Where a little goes a long way

Radio Review: Here's a test for anyone who fancies themselves as a bit of a raconteur. Describe the opening of a new toilet so listeners not only feel they have missed a fantastic party but also feel incontinent with desire to help those less well off.

Actually, don't even bother trying. It's something only Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh could do (Today with Pat Kenny, RTÉ Radio 1, Tuesday).

The man who has been the voice of the GAA for 50 years was back from India where he was invited by John O'Shea of the aid agency Goal. One of the building projects Goal unveiled was a toilet block for a school that had no latrines ("lovely word that", said Ó Muircheartaigh) or running water.

A former teacher, he was particularly interested in the local schools. "The desks were a few planks of wood nailed together, the blackboard the size of a bathroom mirror," but the people were so thrilled with the new toilet that he and O'Shea were garlanded with flowers, there was a huge crowd, a ribbon to be cut and music played. "What glee there was to be seen," said Ó Muircheartaigh. A euro, he explained, goes a long way out there. "If you get one look at how it's spent, you'd give double."

Ó Muircheartaigh can make 30 fellas on a muddy GAA pitch sound like heroes from na Fianna, and so it's no wonder really that his unique brand of lyricism brought the teeming city of Calcutta into sharp focus. Kenny who handled the whole interview perfectly by saying very little, ended it with the comment that he had been transported to Calcutta through his guest's descriptive powers, and he was so right.

It wasn't descriptions that were bothering the Sunday Show (RTÉ Radio 1), it was more the pictures that went with them. Coverage of the murder of Rachel O'Reilly in the Sunday tabloids had included photographs of a named and handcuffed suspect. To show a suspect - who has not even been charged and is innocent until proven guilty - in handcuffs is, according to the Law Society's Ken Murphy, a new departure in the Irish media's coverage of the courts. It heralds the arrival of the "perp walk", a US invention that, he said, satisfies people's lust to see individuals who are even suspected of high-profile crimes.

More troubling were Murphy's comments that the coverage ran the risk of "convicting in the court of human opinion" and raised the question of whether the man in question could get a fair trial. Presenter Tom McGurk's take on it was that legislation would clarify what can be published. "You're naïve if you expect responsibility from the media," he said, and then as if he'd just realised he had damned himself in that broad generalisation, he quickly added: "certain sections of the media, anyway".

The expert panel included the Master of the High Court, Edmund Honahan SC, and it did what the format does best - take a hot topic of the week and flesh it out with McGurk acting as devil's advocate. The interesting debate turned to the idea of courtroom TV. Murphy was for it, and Honahan also approved. "The law belongs to the public - it's not Judge Judy, you know," said Honahan, conjuring up the image of my learned friend, tucked up on the sofa of an afternoon with tea and bickies watching the mouthy Judy do her stuff. Honahan explained how, because judges here are professional and not exactly camera shy and in a controlled environment, courtroom TV could work.

The relationship between the media and the law could make an fascinating topic for RTÉ's social and political strand, The State We Are In. The series focuses for six-week periods on different aspects of Irish life and a new one started this week when Kay Sheehy took "Art and the People" (RTÉ Radio 1, Monday) as her subject and started with the changing relationship between art and government.

It was a lot to cram into 30 minutes of radio. It was said of politicians in the early days of the State that when they entered the Dáil they turned their backs on culture and the arts. This was literally true, as they had to turn their backs on the National Library and National Museum when they entered the Dáil but it was also true in terms of attitude. Art was seen as both a luxury and a throwback to a colonial past.

Sheehy, who has a strong track record in arts coverage, highlighted the landmarks, including the 1969 Finance Act which gave artists tax exemption, the formation of the new Arts Council in 1973 (with an annual budget of €100,000) and the creation of the first arts ministry which, many will have forgotten, was as recent as 1992. It was a good, if overly fact-based start to the series, which will hopefully provide more cultural analysis as the weeks go on.