Shrillness may be bad, but consensus is dull

Eilis O’Hanlon

RTE Radio 1’s Marian Finucane Show had five guests on the panel to discuss the morning newspapers last Sunday. Kieran Cuddihy’s On The Record welcomed three to the Newstalk studio. Neil Delamere’s Sunday Best on Today FM had just one, barrister Paul Anthony McDermott, and there is an undoubted relief in not having to keep track of who’s talking at any given moment.

The ideal solution is to skip between all three so as not to miss the best bits, such as writer and broadcaster Donal Fallon’s regular Hidden Histories segment for On The Record. This week’s subject was Micheal Mac Liammoir, talk of whose rumoured gay affair with General Eoin O’Duffy in the 1930s was perhaps meant as a subtle reminder that Ireland in the past was always more diverse than nostalgic conservatives might care to remember.

Podcasts now make it easy to catch up on what’s been missed at a time that suits listeners, rather than schedulers. Few people, for example, are probably in the mood at 7am on SundayNimgeolr la niLna g wts o n bHegic in ienth da reeerciam hours of music dbe y stRruemnarises m an in ce scto , m il pmoosdeira Palestrina, but qLuyarticu’ r s aVuo t xfNugoisttraatu, rwnintk h ktl enor Vlad Smishkewych, celebrating the 493rd anniversary of the Italian’s birth, was made for downloading, then playing later in the week while working or relaxing. Admittedly, the anniversary was not a particularly round number, as Vlad acknowledged, but seven years would have been too long to wait for the 500th. The way Lyric’s going, it may have been replaced by a heavy metal show by then.

The theme of Wednesday’s Moral Maze on BBC Radio 4 was the objectification of women, prompted by the ongoing row about scantily clad “walk-on girls” in maledominated sports. As usual the panel was supposedly divided between those on opposite sides of the argument, but even Matthew Taylor, former director of a leading UK left-wing think-tank, while generally supportive of the ban, admitted he was “genuinely confused” about where the line now lay between objectification and a woman’s legitimate exploitation of her own attractiveness for gain, and worried about where the “rising tide of censoriousness” was leading.

No grand agreement was reached — it never is — but it is clear a shrillness has entered the conversation around these key social and cultural issues that is unnerving more than just the usual suspects.

There is a similarly melodramatic tenor to tWheatccu h rrIe T nt NmOWoral panic about the demon drinHka.rdF y orBmucek r s S is c on tttih sh e RFTiErsPt lMayienriusnteti r l Alex SalmDeocne d mbwea r s 3o0n; rNtee.iwe/sptlaly k erBreakfast last TueSsd ix aN y a to iontaslR k uagb y ou is t op n la3nP s layfoe r umntiinl imum pricDinec g em of bea r lc1o6h; otv l, 3.aien/ d plareyevrealed the shocking newS s imthpla y t Nyiogeuln la g is poe n opBlB e C toiPdl ay y er a - re cuarprepnatlr y enottly drinakvainila g bbleotozv e iefwroe m rs is n uIprelramnda. rkets before hitting the town because it’s cheaper than buying it in pubs. What, you mean like they’ve always done?

He wasn’t challenged over this, or indeed on his contempt for Brexit, and why would he be? It’s not as if radio is supposed to engage audiences with a multiplicity of opinions, after all. How often does it need to be said? Consensus is dull, dull, dull. LISTEN BACK Visit the RTE Player at rte.ie/player and newstalk.com/Listenback