Swathes of Dublin are in danger of becoming “news deserts” according to a new study, Mary Wilson informs us on Wednesday’s edition of Morning Ireland (RTÉ Radio 1, weekdays). Given that the rest of the programme is taken up with stories about increased hate crime, homeless asylum applicants and dead Israeli hostages in Gaza, one could be forgiven for wondering if an arid expanse of blissful ignorance mightn’t be preferable to the oasis of downbeat enlightenment that is Radio 1′s news flagship.
Unfortunately, as Dr Eileen Culloty of Dublin City University explains to Wilson, the reality is that in areas with no news outlets or professional journalists covering local issues, misinformation is more likely to thrive unchecked, nature abhorring a vacuum and all that. In Ireland, the areas most at risk are in the capital’s newly expanding suburbs, which lack the kind of local-radio coverage prevalent elsewhere in the country. Facebook groups are no substitute for professional news platforms; without reporters keeping tabs on court cases or council meetings, Culloty glumly asserts, “a door to corruption creaks open”. In other words, stay tuned, whether or not you want to.
In fairness, things aren’t uniformly bleak on Morning Ireland: Wednesday’s opening item is on the Cork singer Bambie Thug’s progress to the Eurovision final, a rare bright spot. But necessary as it may be, and thorough as it is, the programme’s content can be daunting listening first thing in the day. Still, there’s no danger of a news desert when it comes the show’s own backyard, as the long-running RTÉ crisis yet again lurches into focus.
Following the publication of three reports on the embattled national broadcaster, Wilson speaks to the Sinn Féin TD Brian Stanley, chairman of the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee, who urges rapid government action on future governance and funding in order to restore trust in RTÉ. “The public at this stage will have grown weary of hearing of the various scandals,” he observes. Not just the public, it seems: Wilson sounds impatient to wrap up the interview, even as her guest is still talking. There’s only so much local news one can take.
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A similar air of ennui on the issue is signalled by Colm Ó Mongáin, guest host of Today with Claire Byrne (RTÉ Radio 1, weekdays). “Are we there yet?” he asks, by way of flagging the RTÉ reports. “Are we there yet? Are we there yet?” It’s a jocular aside but one that captures the Groundhog Day-like interminability of the Montrose mess. That said, the Fianna Fáil Senator Malcolm Byrne suggests that progress is being made on the matter, and the academic Dr Orla Lenihan thinks the reports bring “a feeling of finality”. We shall see. As Ó Mongáin cautions about the Government’s goal of implementing more than 100 proposals by mid-July, “There’s a deadline of yesterday on all this.”
It may yet be a while before RTÉ is out of the woods, but the likes of Ó Mongáin provide a glimmer of optimism. The presenter, away from his Radio 1 berths of The Late Debate (Tuesday-Thursday) and Saturday with Colm Ó Mongáin, brings a quietly laconic tone to the Today show while deftly helming detailed discussions of topics such as the European election in the sprawling Midlands-North West constituency.
Ó Mongáin isn’t the only one hitting his stride in an otherwise uncertain environment. Three months since landing his own show, Oliver Callan (RTÉ Radio 1, weekdays) is sounding comfortable in the hot seat. Though somewhat hidebound by the conventions of the lifestyle chatshow, the presenter has put his own stamp on Ryan Tubridy’s former slot. Callan’s opening monologue has different emphases to his predecessor’s – more sport, less creamy pints – as well as a wryly sceptical undertow. There are also fewer impressions than one might expect, though he can’t resist mimicking Donald Trump.
Moreover, the host has grown into his role as an interviewer. He brings curiosity to Wednesday’s encounter with the memoirist Fiona Neary, who, as the daughter of foster parents, grew up with 50 siblings, while on Tuesday he enjoys a rollicking time with the novelist Marian Keyes. The bestselling author is insightful and funny as she reflects on everything from reproductive health and literary fame to sobriety and a certain subspecies of sensitive males she calls – brace yourselves – “feathery strokers”. The host sparks off Keyes, nudging the conversation without getting in his guest’s way, to ebullient and wise effect. Arriving hot on the heels of Morning Ireland, Callan is a welcome presence.
There’s little comfort or solace in The Forgotten (RTÉ Radio 1, Tuesday-Thursday), but this six-part documentary about the Dublin and Monaghan bombings of 1974 is vital listening. Researched by Ciaran O’Connor and narrated by Barry Lenihan, whose aunt Anne was one of 34 people killed in the blasts, the serial’s first two episodes chronicle the human cost of the loyalist atrocities, through testimony from survivors, bystanders and bereaved relatives. The journalist Vincent Browne recalls his horror at the catastrophic scene on Talbot Street in Dublin, where he tried to lift up an injured woman: “She simply disintegrated.” Bernadette, meanwhile, remembers a “huge silence” after the explosion: “I didn’t realise I’d been injured until I noticed that my arm was hanging by my side and blood streaming down it.”
Such harrowing accounts capture the carnage and confusion of the bombs’ immediate aftermath while rightly giving expression to the victims’ traumatic experiences. It’s only as the second part closes that the documentary hints at the web of collusion surrounding the loyalist perpetrators of the bombing, for which nobody has ever been convicted. “They didn’t carry that out without intelligence, without assistance,” observes one witness to the blast in Monaghan town. This is why we need the news: 50 years on, the full story has yet to be told.
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