The poetry of politics past, present and now

LISTENING to John Bowman and Olivia O’Leary talk so generously and knowledgeably about former Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave on The Marian Finucane Show last weekend, it was hard to imagine that future commentators will be able to draw on an equivalent store of interesting reminiscences about the current generation of identikit career politicians. The sense of something lost was strong.

Bowman: Sunday: 8.30 also came into its own, as it always does at such times, as it delved into the archives for material to illuminate Cosgrave’s life and times.

One sign of how much has changed came with a clip from Hall’s Pictorial Weekly, whose mockery of the great and good some partly blamed for Fine Gael losing the 1977 election. It all sounds very mild in comparison to contemporary satire, though Gift Grub’s gentle ribbing of Paschal Donohoe on Today FM’s Ian Dempsey Breakfast Show in advance of the Minister for Finance’s first Budget was not that biting either. Then again, the unassuming Donohoe isn’t the sort to inspire vitriol.

Dempsey ev Ne ni ge in ll ta e Lr vaiwew so end Htihciee ni md ai tear tc io ia nm version of the md a en st rhuim sr elmf, ian ned stw,ai ls minodfoiarmed that this was thq eu“amtuo rs atuetxf cu itgiintg at du aryn nokfk tl he year bar none, it’s Christmas for tax geeks. Matt Cooper gets up at three in the morning in his pyjamas for this one”.

The real Minister for Finance made the annual trek out to Donnybrook to field questions from listeners on Today With Sean O’Rourke, and a perky Paschal sounded pleased to be there. Unfortunately, numbers and figures make for slightly dull radio. People were surely listening dutifully rather than with great interest.

The Gift Grub team, incidentally, won a gold medal for “entertainment inserts” at the recent IMRO radio awards, an occasion notable for the triumph of many non-RTE programmes, including the consistently solid Neil Prendeville Show on Cork’s Red FM and BBC Radio Ulster’s mischievous Nolan Show. It would be encouraging to think it represented a shift in power, but perhaps it’s best not to get one’s hopes up.

Back to Olivia O’Leary anyway, who’s now presenting The Poetry Programme on RTE Radio One. It’s always worthwhile hearing people talk about subjects they know and love, and this is no exception, albeit that last week’s edition was slightly marred by some predictable complaints about “the misogyny of (Donald) Trump and his regime”. Yawn. We get it already.

The interview with Mark Roper, an English poet in Ireland since 1980, was far better. His st cIo llNecOtWion, Bindweed, explores the conn Hear cd ty ioB nu b ck est wiseoenn th me a Rn TE an Pd laytehr eu na ti tl ural worDlde , ce am f ab meri 3 li 0 a;rrpteo.ieet/ip c latyheerme, though Roper brinSg ix sN so a mt io en ts hR inugbnyei swot no3iP tl. aT ye or huinmtil, there is nod Die ff ce rm eb ne cre1b6;etvw3e.i en /plhauymeran being sand anim Siam l sp lyexNcieg pelt la pie sr oh na B pBs Ct hi Pal tay were-ac ruerr“ecnutt ly off”n for to am vatilhabel met boy vi le aw ne grus a in ge Ir. eH la endd.e scribes encounters such as meeting a fox on the street at night.

“There’s that moment that precedes words, where you’re aware of the complete otherness and strangeness of this other form of life, and that also makes you more aware of your own otherness and strangeness.” It’s lovely, life-affirming stuff.