From no food to no taste

RADIO REVIEW: BACK IN THE grim days of the H-block protests there was a joke about the UDA's abortive 1980 effort to be segregated from republican prisoners by refusing food, a campaign that lasted five days. What do you call a loyalist paramilitary who doesn't eat between meals? A hunger striker.

This long-forgotten gag was dislodged from atrophied memory banks on Wednesday when John Dillon, former president of the Irish Farmers’ Association, appeared on

Today with Pat Kenny

(RTÉ Radio 1, weekdays) to tell of his own fleeting attempt at a politically motivated fast.

The day before, Dillon had been jailed in Limerick Prison for nonpayment of a fine imposed after he refused to remove electronic roadside signs for his unsuccessful Dáil run last year. Feeling victimised by Limerick County Council, which brought the prosecution, Dillon pledged not to eat for the duration of his short sentence. “I wanted to make a clear point, and eight days wasn’t going to kill me,” he said.

He got as far as refusing lunch. Having been incarcerated for three hours, he was released after his fine was paid by an unknown donor. Far from being happy at this, Dillon sounded miffed. He regarded his mystery benefactor as an enemy “who was very embarrassed” about the imprisonment.

Curtailed hunger strikes aside, the item highlighted the skewed priorities of local politics. Dillon, who struck a dignified note throughout, claimed no electronic election signs had been removed in other constituencies and made vague allegations about county-council favouritism towards other candidates. But when Kenny pointed out such displays were normally used for road hazard warnings, Dillon said his signs alerted people to his candidacy, leading the presenter to muse whether this was “as important as a message about road safety”.

Kenny had his own moments of awkwardness. After Dillon said he had to share a cell with another prisoner, Kenny’s next question sounded oddly miscast: “Did you socialise with him?”

No, Dillon said, but he was annoyed by his cellmate’s incessant smoking. Passive smoking, missed meals: such are the trials of civil disobedience.

Dillon could have picked up a few tips from Martin Sheen, whose activism has got him arrested on numerous occasions. Talking to Dave Fanning(2fm, Saturday), the veteran Irish-American actor came across as modest but purposeful, driven as much by deep religious faith as liberal politics.

Fanning conducted the interview in signature style, his rambling questions heavy with distracting detail. When he mused on the oppressive religiousness of 1950s Ireland, the setting for his guest's new film, Stella Days, Sheen retorted about the church having kept "a culture and a people together" when "John Bull" ruled the country.

But as the garrulous presenter struck up a rapport with the actor, a more intriguing portrait emerged. Sheen spoke of his travails with alcohol – “I never did drugs, only drink, like a true Irishman” – and drew parallels between Alcoholics Anonymous and Catholicism, such as “surrendering to a higher power”.

He was revealing when Fanning asked if his protests worked. He did not expect to change the world, he said, but his activism allowed him to look in the mirror and feel he did the right thing. “We’re not asked to be successful, only to be faithful,” he said. “You’ve only surrendered to the truth, not results.”

The sole tart note came when the presenter asked Sheen about trying to help his troubled actor son Charlie. “That’s his business. I don’t speak for anyone,” Sheen said curtly.

Otherwise, Fanning took full advantage of his loose-limbed Saturday- morning slot, which allows him more space to indulge his interests than his weekday-evening music show on 2fm, to deliver a stimulating slice of radio.

George Hook, a man who wears his strong opinions as a badge of honour, could take a leaf out of Fanning's easy-going playbook. On Tuesday's edition of The Right Hook(Newstalk, weekdays) the presenter lost the run of himself as he tackled the issue of childhood obesity – or, to use his preferred term, "fat kids".

Hook’s complaint that we are “rearing a generation of couch potatoes” is a concern shared by many. But as he tried to raise the temperature of his discussion with the academic Juliette Hussey, his eminently sensible guest, Hook’s language grew ever more intemperate. Children no longer walked to school because “parents are terrified they will be whipped away into white slavery”; if a child now tries to climb a tree, “the mother would cry blue murder”.

When Hussey said there were now more playgrounds than ever, Hook went into overdrive. He said modern schoolyards were “a concrete expanse resembling the exercise yard in Auschwitz, where all these young human beings ramble around like zombies”. It was an unbelievably crass statement, which only served to undercut the subject at hand and trivialise the tragic deaths of millions. When he’s in this form, Hook is hard to stomach.

Radio moment of the week

As if a discussion about sexual identity wasn't racy enough, Seán Moncrieff(Newstalk, weekdays) sought to spice up his interview with Hazel Larkin, an MA student in "sexual studies", by raising the controversial theory that paedophilia is a sexual orientation.

“I would have to disagree with that,” replied Larkin. “I’m sorry, Seán, I’m sitting here and I’m very much aware that my first memory is of being sexually abused.”

After sheepishly apologising, Moncrieff wisely changed subject.