisa Ann Dobranski in Jersey City, N.J. (see "Brogue of the Week," WW, July 9, 2003). Public records showed that she still uses her birth name in official documents, though she uses "Maire Cullen" in public exclusively. "We hope Cullen keeps her show on the air," the WW story said, "but with a little less blarney, please."

After WW's story, some Irish Portlanders were furious at Cullen.

"This is outrageous if it's true," said David O'Longaigh, a native Irishman who says he spent years believing that Cullen was really from the south Armagh town of Crossmaglen.

Cullen was on the airwaves the day after WW published its article. She disputed the story but has not returned to the show since.

On Thursday, fill-in Radio Free Ireland host Gayle Jewell told listeners that the stress of appearing in the pages of WW had taken a significant physical toll on the 46-year-old Cullen, causing her to be hospitalized with a number of ailments. According to Jewell, Cullen collapsed two weeks ago, then began vomiting blood. Soon afterward, Jewell said, Cullen's heart stopped, she suffered complete kidney failure, and she experienced serious dental problems. Jewell also reported that Cullen has had four separate surgeries performed on her in recent weeks and has had a permanent dialysis port installed in her chest.

"Her spirits are absolutely dashed," Jewell added.

Many of Cullen's allies have stuck with her, maintaining that she is, indeed, Irish. One ardent Cullen advocate, Rodney Ray, told WW that Cullen refused to return WW's phone calls for comment because "it's not a part of Irish culture to use the phone."

Various KBOO hosts have spent hours of airtime denouncing WW as of late, nicknaming WW "Will-slam-it Week," with one even likening WW's "irresponsibility" to the "Stephen" Blair New York Times scandal. (It's actually Jayson Blair.)

In an email to WW, local journalist and KBOO contributor Lisa Loving wrote, "That rogue column knocked her down so hard I've got to wonder if she'd be in the hospital right now if it had never been written."

Radio Free Ireland

Radio Free Ireland has been on KBOO for 15 years. Hosted by Maire Cullen, with co-host Per Fagering, we cover the news from the Occupied 6 counties of Northeastern Ireland, from a social justice perspective.

Interview with Irish activists, politicians, musicians and other artists, as well as announcements of upcoming events in Oregon's thriving Irish community.