Eilis O’Hanlon

An English solution to the old Irish problem

SO finally, a deal was reached between the Tories and the DUP to keep the UK’s Theresa May in Downing Street.

On Tuesday’s Today With Sean O’Rourke to discuss the implications were Kevin Maguire of the Daily Mirror (born in the English north east); Daily Mail consultant editor and columnist Andrew Pierce (born in Bristol in the south west of England); and former Labour minister Peter Hain (born in the then British-run Colony and Protectorate of Kenya).

Maguire has an Irish name, and Pierce was born to an Irish mother and raised by adoptive Catholic parents, and Hain once reigned over the North as Secretary of State — but really, couldn’t RTE Radio One get a single commentator from north or south of the Irish border to discuss the deal?

Newstalk Breakfast managed it, ringing Richard Bullick, a former adviser to Belfast’s First Minister Arlene Foster, to comment on the “incredible turnaround” in her fortunes. Bullick noted the tendency of parties in the North to “overplay their hand”, suggesting this is what SinNnigFeelli a n Ldaiwd sion n MHaicricehn . dRa aetrhciearm than cutting a ddeeas l twruhmileret m hei y n wesetr, e il imn oadia strong position q to uadt o ur saou, thfeu y gipt uasthuren d nfkokrl further concessions, and events overtook them. Now they are in a weaker position, and the DUP is resurgent. That’s politics for you.

Another question worth asking is why radio shows insist on treating their own listeners like complete idiots.

On Wednesday’s edition of Arena, RTE’s weeknight arts show, there was a competition to win tickets to next week’s Clonmel Junction Festival. The question went as follows: “Who wrote the original ballet, Swan Lake? Was it Tchaikovsky, or Tolstoy?” It would be interesting to see some statistics as to how many respondents, if any, got the question wrong.

Standing in for regular presenter Sean Rocks that evening was Kay Sheehy, onetime producer of Today With Pat Kenny. She interviewed poet Alison Hackett, whose new collection, Crabbing, explores her grief at the death of her mother many years ago.

Hackett read the beautiful title poem, written for her father, but who died before it was finished. “We head out in the clinkerbuilt punt,” it began, describing a journey she often took as a child with him out into Ringabella Bay in Co Cork, then round the headland into “open sea stretching down, Spain, Africa, Antarctica beyond”.

Arena deserves credit for regularly giving prominence to new poetry; it gets precious little coverage elsewhere.

AW re atch h e Ic T raNbOs Wstill there? On Monday’s InsiHda e rC dy uBltucrke s , iFs io n nt n heDRaTvEenPplaoyre t r supnotikl eto the Dauectehm or beo rf 3 a 0n; ret w e.ieb/opola k yelirsting 115 native specSiie x s Nwathioicn hs Rhuagvb ey d is isoa n p3pPelayre r d ufnrtoilm Irish landDseccaepmebse, r th16 e ; ctvra3n.i e /palnay d ebr ittern not least.

ItSimpald y e Nfigoe r lls a oibs eor n inB g BC lisiPtelanyienr g- , ctuhrroeungtlhy not n so t mavuaicla h balestHo vigiehwNeros o in ’Isredlaencdis. ion to give airtime to yet another warning about Ireland’s supposed fatal attraction to booze. “You’re an adult, free human being,” was US talk show host Michael Graham’s sensible response. “It’s your decision to make.” Though he did have a warning of his own: “I’ve never met an adult man who didn’t drink who I could trust.” Quite.

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