Claire Byrne’s grim cocktail leaves a bitter taste

Beware of Greeks bearing drinks. That’s the message Claire Byrne is keen to send out on Wednesday as she covers a scam in Corfu involving unfinished cocktails being recycled as shots. “It’s a little stomach-churning,” the presenter says as she speaks to the journalist Damian Mac Con Uladh on Today with Claire Byrne (RTÉ Radio 1, weekdays).

In fact the item is less nausea-inducing than flagged, and not just because it broadens out to discuss the prevalence of bootlegged alcohol in Greece. “You don’t expect a shot to taste nice,” says Byrne by way of flagging the already low bar for late-night revellers tempted by cheap hooch. Tellingly, it was Greek revenue officials who spotted the scam rather than disgruntled or dyspeptic punters. Ouzo will never taste the same again.

Still, listeners could be excused for needing a stiff drink after Byrne’s other items, so grim are her segments on the twin catastrophes engulfing north Africa. On Tuesday the host talks to Channel 4 reporter Secunder Kermani, who starkly describes the devastation wrought on villages at the epicentre of the earthquake in Morocco, as well as detailing the agonising aftermath as survivors await aid to arrive in their isolated areas. The next day, as the fearful death toll from floods in Libya becomes clear, Byrne interviews the Turkey-based journalist Johr Ali, whose home city of Derna was largely wiped out after storms caused nearby dams to burst. “What happened was enormous, beyond imagination,” says Ali.

If the cataclysmic events in Libya and Morocco put Ireland’s woes into perspective, it nonetheless doesn’t take long for domestic issues to dominate the airwaves again

Sure enough, the scale of the disaster is hard to comprehend. Ali estimates that a quarter of Derna’s population are either dead or missing, adding that only three of the city’s 13 neighbourhoods survived the deluge intact. Byrne prefaces the interview with a warning about the content, and in this case she’s not lying: her guest gives graphic accounts of corpses in the streets as the city awaits aid. “The smell of dead bodies is growing in the city,” says Ali, sounding almost dazed as he talks about Libya’s dysfunctional governance. Byrne also seems slightly overwhelmed, forlornly asking if the city’s remaining residents can “take some comfort in the fact that help may be on the way”. The answer, alas, is no. Byrne’s urge to find a glimmer of hope is understandable, but it’s hard not to despair after hearing such testimony.

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If the cataclysmic events in Libya and Morocco put Ireland’s woes into perspective, it nonetheless doesn’t take long for domestic issues to dominate the airwaves again. This is particularly the case with the ongoing summer blockbuster that is the RTÉ crisis, as Byrne breaks the news of director-general Kevin Bakhurst’s freeze on recruitment and discretionary spending in light of plummeting finances. As she asks the business journalist Tom Lyons to comment on the matter, Byrne offers her own take: “That’s a very difficult pill for staff at RTÉ to swallow, but it was inevitable.” Maybe so, but the bitterness of the dosage varies according to salary: as Lyons notes, RTÉ resembles a two-tier enterprise. That low-paid workers should take the hit for the transgressions of top earners leaves a sour taste that even recycled shots might struggle to match.

The Montrose crisis also features heavily on Drivetime (RTÉ Radio 1, weekdays), as the RTÉ board appears in front of the Oireachtas media committee. The programme’s presenters, Cormac Ó hEadhra and Sarah McInerney, interview a committee member, Senator Shane Cassells, who weighs the various unpalatable options facing the broadcaster. But the Senator also wonders what will happen to the €150,000 paid to Ryan Tubridy in the infamous Renault side deal, the shout in the valley that caused the avalanche. “There’s a moral obligation on Mr Tubridy to return the money,” Cassells insists, by way of appealing to the former Late Late Show presenter’s much-vaunted civic sensibility, even as Tubridy scoots around social media and pops up on British radio shows as though nothing ever happened. Watch this space.

Perhaps mindful of being RTÉ employees, the two presenters approach the topic more guardedly than usual, though McInerney briefly pushes back, asking what politicians are doing to ease the crisis beyond fulminating at the network. In general, however, Drivetime retains a spirited atmosphere. Speaking to Brendan O’Connor of the Garda Representative Association about the body’s overwhelming vote of no confidence in Commissioner Drew Harris, Ó hEadhra is incredulous when his guest suggests the rank and file’s verdict doesn’t undermine their leader. “Come on,” the host snorts.

Equally, when the Sinn Féin TD Pa Daly equivocates on the issue, Ó hEadhra doggedly tries to pin down his guest. “What’s Sinn Féin’s position?” he barks repeatedly, to ever more slippery responses. It’s a salutary (if unintended) rejoinder to Tánaiste Micheál Martin’s snippy remarks during the week about the media “cheerleading” for the Shinners. If nothing else, Ó hEadhra and McInerney rarely show much preferential treatment when it comes to their disdain for unco-operative political guests.

Meanwhile, the two hosts maintain their on-air rapport, pinging off each with a theatricality that a comedy double act might consider exaggerated: not long ago, McInerney mockingly inquired whether her colleague irons his underwear, before ruefully conceding this may be a personal question too far. On Monday, there are more knockabout antics when McInerney makes a confession during their discussion with the stylist Laura Mullett about swapping clothes among friends. “I’m the worst person to lend stuff to,” says McInerney dolefully. “My aunt lent me this wrap for a wedding and it went on fire.” Cue hoots from Ó hEadhra. Clearly, his derision isn’t limited to politicians, though it’s more benign in this case.

It all makes for a zingy cocktail, and one that still works: Drivetime’s audience numbers have risen slightly. That’s good news for Radio 1, but there aren’t many happy hours around RTÉ these days.

• This article was amended on Friday, September15th, 2023, to clarify that RTÉ Radio 1′s Drivetime programme increased its audience in the most recent Joint National Listenership Research survey