Mick Heaney

Mick Heaney

Radio Columnist

Mick Heaney is radio columnist for The Irish Times and a regular contributor to the paper’s Arts pages. As a journalist and broadcaster, he has extensively covered all aspects of cultural issues over the past 20 years for a variety of publications and programmes, including RTÉ 1’s arts magazine The Works.

Pat Kenny in his Newstalk studio. Photograph: Frank Miller
Radio review: Listening to Pat Kenny talking about LSD is a trip

Kenny describes attending a festival in the 1970s with “a dopehead” who had taken acid

Ryan Tubridy was upbeat, giddy and flippant, ramping up the feelgood factor without a hint of sarcasm or scepticism.
Red nose, White House: when Ryan Tubridy met Bill Clinton

Meanwhile, Muireann O’Connell is unembarrassed on Today FM

Philip Boucher-Hayes: He’s not Joe Duffy, but he’s a good Phil-in
No Joe as Philip Boucher-Hayes puts positive stamp on ‘Liveline’

Stand-in host brings distinctive spin to adoption and referendum issues, but Gay Byrne remains the old master

Pat Kenny: the emphasis is on “what ifs” as much as what actually happened. Photograph: Frank Miller
A jolting glimpse into the whirrings of Pat Kenny’s mind

Radio Review: Pat Kenny – being Pat Kenny – goes off on a bizarre tangent on Jastine Valdez’ migration status

Writer Maureen Dowd: unpredictable enough to be both insightful and entertaining as a radio guest. Photograph: Getty Images
Ronan Farrow interview shows Sean O’Rourke at his best

Radio review: Sean O’Rourke discusses Trump’s America with Maureen Dowd and Ronan Farrow

John McGuirk in the No campaign HQ, ‘Life House’, Gardiner Place, Dublin. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw
A livid John McGuirk has all the nuance of a grenade attack

Radio review: Presenter Matt Cooper has fractious exchanges with anti-abortion campaigner

Vicky Phelan is going to concentrate on her own treatment now, she tells D’Arcy: “I won’t have achieved anything with what I’ve done if I’m not alive.”
RTÉ presenters keep cervical screening on the air as authorities fail the test

Joe Duffy, Ray D’Arcy and Mary Wilson highlight different aspects of the controversy

Shane Coleman: he talked to psychotherapist Joanne Fortune about a survey that shows one-fifth of Irish teens get their sex education from the internet
The best-groomed male in Newstalk? There’s no competition

Radio review: Paul Williams and Shane Coleman blend news and jocular slagging

Keeping it country: Big Tom on stage at Cork Opera House (1981).
City slicker Ryan Tubridy walks the country roads with ease

Radio review: Suprisingly, the RTÉ presenter is the ideal person to pay tribute to Big Tom McBride

David Quinn: constructive criticism? Photograph: Aidan Crawley
Men are from Mars, women are from Venus. But what planet is David Quinn from?

Radio: The columnist find it strange he is ‘not allowed to say something good about men’

Pope Francis: the reaction is so muted that the closest thing to a wholehearted welcome comes from RTÉ’s resident religious sceptic, Ray D’Arcy. Photograph: Claudio Peri/Pool/AP Photo
A quietly forceful rebuke to Danny Healy-Rae’s outburst

Radio: No papal bull as radio presenters give muted welcome to pontiff’s visit

Ivan Yates: not so much a rebel as a disrupter who enthusiastically challenges pieties and sacred cows, particularly of the liberal stripe. Photograph: Cyril Byrne
Ivan Yates: liberal-baiting shock jock or rebel without applause?

Radio review: Newstalk host’s insurgent style masks a complex persona

The biggest winner seems to be the sponsor, whose name gets as many mentions as Cheltenham itself
Ryan Tubridy’s Cheltenham quiz should have been a non-runner

It’s an uneasy experience to hear a big online betting company given so much promotion

Leo Varadkar tells listeners: ‘I’ve been told there’s no threat to food security’; less reassuringly, he also remarks that ‘the Army is on standby’
Pest from the west puts Taoiseach under pressure as airwaves gets snowed under

Radio review: Varadkar favours snow talk over 2040 publicity campaign while Cormac Ó hEadhra enjoys a Brexit scrap

Dermot Whelan and Dave Moore
A bit ‘icky’: Dermot and Dave’s cheery critique of a porn video

Giving the irreverent duo this high-profile slot underlines a shift in direction at Today FM

Late Debate: Katie Hannon, Fionnuala Sweeney and Sarah McInerney are the new hosts of the RTÉ Radio 1 show Katie Hannon, Fionnuala Sweeney and Sarah McInerney are the new hosts of the Late Debate on RTÉ Radio 1. Photograph: RTÉ
Does RTÉ think it takes three women to do one man’s job?

‘Late Debate’ takes a new direction; Joe Duffy hears painful stories of callous bureaucracy

Sabastian Barry. “The public role of a writer is always going to seem infinitely more relaxed than the public role of almost anything else.” Photograph: Cyril Byrne
Sebastian Barry: ‘Part of me when I was young would have poisoned the soup of every other writer’

The new Laureate for Irish Fiction on his predecessor, Anne Enright; his neuroses as a young writer; and the book that drove him t(...)

Nigel Farage’s appearance is something of let-down, at least for anyone expecting him to live down to his caricature as a blinkered, prejudiced little Englander. Photograph: Bryan Meade
Irexit event brings Pat Kenny down with dyspepsia

Kenny decries the “hypocrisy” of Nigel Farage taking a European Parliament salary

'Where Ray D’Arcy once would mix folksy manner with prickly editorialising when holding court on his Today FM morning show, he has long sounded more constrained on RTÉ Radio 1.' Photograph: Patrick Bolger/RTÉ
It’s time for Ray D’Arcy to wake up from his Montrose torpor

Radio Review: The former Today FM host sounds jaded on RTÉ Radio 1

Ryan Tubridy: on the dangers of social media to young people, he would have been better taking a more grown-up approach. Photograph: RTÉ
Ryan Tabloidy? Tubridy veers close to scaremongering

Radio: The presenter’s discussion on internet safety stokes deep parental fears

Dolores O’Riordan: described on Morning Ireland as “the lead singer of The Cranberries and mother of three children” as if motherhood conferred a value on her that might be lacking if she was merely a world-famous singer. Photograph: Jose Sena Goulao/EPA
Dolores O’Riordan and Joanne Hayes coverage shows women's voices are still stifled

Radio Review: Today FM deftly covers both events, but reminds us that old attitudes linger

‘Liveline’ host Joe Duffy is upset, but surely part of the frustration is that he knows his outrage is futile in the face of statutory processes. Photograph: Dara Mac Donaill
Joe Duffy left stunned by ‘Home Alone’ booby trap tale

Liveline host alarmed by crime experiences, while Kingsmill exercises Sean O’Rourke

George Hook’s show was less sit-in than nod-off. Photograph: The Irish Times
Snooze talk: George Hook’s Saturday morning show falls flat

Controversial broadcaster’s underwhelming Newstalk comeback takes aim at familiar targets

Brenda Donohue encountered the perils of the post-Christmas slump as guest host of the Ray D’Arcy Show
Brenda Donohue gives a masterclass in inconsequential fluff

Radio review: Seán Moncrieff’s choice of subjects is as esoteric as ever

Christmas came early for Ryan Tubridy when the RTÉ presenter got to talk to screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, the creator of the fictional presidential TV drama The West Wing. Photograph: Daragh Mc Sweeney/Provision
Kenny puts the boot in on misery, as Tubridy gets an early Christmas present

Gleeson reminds book lovers what they’ll be missing when she departs the airwaves

Miriam O’Callaghan: found the unique Shane MacGowan a difficult man to pin down when the former Pogues singer turned up on Sunday With Miriam.
Miriam O’Callaghan has her work cut out with Shane MacGowan

His reticence is revealing in O’Callaghan’s most entertaining interview in a long time

Ivan Yates: once Northerners 'get out of their time warp they’re welcome to join a united Ireland'. Photograph: Cyril Byrne
Ivan Yates dislikes all ‘Nordies’ equally

They are ‘caught in a time warp between the Tricolour and Union Jack’, says the Newstalk host

Irish actor Gabriel Byrne at the Cannes Film Festival in 2015. Photograph: Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP/Getty Images
Gabriel Byrne: ‘Sex pests’ and ‘abject sexism’ rife in RTÉ in 1970s

The actor also alleged production was halted on ‘The Usual Suspects’ over Kevin Spacey’s behaviour

Social Democrat TD Róisín Shortall says the real issue is a “dysfunctional” Garda Síochána, a problem at “the heart of democracy”. Photograph: Aidan Crawley
Angry, indignant, honest Sean O’Rourke

Radio Review: Both O’Rourke and Cormac Ó hEadhra find politics difficult to stomach

Vincent Browne: his interview on the Ray D’Arcy Show is a curious mix of fatalism, insight and curmudgeonly caricature, but never less than enjoyable
Curmudgeon Vincent Browne Vs Ray D'Arcy - it's radio gold

Vincent grumbles to Ray, while Muireann O’Connell is the new safe pair of hands in Al Porter's former Today FM slot

Pat Kenny: Reckons the young people of today have it too easy at home
Pat Kenny’s coddled millennials comments miss the point

Radio review: The Newstalk presenter reveals a novel view on property problems

Saved by the belligerent: Fionn Davenport’s arid discussion of the Russian revolution on Inside Culture (RTÉ Radio 1, Monday) was enlivened by anti-communist firebrand Peter Hitchens.
Back in the USSR: Fionn Davenport’s arts show has a red scare

Radio Review: After a slow start, the RTÉ presenter offers a vivid portrait of the Soviet Union

Actor Cillian Murphy: he ends up talking about himself quite a bit , from his youthful musical endeavours and early breaks to the demands of his profession and his best known roles
Trump is a “kind, compassionate man” Irish-American tells Marian Finucane

RADIO REVIEW: RTÉ host hears a folksy defence of the US president, while a once-controversial guest sounds conciliatory with Miria(...)

Ciara Kelly of Newstalk: in her first week Kelly has already left her searing stamp on her lunchtime slot
Ciara Kelly’s prescription for a new show: rational discussion and bracing fury

The GP turned broadcaster makes George Hook’s Newstalk slot her own

Sean O’Rourke sounds almost jaunty with a real story on his hands
Airwaves give as good as they get in the eye of Storm Ophelia

Storm Ophelia brings out the best from radio’s presenters, as each show gives us their own take on Monday’s hurricane

Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe in an RTÉ studio. He faced tricky question from listeners of Today with Sean O’Rourke. Photograph: Brian Lawless/PA Wire
Paschal Donohoe: another self-satisfied Varadkar minister

Donohoe gives off the smug air that has marked many a ministerial radio appearance since Leo Varadkar became Taoiseach

Tressa (Seana Kerslake) with Matt (Ryan Donaldson) and Scober MacAdam (Sean McGinley) in King of the Castle. Photograph: Robbie Jack
King of the Castle review: An overlooked work steps into the canon

Druid’s production picks away at the tensions of rural life with a savage eye

Mary Wilson: knows when to hold back and let her guest carry on
Emotions run high, but Mary Wilson stays cool

Radio review: The Las Vegas reports are radio that you wish you didn’t have to hear, but that’s hard to forget

Dr Ciara Kelly
George’s Newstalk replacement knows how to hook listeners

Ciara Kelly is an assured on-air presence, a GP whose radio career is blossoming

The mantras of the homeless desperately asking for money act as a kind of Greek chorus. Photograph: Aoife Herrity
This is a room . . . review: The contemporary fear of not having a home

A sprawling devised drama from Dublin Youth Theatre uses a large cast and vivid vignettes to illustrate timeless themes

Farmers from Bunclody on the third and final day of the National Ploughing Championships. Photograph: Alan Betson
Ploughing Seán O’Rourke not as good as Studio Seán O’Rourke

The gruff interrogator seems to enjoy the Ploughing Championships but it doesn’t really suit him

Friday Night Effect
A Fringe play that lets you choose your own plot, and a sharp take on autism

Two plays that are tricky and smart in very different ways

Dublin Fringe Festival: shows to catch while you can

The latest reviews including Birdy, Everything Now, Kicking All The Boxes, Raven Eyed and MDLSX

George Hook: his vow of on-air omertà has also apparently been taken by his colleagues. Photograph: Alan Betson
Newstalk presenters uncharacteristically quiet on George Hook

Radio review: A listener who missed the apology might not even know of the controversy

Ivan Yates has had more comebacks than Sinatra. Photograph: Cyril Byrne
Ivan Yates hasn’t gone soft, but he’s not that ‘hard’ any more

‘Straight-talking’ Yates helms Newstalk's early-evening The Hard Shoulder. It's a misnomer

Newstalk’s Pat Kenny. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien
Vintage Pat Kenny: Let’s hear it for wronged landlords

Radio Review: Ray D’Arcy gets emotional about HPV vaccine. Kenny defends accidental landlords

Don’t knock it: MMA fighter Conor McGregor. Photograph: John Locher/AP
Tubridy goes from bland to bitter and a little bit creepy

Radio review: Tubridy's not bothered about projecting a mainstream image while on 2FM Conor McGregor’s friends and foes get in the(...)

“Do people still say ‘groovy’?”: Al Porter admits it’s an odd question from someone who’s only 24. Photograph: Twitter
Could do better: Al Porter’s sick patter putters on

Radio: Today FM’s star host fails to deliver, but Sean Moncrieff thrives

Bibi Baskin: The only problem with her appearance on RTÉ's Ray D’Arcy Show is that she’s not getting paid for it
What Irish broadcasting needs: more Bibi Baskins

Ray D’Arcy’s interview with former broadcaster shows what Irish radio is missing

Michael O’Leary of Ryanair: the Hamlet of mock indignation. Photograph: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg
Gloves come off as Michael O’Leary and Joe Duffy slug it out over seats

Radio review: Ryanair boss hogs the airwaves but meets his match in Sean O’Rourke

Alcohol limts: debate underlines our complicated relationship with drink
Pat Kenny’s number crunching would drive you to drink

Drink driving coverage is illuminating and spirit-crushingly tedious

Pj Gallagher
PJ Gallagher’s relentless quest to make a joke of everything

Review: His wacky voices can be exhausting, but he can also be gut-bustingly funny

Pat Hickey at the men’s lightweight double sculls final at the Olympics in Rio. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho
Paul Williams vs Pat Hickey. No contest

Radio Review: It's was less Rumble in the Jungle and more Cakewalk on Newstalk

Ryan Tubridy usually isn’t one to get flustered
When you’re in a hole, Ryan Tubridy, stop digging

Radio Review: The RTÉ host’s interview with Orla Brady turns cringeworthy

Richard Dawkins: a big fan of the son, if not the father. Photograph: Alan Betson
Hook to Coppinger: ‘You have no manners. Now shut up’

George Hook, decrying the erosion of civility, fails to practise what he preaches

Out to grass: Canadian lawn mower Theunis Wessels (above) proves a a tough interviewee for Ray D’Arcy.
Ray D’Arcy and Dave Fanning’s masterclasses in inane chatter

Radio Review: Pointless conversations are not the wished-for antidote to horrific news

In his Nobel lecture, delivered by audio link, Bob Dylan says that songs are ‘unlike literature’. Photograph: Lester Cohen/WireImage
Bob Dylan’s Nobel lecture: I was ‘pals with the wild Irish rover’

In a gnarled voice, the ever-defiant songwriter explains his music and lyrics

Jennifer Zamparelli, Keith Walsh and Bernard O’Shea from Breakfast Republic on 2FM. Photograph: RTÉ
Breakfast Republic presenters serve up menu of witless drivel

2FM's morning show is a joyless exercise, but the station has more appealing presenters waiting in the wings

Ellen Frey McCourt: “Right after Frank died, I found it difficult, because everyone wanted to celebrate him. So one could never really get away from it.”
Musical poverty: If ‘Oliver!’ can do it, so can ‘Angela’s Ashes’

Ellen Frey McCourt on the musical version of her late husband’s harrowing childhood memoir

'Seán Moncrieff reminded his audience that, as well as being a wry chronicler of contemporary foibles, he can handle hard news topics.' Photograph: Brenda Fitzsimons
Irish presenters handle Manchester news with admirable calm

Radio review: RTÉ and Newstalk reports get across the full horror without histrionics

Philip Boucher Hayes shows his rational side when he stands in as host of ‘Liveline’.
Philip Boucher-Hayes places rational interest over religious belief

Radio review: Liveline’s apparitions and Healy-Rae’s Last Word on road safety

On Wednesday, Pat Kenny discusses teenage sex in occasionally alarming detail. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien/The Irish Times
Nanny-state and teenage sex make for a cringeworthy Pat Kenny show

Radio review: Newstalk host airs pet peeves, while Miriam hears of liaisons in Luggala

Jenny Greene and Nicky Byrne hosts of 2FM’s ‘The Nicky Byrne Show with Jenny Greene’
Not much to sink your teeth into with Nicky Byrne and Jenny Greene

Radio review: 2FM duo stick to cheeky banter and Second Captains tog out for RTÉ’s first team

Down with this sort of thing: Graham Linehan addresses the Parents for Choice protest against the Government decision to hand over the new National Maternity Hospital to the Sisters of Charity religious order. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw
'You can't afford to take their word for it. The church has tentacles everywhere'

Radio review: ‘Father Ted’ writer Graham Linehan, talking to Newstalk’s Sean Moncrieff, is clear on his opposition to the nuns own(...)

Joe Duffy: Liveline broadcast a retro-themed special for RTÉ’s Cruinnú na Cásca cultural festival
Hammy Joe Duffy would make a panto dame blush

Radio Review: The RTÉ presenter gets fully into character for an Easter special, before showing his strengths on more familiar gro(...)

George Hook
George Hook cites "truth and integrity" but revels in know-nothing pride

Radio review: But novelist Howard Jacobson celebrates education with Matt Cooper

Ivan Yates: without a cohost, his outrage seems staged and his sense of humour loses its sparkle. Photograph: Cyril Byrne
No women need apply as Ivan Yates brings manly swagger to Sundays

Newstalk adds more middle-aged male voices to its roster in the form of Yates and Bobby Kerr, but the formula is wearing thin

Tetchy team-mates: Paul Williams and Shane Coleman
Wheels come off Newstalk as Paul Williams drives Shane Coleman to distraction

Radio Review: The hosts bring real needle to their Odd Couple routine over cyclist issue

Deputies Clare Daly and Mick Wallace: Pat Kenny discussed the topic of sartorial standards for TDs at length with Solidarity-People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett and PR guru Terry Prone. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill/The Irish Times
Pat Kenny irons things out with the Dáil’s ‘Untuckables’

Radio Review: Ray D’Arcy shows the odd flash of prickly pedigree in a show that is sleepwalking through the schedules

Ryan Tubridy takes a swipe at eggheads with ideas of fancy learning. Photograph: Kinlan Photography
Ryan Tubridy is transitioning from young fogey to old codger

Radio review: He scorns political correctness like a grumpy old man, but in one respect he is still young at heart

Sean Moncrieff: runs out of patience with Bill Donohue’s declaration that “there’s no such thing as a mass grave” at the Tuam mother and baby home
The ‘fake news’ about Tuam: Sean Moncrieff blows a gasket

Radio Review: Newstalk host takes Catholic Leaguer Bill Donohue to task over claim of baby mass grave ‘myth’ and ‘hoax’

Moby interviewed by Donal Scannell on Born Optimistic (RTÉ Radio 1 Extra, Monday).
Joe Duffy offers hope to a 50-year-old woman trapped in a nursing home

Moving tale of quiet desperation on ‘Liveline’, while Moby is an antidote to gloom on digital

Newstalk Drive: if the intensity of Sarah McInerney’s irritation is surprising, it’s also entertaining – a fact not lost on her cohost, Chris Donoghue, who gleefully goads her
Going on ‘Newstalk Drive’? Don’t make Sarah McInerney angry

The radio presenter is never less than lively – especially when she takes a swipe at Pat Kenny

Al Porter: jokes about his annoyance when taxi drivers don’t recognise him but sounds delighted chatting to a Glasnevin chipper about speed-dating in her shop. Photograph: Brian Mcevoy
Al Porter could become ‘a real star of Irish radio’

Radio review: Porter’s show sounds footloose and carefree. By comparison, Matt Cooper seems out of touch

Faced with this catalogue of hate crimes, it’s a wonder that any of the Galway Gaeilgeoirs who moved to Co Meath in the 1930s stayed there
The Meath Gaeilgeoirs who couldn't get on and the commuters who love their drives

Newstalk’s absorbing documentary recounts the rivalry of ‘planters’ from Connemara

Dermot and Dave: the appeal of their show depends on one’s appetite for incessant slagging and a refusal to take anything too seriously
Radio review: 'Dermot and Dave still talking loudly and saying nothing'

The Today FM duo's incessant banter is still tiresome despite their new slot

Scotsman David Milne: The Aberdeenshire homeowner has been standing up to the Trump organisation for some years now. Photograph: Michal Wachucik/AFP/Getty Images
Radio: Standing up to Trump – a story of Scots resistance

Moncrieff is back to his offbeat best while Joe Duffy glumly hears tales of rural desperation

Cormac Ó hEadhra from Late Debate, RTÉ R1.
Bertie Ahern loses his bottle as Pat Kenny gazes into Brexit’s crystal ball

Former taoiseach says EU Brexit discussions won’t linger on ‘who threw the bottle out of the pram’

Ryan Tubridy: says he belongs to “a generation in transition” who are trying to get their heads around unfamiliar notions such as gender fluidity. Photograph: Kinlan Photography
Paul Williams simmers down as Tubridy swipes at snowflakes

Radio review: Northern Ireland and 'cosseted millennials' let the broadcasters show their true feelings

“Leonard Cohen: His Part in My Victory”: Joe Jackson interviews the great man. Photograph: RTÉ
Radio review: no cure for the common hospital crisis

The A&E trolley crisis has a wearily familiar sound. A bit like Joe Jackson’s Leonard Cohen tapes

George Michael in 2012 – remembered in Final Partings (RTÉ Radio 1, Friday) Photograph: David Wolff, Getty Images
Radio review: No escape from the jaws of the past as a grim year ends

Jim Lockhart hosts a grim chart countdown of the great musicians who died in 2016

Newstalk presenters: seated from left, Alan Quinlan, Colette Fitzpatrick , Sarah McInerney and Paul Williams; standing from left, Vincent Wall, Seán Moncrieff, George Hook, Shane Coleman, Pat Kenny and Chris Donoghue. Photograph: Maxwell’s
Insurgent Newstalk targets stagnant RTÉ but 2016’s real revolution occurs off the airwaves

In a year when the commercial talk station turned angry and the national broadcaster stayed still, the music radio sector provided(...)

Simon Coveney TD and Minister of State for Housing and Urban Renewal Damien English. Coveney cut a slightly forlorn figure when grilled by Matt Cooper on the technicalities of the rental market. Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins
Radio review: Matt Cooper stands back as Simon Coveney sets low bar

Minister for Housing’s reminder of humanitarian acts sounds calculated on Last Word

Today FM presenter Alison Curtis: her interview with actor Patrick Bergin is pleasant but nondescript
Radio review: Alison Curtis proves a little politeness can go a long way

The Today FM presenter is only slightly bland as she takes over from Anton Savage

RTÉ presenter Ryan Tubridy: given how his week has started, he can perhaps be excused for his curmudgeonly mood
Harrowing stories sap Ryan Tubridy's seasonal spirit

Radio Review: RTÉ presenter is shaken by a terrifying tale of child sex abuse

Katie Hopkins: Pat Kenny’s guest has described migrants as cockroaches. Photograph: Ian Forsyth/Getty
Katie Hopkins trolls Pat Kenny as renters tell Joe Duffy of scary times

Radio Review: ‘Liveline’, ‘The Pat Kenny Show’, ‘The Niall Boylan Show’

Ireland beat the All-Blacks: rugby triumphs provide cold comfort as RTÉ presenters discuss the Trump economy. Photograph: Dan Sheridan/Inpho
Sporting cliches abound as Trump’s election kicks off a whole new ball game

Radio Review: ‘Morning Ireland’, ‘Today with Sean O’Rourke’, ‘Documentary on One: Sin-é – Jeff Buckley’s Irish Odyssey’, ‘The Ray (...)

Donald Trump: gave a surprisingly gracious victory speech. Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty
High Noon for queasy liberals as George Hook ramps up the rhetoric

Radio review: ‘High Noon’, ‘Morning Ireland’, ‘The Pat Kenny Show’, ‘Marty in the Morning’

Today FM’s Anton Savage
Bad behaviour brings out the best in Anton Savage

Today FM’s morning presenter takes a surprisingly tough line with a GAA star’s gambling addiction, while Cormac Ó hEadhra’s scorn (...)

Newstalk hosts: Shane Coleman, Colette Fitzpatrick, Paul Williams and Alan Quinlan. Photograph: Maxwell’s
Paul Williams’s hard-boiled breakfast offering not easy to stomach

Radio Review: ‘Newstalk Breakfast’, ‘Newstalk Drive’ and ‘Liveline’

Peter Hook: The New Order bassist was challenged by Tom Dunne about including highly personal details about his marriage in recent memoirs. Photgraph: Lorne Thomson/Redferns
Taboo or not taboo: listening to stories of domestic violence

Radio Review: Ryan Tubridy, incensed by what he hears, and Tom Dunne, as Peter Hook talks about Caroline Aherne, handle the topic (...)

Paschal Donohoe and Michael Noonan on “Today with Sean O’Rourke”: Donohoe proves an emollient antidote to Noonan’s grizzled realist persona. Photograph: Niall Carson/PA Wire
Joe Duffy lets callers express their inner Trump

Review: ‘Liveline’, ‘Today with Sean O’Rourke’, ‘The Business’ and ‘High Noon’

Trading gleefully in Provo iconography: It’s Not Over. Photograph: Babs Daly/Sarah Fox
It’s Not Over review: Trapped by the Troubles

THEATREclub’s sprawling drama is a rebuke to official views of the North’s recent history

“Two wrongs”: Pat Kenny. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien
Radio: Cyclists get a rough ride as Pat Kenny revs up his outrage

Review: A harrowing revelation shocks Ray D’Arcy from his normally ironic poise

Tattoo you: Good sport Ian Dempsey promote’s Today FM’s Dare to Care charity campaign.
Radio: No pain, no gain as Ian Dempsey looks to create a buzz

Review: Today FM host endures tattooist’s needle as a troubled friendship plays out on 'Off the Ball'

Sean O’Rourke: Loves to talk about sport in general and the GAA in particular, the only topics outside current affairs that seem to animate him.
What Paul Williams could learn from Sean O’Rourke

Radio review: Paul Williams is becoming Newstalk’s Mr Controversial while once-feared news presenter Sean O'Rourke enjoys himself,(...)

Meticulously composed cabaret: RIOT, at the Spiegeltent until September 25th
Dublin Fringe reviews: RIOT is the festival's most exhilarating spectacle

RIOT - Can a great night out also count as a political act?

Enda Kenny with Pat Kenny on Newstalk: the Taoiseach tells the host that he has “got his mojo back”, a phrase that draws so much mockery that Enda Kenny must wish he could lose it again. Photograph: Maxwells
Rocky restart for Newstalk as hosts struggle to land a punch

Radio review: ‘Breakfast’, ‘The Pat Kenny Show’, ‘High Noon’, ‘Newstalk Drive’ and ‘Sean Moncrieff’

Dadaist pep rally: Release the Baboons creator Paul Currie
Dublin Fringe reviews: “A brilliant show I never want to suffer through again”

The latest Dublin Fringe festival reviews, featuring Release the Baboons, The Humours of Bandon and To Hell in a Handbag

Penny Arcade’s ‘Longing Lasts Longer’ is a kick-ass rejection of consumerism, celebrity culture and cupcakes
Dublin Fringe reviews: Penny Arcade leaves us longing for more

'Hope Hunt'/'Wrongheaded' double bill dissects effects of patriarchy as 'Megalomaniac' shows vaulting ambition

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