RADIO REVIEW:THERE'S BEEN a lot scrutiny of journalists-turned-politicians of late, but little on the reverse transformation.
Former minister Ivan Yates's interview with Taoiseach Brian Cowen on Wednesday's The Breakfast Show(Newstalk 106-108, weekdays) was his first big test. This grilling was a bit like a baby chicken in a fancy French restaurant: it looked juicy, but the hot air was deceptive. Despite Yates's gusto, and breathless and theatrical questioning, it was all skin and bones.
His long opening question was the most entertaining and revealing part of the interview: “Eh, I remember the first time we met in the mortuary in Vincent’s on a sad occasion when your father Ber died, and from the word go, from when you won the byelection in Laois-Offaly, beating Pádraig Horan, trouncing him, you were always tipped to the top.” Cowen still hadn’t got a word in edgeways and Yates went on quite a bit more before finally asking, “Do you feel in the job of Taoiseach you’ve given the clear sense of direction and leadership that the country so badly needs more than ever before?” Cowen acknowledged he has his critics, adding, “We have to restore order to our public finances, improve competitiveness in the economy and we have to restructure our banking system.” He spoke as though he’d inherited somebody else’s mess, not his own.
Collective – not personal or political – responsibility is his mantra. “We are going to have to go back to standards of living five or six years ago,” he added. He’s used that line before too.
Patsey Murphy, editor of the Irish TimesMagazine, reminisced on Tuesday's Tom Dunne(Newstalk, weekdays) about her trip to Woodstock 40 years ago.
“I kind of borrowed my mother’s car,” she said. “People were supposed to leave messages on a notice board. That’s how you were supposed to find someone in a crowd of 500,000 people.” She abandoned the car. “The party really started at the traffic jam.” In her long march to the iconic music festival, Murphy said she walked that fine line between conservative Catholic convent schoolgirl and bohemian in a time that was “innocent and changing”. Unlike Oxegen, she said there were no portaloos, no mobile phones, no hot showers. Wait, no iPhones?
And, yes, the teenage Murphy was in trouble when she got home: “There was no way I could make up a story or send a dodgy text.”
During the 1960s, Michael Yeates was running a shoe repair shop in Clontarf. Now 87, he is still a cobbler after 50 years. Natalia McCarthy's gorgeous documentary, The Curious Ear: Shoes Fit For Dancing(RTÉ Radio One, Wednesday), is now online and full of classic song clips from yesteryear. "If you're tired and weary, still journey on till you've come to your happy abode," Yeates said, quoting lyrics from The End of the Road. "I've more feckin' handbags here with people not coming back for them," he added. He wasn't quoting lyrics there, obviously.
Rory O'Neill's transformation from mild-mannered bar-owner and campaigner into Panti (pictured), politically-charged drag queen, and mother hen to the gay community, has been causing a stir. On Liveline(RTÉ Radio One, weekdays) he responded to opinion articles by Brenda Power in the Sunday Timestaking a pop at the men in dresses at the recent Gay Pride parade. Power didn't appear on Liveline, but told The Last Wordlast week that she believes a man and woman make the ideal parents for an adopted child. In her first article, Power also appeared to imply that homosexuality was a lifestyle choice, but she has since rejected that suggestion.
O'Neill told presenter Damien O'Reilly, "It's an insidious suggestion to say how somebody is dressed is a reflection on how they are taken seriously." He said Pride is a celebration like St Patrick's Day, where people are familiar with the convention of drag, and not a political rally. He didn't resort to name-calling – not that you would expect him to. Instead, he dealt with Power's arguments head-on. Nor did O'Neill echo a familiar line used by another Livelinecaller: "She is entitled to her opinion, but . . ."
On the subject of gay marriage, he said simply, "Go to Spain and see has the sky fallen down." Meanwhile, O'Reilly is hitting his stride as the regular fill-in on Liveline. The only thing going against him is that he's not Joe Duffy. But, to quote the last line from the cross-dressing movie Some Like It Hot, nobody's perfect.