RTÉ’s Not-So-Kid-Friendly Toy Show Appeal
For kids, about kids, so why is RTÉ giving to questionable activist groups promoting harmful practices? By Catherine Monaghan
The Toy Show - We love it!
The RTÉ Late Late Toy Show is an annual special broadcast each November or December on RTÉ, Ireland’s national broadcaster. It’s a TV programme, but more than just that. It’s a cultural institution and often the most watched show of the year in Ireland. It’s been on the go since 1975.
The Toy Show is hosted by the Late Late Show’s regular host, currently Patrick Kielty, and is entirely devoted to showcasing popular children’s toys and books. The host is always helped by a variety of adorable children onstage and there are appearances by various celebrities such as musicians or sports people. It may sound commercial, and it is no doubt great marketing for the toys that make it on to the show, but in truth the toys and celebrities are secondary to the children who take part. It’s all about the kids and it’s always funny and heart-warming. It’s about children, and for children, from all walks of life with a wide range of abilities and special needs.
There is huge build-up to the show with advertising and countdowns on radio, television and social media. On the big night, and in the days following, social media is abuzz with commentary on the whole thing from Kielty’s antics and his Christmas jumpers to the cute kids and the funny things they do or say, and the amazing talent that’s showcased with young people singing and dancing.
All that to say, the Toy Show is a Really Big Deal here in Ireland. You’d be hard pressed to find an Irish person who didn’t know about it. For lots of people, children especially, it signals the beginning of Christmas. It’s a family occasion with children staying up late, sweets and treats, and maybe Christmas pyjamas. Last year there were even suggestions in the media of making it Toy Show Day and allowing pyjamas at school and a ban on homework (the show always airs on a Friday night)!
It’s one of the few moments of genuine national unity these days and it’s rooted in the belief that all children should be cherished and protected.
The Toy Show Appeal
The Toy Show Appeal, established in 2020, builds on that sentiment and has so far raised over €26 million. This money has contributed to a range of initiatives that foster the health and wellbeing of children, with RTÉ stating:
“We work to bring the magic of The Late Late Toy Show to every child in Ireland. By funding essential support, health, well-being, play and creativity, we aim to change children's lives for good.”
Throughout the show there are regular appeals from the host and updates on how much money has been raised so far. Irish people are incredibly generous, and everyone gets enthusiastic watching the numbers climb. People want to help, and people especially want to help children.
Where Does Our Money Go?
The list of grants given in 2025 includes the Irish Heart Foundation, Down Syndrome Ireland, the Jack & Jill Children’s Foundation, and Women’s Aid, among many other deserving causes. Most people who donate are not following up on exactly where their money goes, assuming in good faith that it will help support children who are sick, in crisis, or living in poverty.
In recent days, however, two well known Irish organisations have announced that they’ve been fortunate to receive funding from the RTÉ Toy Show Appeal - Belong To (€40,000) and TENI (€15,000). Both organisations say the funds are earmarked for family support services. On the surface, this sounds innocuous. Who could object to supporting families?
Belong To is a national LGBTQ+ youth organisation and TENI (Transgender Equality Network Ireland) is a group advocating for transgender people in Ireland. Both groups offer support and advice for children, and families of children, who are confused or distressed about gender. Both groups are involved in education and training in schools and other organisations and have been influential in development of policy and legislation such as the Gender Recognition Act.
But - and this is critical - these are not neutral support organisations. Both openly promote a highly controversial and increasingly discredited model of care for children, one rooted not in evidence but in ideology.
Belong To actively promotes the gender-affirmative model, which encourages children who express discomfort with their sex to adopt a trans identity, often without meaningful psychological exploration or any clinical safeguards. The organisation has supported medical transition for minors, the promotion of breast binders to girls (a binder is a garment worn to compress and flatten the breasts which can restrict breathing, cause pain, and lead to tissue damage, including potential rib fractures or permanent chest deformation), and the withholding of information from parents. Belong To routinely undermines parental authority and characterises any critical viewpoint as hate, even when those views come from feminists, clinicians, or same-sex attracted people.
Annaig Birdy is one of the founders of Not All Gays, a grassroots group of young same-sex attracted people in Ireland who reject gender identity ideology. She spent several years as a young woman attending meetings at Belong To and has spoken at length about her experiences:
“Belong To calls itself a crisis support service, but what it actually operates is more akin to a taxpayer-funded cult for confused and vulnerable kids. Youngsters, just beginning to explore their sexuality or feeling disconnected from their changing bodies are plunged into a culture of fear, secrecy, and ideological obedience. They’re told that anyone outside the group; parents, teachers, even other LGB people is a potential threat, and that Belong To is the only true safe space. Young girls, often struggling with eating disorders and who are typically gender non-conforming, as most lesbians are, are instructed on how to hide breast binders from their families, to have them delivered to a friend’s house, to secretly wash them in sinks so they won’t be spotted in the laundry. This isn’t support. It’s calculated, coercive isolation. Children are told not to read alternative views, not to speak about what happens inside Belong To. The first rule of 'gay club' is you don’t talk about gay club. And yet RTÉ and the Irish state continue to funnel public money into this machinery of fear and indoctrination. It’s a scandal hiding in plain sight, and no one seems to care, because it’s happening to gay kids.”
TENI also promotes the affirmative approach and the concept of being ‘born in the wrong body’ (they also promote binding for young women, among other dangerous practices, and suggest contacting them to obtain free or discounted binders). TENI actively endorses and promotes WPATH (World Professional Association for Transgender Health). The WPATH guidelines have been globally criticised for being unsafe, ideologically driven, and lacking scientific rigour. The HSE (Ireland’s Health Service Executive) does not follow WPATH standards of care for these reasons. TENI’s promotion of affirmation and early medicalisation for gender-distressed young people, based on WPATH, contradicts Irish and international best practice guidelines. WPATH, and the activists who endorse them, do not have the best interests of children at heart.
The ideas and practices promoted by Belong To and TENI have been explicitly criticised by The Cass Review, the most up-to-date and rigorous examination of gender healthcare available.
Cass Review
The Cass Review is a comprehensive, independent review of gender identity services for children in the UK, commissioned by the NHS and carried out by paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass. The findings raised serious concerns about the lack of evidence for medical and social interventions, and highlighted the need for a more cautious, holistic, and evidence-based approach to supporting gender-questioning youth. It concluded that there is no reliable evidence that puberty blockers are safe or reversible, that an affirmation only approach is unsafe, that gender care for children has been ideologically captured, and that medical transition for minors should be paused. The Cass Review underscored the vulnerability of these children and the potential for harm when affirmation is prioritised over careful assessment.
Many countries such as the UK, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, France, and Italy have now restricted the use of puberty blockers and retreated from the gender-affirmative care approach.
Our own Irish experts in this field do not support an affirmation only approach, or WPATH guidelines. In fact, Professor Donal O’Shea (consultant endocrinologist) and Dr Paul Moran (consultant psychiatrist) of the National Gender Service (NGS), sought and have been granted a judicial review of the treatment of children in Ireland with gender identity issues because children were referred to clinics abroad which took an affirmative approach, much to the detriment of their young patients. Dr Moran and Professor O’Shea have also expressed concern over what they see as inappropriate influence of activist driven ideology on gender services in Ireland.
Activist Overreach
TENI and Belong To are vocal and well known transgender activists with a foot in the door of many sectors of Irish life including education, healthcare, and government. In fact, TENI is formally registered as a lobbying organisation. Its lobbying activities, which are a matter of public record, include direct engagement with politicians and public officials on legislation and healthcare policy relating to gender identity. Their declared purpose is to influence policy and legislation on issues that are medically and ethically contested such as:
provision of puberty blockers and cross sex hormones to young people.
changes to Ireland’s Gender Recognition Act - TENI had considerable influence on the drafting of this controversial act, to the exclusion of women’s rights groups, child safeguarding organisations, and other important voices. It continues to campaign for legal gender recognition for minors.
school and healthcare policies that promote a particular ideological and unscientific stance on gender identity.
This is explicit political advocacy which is surely in conflict with the intended purpose of Toy Show Appeal funds. Irish families who donate through RTÉ’s televised campaign do not expect their contributions to fund lobbying organisations promoting controversial legislative change, particularly where children are involved.
It is deeply concerning that a high-profile charity appeal, particularly one associated with a beloved family programme like the Toy Show, would fund any organisation whose approach to such sensitive issues runs counter to international clinical guidelines.
RTÉ Muted
Equally troubling is the fact that RTÉ, Ireland’s publicly funded broadcaster, has consistently refused to engage seriously with the growing global debate around gender identity, medicalisation, and child safeguarding. A small handful of programmes (a meagre four) have confronted the issues with the most recent of these being 18 months ago. Neither the Cass Review nor the recent UK Supreme Court Ruling on the meaning of ‘sex’ in law (that it refers to biology, not gender identity) have been covered in any meaningful way. RTÉ has rarely platformed critical voices and has never interviewed prominent Irish experts such as Helen Joyce or Stella O’Malley.
Paddy O’Gorman, multi-award winning radio and television broadcaster formerly with RTÉ, has expressed dismay over RTE’s avoidance of the gender identity issue:
“I’m sad to see my old broadcast company, RTÉ, dodge public debate on the transgender agenda. Three years ago the Live Line phone-in programme, presented by Joe Duffy, stepped into the trans debate and got itself into a lot of controversy, as good current affairs programmes are supposed to do. The politicians and much of the media piled on against RTÉ. The pile-on worked. The trans lobby said “no debate” and RTÉ has complied ever since.
Recently we’ve seen developments that cry out for public debate on mainstream media. We saw the British Supreme Court ruling that in British law a woman is a woman, and not a man who says he is a woman as is the case in Irish law. Opinion polls show that the Irish public, in both states in Ireland, strongly agrees with British law and disagrees with Irish law on this. But the Irish public is not getting a chance to debate this on mainstream media. There has been radio silence from RTÉ.
Now we hear that money raised by the Late Late Toy Show for children in need is going to be directed towards transgender lobby groups. I would dearly love to hear Joe Duffy host a Live Line discussion on this. I would love to see RTÉ once again doing its job. Sadly, we can expect that any such debate is only going to take place on social media and, accordingly, the public’s trust in RTÉ will continue to diminish.”
RTÉ has gone from avoiding debate to actively funding one side of it by giving funds to Belong To and TENI. Irish people pay a compulsory television license fee to support RTÉ and yet we cannot trust that they will provide objective and balanced information or spend our charitable donations wisely.
Passing the Buck
In response to enquiries from concerned citizens in recent days, RTÉ has stated that funding decisions are made independently by Community Foundation Ireland (CFI). They say that only registered charities are eligible for funding from the Toy Show Appeal and that an independent panel oversees the process.
Be that as it may, RTÉ is still accountable. The Toy Show Appeal is marketed, promoted, and endorsed by RTÉ. Donations are made by the public on the basis of RTÉ’s branding, credibility, and trust. Where this money ultimately goes is therefore a matter of public interest and reputational significance for RTÉ.
This is not about denying support to LGBTQ+ youth. It is about recognising that real support requires caution, nuance, and accountability, especially when children’s health and lifelong wellbeing are at stake. Until Irish media, policymakers, and institutions are willing to ask hard questions, it falls to concerned citizens to do so.
Catherine Monaghan, Irish women’s rights activist and founding member of Wicklow Women 4 Women.
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