Radio Review: My, but how the pendulum has swung. Pat Kenny (RTÉ Radio 1) reminded his listeners on Monday that when Pope Paul VI died in 1978, the national broadcaster went into instant mourning mode, pulling the plug on anything secular and filling the airwaves with liturgical or at least classical music and broadcasting services and prayers.
When the inevitable news from Rome came through on Saturday night, the station swung into a very different kind of action. Seán O'Rourke was in studio with some guests and the production team got busy thumbing through the Montrose address book for soundbite memories and thoughts from a range of contributors.
It was when Albert Reynolds came on air for his tuppence ha'penny worth, I realised just what was so jarring about the three-hour audio obituary. It sounded like the sort of "coverage and analysis" programme - and those words were used - that might have been broadcast on the death of any world leader as if there was a terror of appearing anything other than secular. Reynolds talked about Karol Wojtyla's accession to the papacy: "All credit to the person who nominated him, I believe he only got five votes on the first count."
There's a time for that sort of gnomic by-election talk but hearing it made me long for a more meaningful and appropriate post-mortem programme.
Joe Little - who really has done a wonderful job this week - reported from the Vatican, and he was clearly moved. "There's an atmosphere of tenderness in St Peter's Square," he said, and in the background you could hear a group of women singing a hymn, their voices floating over the crowd, and for a couple of minutes that simple sound and sentiment felt right.
Every second contributor talked about Pope John Paul II's special impact on young people and there was endless talk about his visit in 1979 - in the three hours I'd be prepared to bet that not a single contributor was under 30.
Of course there were contributions from members of various churches. Canon David Pierpoint of the Church of Ireland even managed to slip in a prayer, and Bishop John Magee, a friend of the Pope, was poetic in his grief. He was pleased that after his suffering the Pope had "finally crossed the threshold of hope". No-one wants to return to the Radio Rome days but on the night the Pope died, a well-thought-out "religious programming" response would have been appropriate. Let the days after be filled with "coverage and analysis".
And they were. Tom McGurk's Sunday Show (RTÉ Radio 1) became what he called a "wake" and it had at least one all-out fight - a key criterion for such an event.
It was Mary Kenny versus "Bishop" Fintan O'Toole. That was her name for him, not mine: it was that sort of sniping, pointless row. A report from the Papal Cross in the Phoenix Park told of how the small spontaneous gathering of the faithful in honour and remembrance the previous night had been marred by the sounds of the teenagers who use the car park at the Papal Cross to race cars and get drunk. Those young people of Ireland didn't see any reason to alter their weekend plans.
On BBC R4 (Sunday) where the normal schedule had also been abandoned, veteran Rome correspondent David Wiley warmly recalled his travels with the Pope, whom he called a "world pilgrim".
"It was a pilgrim's progress that became a personal pilgrimage," Wiley said of his visits with the Pope to 120 countries. He recalled travelling along a 100km road in Mexico and seeing both sides of the route packed with people. He illustrated the Pope's sense of humour, which he said was boundless, with a tale from one of his trips to Africa. The chief of one of the states introduced the Pope to the "queen mother". The Pope wondered how a queen mother could be so young. She was, the chief explained, so called because, "she is the mother of my children, I have eight wives". "Ah," said the Pope. "I understand, you're still living in the Old Testament here."
The tawdry bickering about whether there should be a day of mourning broke out in earnest on all programmes on Monday morning - even Morning Ireland (RTÉ Radio 1), which normally doesn't get phone-ins, was contacted by both "sides" and it all made for dispiriting listening.
Both Gerry Ryan (2FM) and Marian Finucane (RTÉ Radio 1) ran text polls and in both cases, the overwhelming majority was in favour of a day of mourning. One caller to Liveline (RTÉ Radio 1) on Monday said she wouldn't have "closure" without it.
By Tuesday lunchtime it had all become too much. I knew it was time to switch to Lyric fm for some calming music when several thrilled-sounding travel agents on Liveline discussed the number of Irish people who were heading to Rome for the funeral. One agent proudly trumpeted: "It's shades of Italia '90." Bless.
