Radio: John Murray’s light fare has echoes of Celtic tiger era

It's official: after years of hardship, Ireland is in full recovery. Until recently, the evidence has been mildly encouraging, at least if one goes by conventional economic indices such as falling unemployment rates, improving debt-to-GDP ratios and decreasing media appearances by David McWilliams. On Tuesday, however, comes the surest sign yet as The John Murray Show (RTÉ Radio 1, weekdays) interviews a woman who owns 238 pairs of shoes.

Spurred by the news that people supposedly spend a monthly average of €200 on clothes, Murray talks to Margaret, a Cork native whose massive shoe collection inevitably prompts the host to dub her “the Imelda Marcos of Ireland”. Its focus on consumption for consumption’s sake has uncomfortable echoes of the Celtic tiger in its pomp, when the airwaves were thick with stories of stateside shopping trips. Margaret is breezily unashamed about what she calls her “hobby”, though she concedes that her friends think her mad.

The interview runs out of steam quickly, particularly when the presenter is less interested in discussing the stylistic merits of his guest’s stash than in divining whether her footwear habit is an addiction. To be fair, Murray approaches these retail heroics with an air of wry anthropological detachment. Extending the requirement for balanced views far beyond referendum matters, the presenter also talks to Rory, a Dubliner who only buys his clothes in charity shops and who talks guiltily of splurging a fiver on an overcoat.

Ultimately this reminds the listener how tedious discussion of consumer goods can be. It’s indicative of the gossamer light fare that makes up much of Murray’s show, though this is not necessarily a bad thing. The presenter sounds more at ease coasting through such material than dealing with his show’s perennial crop of true life dramas. His opening monologues have even contained funny gags of late.

In the end, Murray lets his true feelings slip. Having miscalculated how much Margaret has spent on shoes – 230 multiplied by 100 is not 2300, as he initially says – he sounds genuinely shocked when a listener texts in the correct figure of €23,000. “Obscene,” he mutters. Austerity is no fun, but prosperity has complications of its own.

The question of how best to spread the benefits of the recent modest upturn crops up elsewhere during the week. On Tuesday, Matt Cooper analyses the Government's negotiations with public service unions over possible pay restoration in the state sector on The Last Word (Today FM, weekdays). Here, balance is the watchword, arguably at the expense of enlightenment.

Lucinda Creighton displays the fresh, lateral thinking of her Renua party by trotting out the old anti-public service chestnut that it's unfair for a "small cohort of the population" to gain from the recovery. She adds that tax cuts should instead be used for a wider pay rise, which should be "very modest".

Labour TD Michael McCarthy reprimands Creighton for pitting private sector workers against state employees, though his characterisation of the latter as "gardaí, nurses and teachers" creates its own skewed narrative, implicitly downgrading those public servants who may perform more prosaic roles but have nonetheless endured equally harsh pay cuts.

Senator David Cullinane of Sinn Féin decries the contributions of his fellow guests as “auction politics” from the “hard right” and the government, before throwing in a bid of his own, to protect low paid workers, though he is low on detail as exactly how his party will do this.

It’s a good example of Cooper’s admirable but frequently dull tendency to pursue deadening “on-the-one-hand, on-the-other-hand” debate above all else. He even comments, by way of ending the discussion, that each guest has had roughly equal airtime. If that’s the prime metric in these matters, why not go the whole hog and invite every Dáil party to speak?

At other times, however, Cooper genuinely does go out on a limb. On the same show, he talks to Mark Tighe of the Sunday Times about Denis O'Brien's case for an injunction against RTÉ reporting details of his financial arrangements with the IBRC, aka the former Anglo Irish Bank. So exact and circumscribed is the detail in this discussion – as is rightly the case in court matters – that it's easy to forget that Cooper's potentially delicate situation in this issue. Or at least it would be if the presenter didn't remind listeners at the outset that O'Brien "is of course the owner of this station".

For Cooper to draw attention to his boss’s legal battles, even in a studiously neutral way, seems like a bold statement of independence. That he even talks about “all of us” when referring to reporters also constitutes a small act of defiance. As a host who usually sits on the fence with almost belligerent determination, Cooper isn’t vocal in his personal opinions. But when it comes to what goes on his show, in this instance anyway, he clearly has the final say.

Moment of the Week 'Maximum gayness?'

On Wednesday, Sean Moncrieff (Newstalk, weekdays) talks to human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell about Carl Vaernet, a Danish doctor who carried out experiments in Nazi camps to "cure" gay men. The item prompts a text from one listener, Paul, which Moncrieff wearily reads out "for the sake of balance".

“Has Newstalk hit maximum gayness yet? If not it should be soon.” Cue dramatic fanfare of the “dan-dan-DAN” variety, and a trademark withering putdown from the host.

“Indeed, our maximum gayness clock is counting down and soon will reach critical mass,” he says. “Maximum gayness? Your use of language sounds a bit gay to me.” Game, set and match.

radioreview@irishtimes.com