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In an ideal world, we would only have people on WHYS who don't make conditions. We'd want them all to feel free to speak to any other guest or caller and providing they were courteous and respectful, then all bets are off. In reality, it's not that simple.
We had a man on from the Chinese Embassy here in London on our show the other week. His condition was that he didn't want to speak to any of the other guests, just our presenter (who was Peter on that day). Now, it's not often you get an official of the Chinese government on your programme, so the value of having him on the show for me outweighed the conditions he'd placed on his appearance. BUT....i asked him to state on air why he didn't wish to engage with anyone else. I did this in the interests of transparency. He explained to Peter that he didn't think dialogue with anyone else would be "helpful", which in a way told you all you needed to know. Other guests still talked to him, but through Peter.
Ms Sheehan stipulated her condition - Ros asked her on air why she wanted to do that- and she told us she spoke to grieving mothers all the time and didn't think it benefited anyone to do that in a public forum. Fair enough, i still agreed to her being on the programme and she explained that on air. Then Sue came on (technically a "blue star" mum ) and made her point to Ros. And Cindy responded to her - i.e in my view she'd decided to break her own rule, even though Ros had clearly agreed to her wishes.
Like i say, i'm sorry she was disappointed ( though she stayed with us for 20 minutes and gave a fairly robust parting shot at Sue ) but i'm satisfied that we explained the nature of the programme to her in advance (that is, a conversation) and agreed to her wishes.
If you heard the show and disagree, let me know...