They may be obliged to work while the rest of the country basks in the sun, but there’s no worry about the stars of Newstalk missing out on the good weather. So as the temperature soars early in the week, Pat Kenny nips into the pub after cycling around Sligo, while Kieran Cuddihy is joined by his fellow presenter Andrea Gilligan to sip cocktails on the radio station’s roof. Short of Sean Moncrieff broadcasting from a park with a bag of cans, it’s hard to imagine the Newstalk team capturing the Irish summer any more vividly.
Of course, it’s not like they’re actually on the rip. On Tuesday’s edition of The Pat Kenny Show (Newstalk, weekdays), the host is conspicuously abstemious during his visit to the Thomas Connolly pub, commenting on a “handsome bottle” of cask whiskey without sampling it. Instead he goes on a characteristically boffinish aside about how American drinkers switched from Irish whiskey to Scotch during the Prohibition era: party on, Pat!
For all that, Kenny is in relaxed mood as he presents his show from Sligo town. He revels in his conversation with Susan O’Keefe about WB Yeats’s connections to the county, sounding more at ease in the cultural surroundings of the Yeats Building than he does in the boozer. But while Kenny gets to show off his brainy side — the quintessentially Yeatsian word “gyre” is uttered several times — he also knits together literary, historical and geographical elements to stimulating effect. He should get out more often.
For all the demeaning reductiveness of the epithet — Liz Truss has ample political flaws to attack without having to resort to such crass remarks — it highlights why Edwina Currie is a regular guest of Pat Kenny’s: dull she ain’t
Not that Kenny leaves his critical side behind. When the local Independent TD Marc MacSharry criticises Micheál Martin’s leadership of Fianna Fáil as a “one-man show” and unfavourably compares the Taoiseach’s style with that of the famously vengeful Charles Haughey, the host lets out a dubious “hmm” before quoting the famous description of Haughey’s rule as “uno duce, uno voce”. It’s a quietly effective parry to the showy soundbites of his guest, the scion of a Fianna Fáil dynasty.
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That said, MacSharry is in the ha’penny place to the former Conservative MP Edwina Currie, who on Wednesday’s show describes the Tory leadership candidate Liz Truss as a bit of a “witch with a capital B”. Yes, you read that right. But for all the demeaning reductiveness of the epithet — Truss has ample political flaws to attack without having to resort to such crass remarks — it highlights why Currie is a regular guest of Kenny’s: dull she ain’t.
If political fireworks and cultural tourism enliven proceedings, the week’s most substantial segment comes on Monday, when Kenny covers the perennial state of crisis gripping emergency departments in the country’s hospitals. It starts out as a forensic discussion, with Chris Luke, a consultant, stating that “the Anglo-American model of the emergency room” is failing internationally, but the host pulls the conversation back to a personal level.
Kenny recounts how he recently attended the emergency department of St Vincent’s University Hospital, in Dublin, when his daughter was knocked unconscious at a Westlife concert. He praises the paramedics at the venue and in the ambulance but says that at the hospital “we were let down by the system”: Kenny’s daughter spent 14 hours waiting to be treated. “Was she checked regularly? No, she was not,” he says. “Not a word of compassion, not a word of empathy; quite the opposite from everyone there.” It’s an all-too-familiar story, but Kenny admits: “It was an education for me, and the fact that we accept this is what bothers me.”
The host’s experience, coupled with his exasperation, makes for bracing listening. In the past he has shared personal anecdotes, talking about antisocial behaviour to carp about policing. But in this instance Kenny’s story adds weight to an urgent issue, chiming with Luke’s verdict on the ground-down, burnt-out emergency departments across Ireland: “In addition to being toxic, these conditions are lethal.” It’s hard to feel sunny after that.
On The Hard Shoulder, host Kieran Cuddihy is in flighty form too, giddily sharing his old hurling coach’s hydration tips: ‘You should never be able to see your piss, lads’
On the other hand, good spirits abound on The Hard Shoulder (Newstalk, weekdays), as Cuddihy merrily glugs whiskey spritzers alongside Gilligan, who is fresh off her shift on Lunchtime Live. A convivial air pervades the show’s “summer special”, with Gilligan likening the rooftop broadcast to being allowed outside the classroom for the day, while Cuddihy more succinctly dubs it “daytime drinking while we’re all at work”.
It’s a canny piece of production, the upbeat atmosphere of the alfresco studio mirroring the general good mood engendered by the hot spell. True, things might have been different were Ireland enduring the dangerously high temperatures elsewhere. But, as it is, Cuddihy’s guests sound like they’re having a jolly time, be it Simon Tierney exploring the history of the barbecue or Joan Cusack of Met Éireann explaining the (inevitably ominous) science behind the heatwave.
The host is in flighty form too, giddily sharing his old hurling coach’s hydration tips: “You should never be able to see your piss, lads.” Realising this graphic urethral advice is a bit much, Cuddihy apologises to Gilligan, but otherwise his demeanour is only a notch or so above his usual lively on-air presence. As Wednesday’s indoor show emphasises, he doesn’t need the sun to get excited.
Addressing AIB’s controversial decision to make 70 branches cashless, Cuddihy doesn’t hold back: “When are we going to say enough is enough with the banks in this country screwing us over?” Describing the move as a “two fingers” to rural Ireland and pensioners, Cuddihy shifts the focus of his ire: “What’s worse, our political leaders will do nothing about it.” It’s hard to disagree with any of this, but the effortlessness with which the host cranks up the indignation makes his rant seem stagy, undercutting his urgently valid points. His interview with the Co Cork photographer Anne Marie Cronin, who will soon have to travel three hours to avail of cash services, is less flashy but more effective.
As with the weather, brightness on the airwaves is always welcome, but too much heat and it loses its appeal.
Radio Moment of the Week
On Tuesday’s Liveline (RTÉ Radio 1, weekdays) Joe Duffy discusses the distinctly nondairy beverage that is potato milk with a caller named Derek, who promotes the merits of the drink despite having never tasted it. The conversation is meandering and suitably frothy, with Duffy sounding at once bored, irritated and intrigued: “How many potatoes have to die to make a litre of milk?” But it’s notable for the unusual promise Duffy makes. He will endeavour to sample some tuber-derived milk, and “if it is drinkable and tasty I will eat Mr Potato Head, a raw potato, on Liveline.” Watch this space. Duffy may yet regret milking the topic.
