A disturbing outpouring of hostility

RADIO REVIEW:

THE NEW YEAR was only four days old, but for some, the seasonal sense of optimism had lasted too long. Within seconds of Tuesday's edition of Liveline(RTÉ Radio 1, weekdays), the first of 2011, the feelgood factor was summarily dispatched as Joe Duffy's show kicked off with a succession of testimonials about how things are getting steadily worse.

Greeting his first caller, a Dublin convenience-store owner called Ray, Duffy got straight down to business. “Are you well? Four times in six weeks your shop has been robbed – when was the last occasion?” The previous robbery, it turned out, had taken place on New Year’s Eve, so it was little wonder Ray was not full of hope for the coming 12 months.

Nor was he alone: lest there be any lingering sense of confidence about 2011, the next callers included a Dublin grandmother whose daughter was under Garda protection for testifying against a gunman, a woman whose home was targeted by a local family of ne’er-do-wells and a man who was assaulted in Virginia, Co Cavan, then threatened by a mob after his attacker was arrested. All of them agreed that Ireland had got more violent since the downturn.

By the time Gabrielle, a Dublin teacher, said she was regularly told by pupils to "f*** off" if she asked them to open their books, one was so numbed by the litany of woe that the profanity on afternoon radio almost slipped by unnoticed. Taken individually, the callers' experiences may have been harrowing snapshots of contemporary Ireland; collectively they sounded like a caricature of Liveline's world view, where the nation has been going to hell on a handcart for years.

The real trouble with Liveline, however, is less its unceasing torrent of complaint than the rabble-rousing sentiment that it often sparks.

Wednesday’s show opened with one caller, Rory, saying he had seen a group of Roma being issued with props such as crutches before going off to beg. It was the cue for a disturbing outpouring of hostility. One woman described the Roma as “very dangerous” while Rory – who claimed there was no prejudice in his views – spoke of them as a “plague” before suggesting: “Let’s round them up and ship them out.”

It is one thing to highlight uncomfortable truths about organised begging gangs – Drivetime(RTÉ Radio 1, weekdays) later reported on the same issue – but at times the debate veered perilously close to incitement. That such views could be so casually aired on national radio was an uncomfortable portent for the next year, should matters get worse.

Even when there was good news it was treated as though it were an endangered species. When Drivetimecarried an item that tax receipts for 2010 were €700 million higher than expected, stand-in host Philip Boucher-Hayes suggested remaining silent for two seconds, the better to absorb this rare positive development.

Such caution seemed justified. The economic news last week sounded much the same as the past two years', with Newstalk presenter and former minister Ivan Yates the first high-profile casualty of 2011. As his chain of bookmakers went into receivership, Yates spoke to his station colleague Damien Kiberd on Tuesday's Lunchtime(Newstalk, weekdays). Normally an overbearing and outspoken figure, Yates was stoical as he spoke about "one of the darkest weeks in my life".

He talked frankly about mistakes he had made while trying to control his feelings. “At this point in time, it is somewhat emotional for me and my family,” he said, betraying little of said emotion. Yates’s understated performance only emphasised his hurt: the contrast with his swaggering radio persona made for an oddly affecting segment.

Amid the gloom, however, some embraced the opportunities of a new year with gusto. The businessman Ben Dunne was in ebullient form on Wednesday's Lunchtime, buoyed by increased membership at his fitness centres. In between plugging his "low low prices" he sounded off about lazy politicians ("people are trying to run this country part-time") and crippling rents ("there's no point working for a landlord, we done that for 800 years") before speaking of his hopes for 2011, namely that "people will smarten up and listen to people like me".

It would not be most people's idea of a New Year's resolution, but Dunne's suggestion made sense. Bullish, idiosyncratic and opinionated he may be, but Dunne's infectious enthusiasm was a welcome tonic to the dead hand of Liveline.

radioreview@irishtimes.com

Radio moment of the week  

Standing in as host of The John Murray Show (RTÉ Radio 1, weekdays), Kathryn Thomas spoke to Geoffrey Graham, an inhabitant of the flood-hit Australian town of Rockhampton, in the hope of getting an account of the disaster.

But she could have had a better eyewitness. Asked what time it was down under, Geoffrey said he didn’t know, as he didn’t have a watch. Queried on what effect the floods were having on his family, he said he didn’t have a family. And asked to describe what he was seeing, the caller said there were no floodwaters where he was, in the centre of “Rocky”. Thomas gamely tried to elicit more local colour, before bailing out, so to speak.