Ex-hurricane Ophelia raises up a storm

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OURNALISTS love a good story, and there was no bigger one last week than ex-hurricane Ophelia. They also love controversy, though, so Tuesday’s Morning Ireland was desperate to find some criticism of the official response to the crisis.

Thankfully, Brendan Kenny, deputy chief executive of Dublin City Council with responsibility for the Regional Homeless Executive, wouldn’t play ball, insisting that “everything that could be done was done” and that it wasn’t “the right day to be criticising anybody, or any organisation. Today is the day,” he said, “for giving credit for the great work that was carried out”.

That mood of relief and gratitude, rather than recrimination, continued throughout the day, starting with The Ryan Tubridy Show, where, as well as waxing lyrical about “the awesome power of nature”, the radio host hailed the storm’s “local heroes”.

He should have stuck with this theme for the whole show; it was certainly the subject of most of the calls. Instead, he went off on a curious tangent about alleged anti-Irish r ac iNs mi geiln la tL haewnsoewnlHyic pi eu nbdl ia she rec diam thriller by Dan deBs rt oruw mn rbeemc ainu sees to,fil ammo din ia or episode in Ch aq put a et ru rTwauot if nuvgoi tl va it nu grntwnko kl drunken Irish fans. “As someone who adores my country, as I do, I found myself getting angry,” he declared, wondering why Brown hadn’t singled out the English or some other nation to have a go at instead. “Don’t pick on our guys,” was his message.

This led to baffling calls bemoaning “the Anglo-Norman influence in Hollywood” whose agents allegedly “have it in for the Irish” because they’re “jealous”. Ryan shouldn’t encourage this nonsense. There was enough else to talk about that day.

The Nolan Show on BBC Radio Ulster bypassed gratitude altogether and went straight for dissension, wondering why the group tasked with coordinating the response to the extreme weather had not met until two hours after the warnings had been upgraded. “What if it had been a major disaster incident in Northern Ireland?” Nolan demanded with relish.

It brought to the surface a deep resentment in the North at the continuing lack of a functioning Executive at Stormont, with callers wanting to know why salaries are still being paid to squabbling politicians when it was left to civil servants to organise the clean up.

Or maybe Northerners just like to complain. On UTV, weatherman Frank Mitchell’s Phone In morning show on U105, some callers even moaned at the closure of schWoao tl cs,h wI hT iNc hOW proved, one declared, that we H wared rye Baulclk“sgi es tot nintgh et oR oT Es oP fl ta”y. er until

D“eWc e mwbere3s0e; nr t eo.ieu/ t pila n yaerll sorts of w eS aitxh Near tsi,o”ng sr Ruu mg by lei s do ann 3 oP tl ha eyer, ra usnt ii fl strDuegcgelminb g er t1h6r;otuvg3h.iee/pxl-ahyuerricanes was ac Shimarpa ly ctNeirg-ebllu ailis dion gB eBxC pie Pr laieynerc e-on whciucr hr et no tl dy any o’ stacv ha iildabrl en towvei er wee mrs isinsing out. The best advice, though, came from a listener urging others to leave out nuts and seeds this winter because the wind had stripped the bushes of berries and, as Frank said, “the poor wee birds may be starving”.

Surely not even Nolan could manufacture a row out of that? LISTEN BACK Visit the RTE Player at rte.ie/player