Cut out the waffle and get to the point
Eilis O’Hanlon
THERE are some interesting guests on The Ryan Tubridy Show. Last Monday, it was singer Darragh McGann, who spoke inspirationally about his struggles with MS and depression, ahead of the Liam Miller testimonial in Cork’s Pairc ui Chaoimh, at which he was due to sing the national anthem.
Brothers Luke and Ryan Hart spoke movingly last Tuesday about their father, Lance, who murdered their mother Claire and sister Charlotte (19) before taking his own life; they’re now involved in Operation Lighthouse, a campaign to raise awareness about the “coercion and control” exerted on families by men like their father. It was a difficult interview, but Tubridy handled it with consummate sensitivity.
On a lighter note, two former lighthouse keepers came into the studio last Thursday to talk about their experiences. Each guest was well worth hearing in his own right. But oh, listeners to the RTE Radio One morning show must wade through an ocean of inanity before getting to the good stuff. Ryan spends the first 30 minutes of ach hour-long programme wittering on, ainly about things which have caught his ttention in the newspapers that day.
Tubridy’s very popular, so enough listeners mustn’t mind these interminable daily monologues to outnumber those who do; but it feels some days like being trapped on a bus next to a passenger who believes every thought which flits across his mind must be immediately expressed.
Sunday With Miriam is back to normal after O’Callaghan’s summer sojourn in Sean O’Rourke’s chair. Here listeners just get the interviews without the preliminary waffle. The guests are the focus. It’s such a relief.
Last week it was Trevor Sargent, former Green Party minister and now a deacon in the Church of Ireland with a large parish in Co Waterford. Sargent told Miriam that being a Christian means that “every day you can see something joyful to celebrate”, and it’s refreshing to hear a guest being permitted to discuss their faith in such positive terms without any undercurrent of condescension or accusation.
Of course, Miriam didn’t ignore his political career either, asking what it was like being part of the Fianna Fail/Green coalition during and after the financial crash. “It was terrible, to be quite honest.” Understatement of the year, one imagines.
The Tom Dunne Show on Newstalk offered an extended soundscape of last weekend's revived Feile, aka the legendary Trip to Tipp. It's difficult to convey the atmosphere of a music festival to anyone who wasn't there, but this one did it rather splendidly, and there were scores of delicious archive clips too, such as the caller to Gerry Ryan on 2FM back in the day who complained that people were having sex in "the open air in the middle of Thurles".
“Do you understand,” Gerry replied in that familiar sonorous drawl, “that there may be some people listening today who think you’re describing a fabulous weekend?” This love of mischief is why he’s still so badly missed.