When will the crisis be said and Dunne?

RADIO REVIEW:HE'S NOT normally seen as a barometer of the national mood, but when even someone as jocular as Tom Dunne(Newstalk, weekdays) is driven to despair you know things are bad.

On Tuesday, as Dunne spoke to John Sheahan of the Dubliners, his guest remarked that the band’s promotional interviews for a forthcoming German tour focused not on music but on Ireland’s calamitous state. This prompted a weary sigh from the host.

“When’s the day going to come when we aren’t talking about the Irish economy any more?” Dunne muttered, before repeating the phrase, as if for emphasis. As the week’s economic and political developments swamped the schedules, it was a sentiment all but the hardiest news junkie could identify with. Even his own show, normally an oasis of matey frivolity, was not immune to outside events.

On Monday, having largely avoided talking about the bailout – the only bank-related segment was a light-hearted item on a bank for breast milk – Dunne had to wrap up his chat with Herb Murrell of The Stylistics to carry the breaking news of the Green Party’s exit from government. Such intrusions from the real world do not suit the presenter’s style. During Tuesday’s interview with multiple sclerosis sufferer Ann-Marie Mulhall Wallace and her young son, Oisín, Dunne sounded stiff, only becoming comfortable when discussing a mutual love of Manchester United with the boy.

Levity was also in short supply elsewhere. As the avalanche of news, debate and analysis grew – even Liveline(RTÉ Radio 1, weekdays), the nation's safety valve, was bumped on Wednesday to make way for coverage of the government's four-year plan – it proved more numbing than enlightening, even in the most capable of hands.

On Today with Pat Kenny(RTE Radio 1, weekdays) the daily dissection of the unfolding crisis reached such a saturation point that an interview with Michael Mansfield, the English human rights lawyer, seemed like light relief. In the current climate, the Birmingham Six's struggle for freedom seems like a feel-good story.

Kenny’s light touch only runs so far, however. His chat with PJ O’Rourke, the American right-wing humorist, was an ill-fitting encounter, as Kenny struggled to deal with his guest’s curmudgeonly, not to say condescending, libertarianism.

Asked about Ireland’s crisis, O’Rourke repeated a family saying that “the Irish weren’t meant to be prosperous: look how drunk your grandfather is”. Kenny met this patronising remark with muted laughter, before moving on to the next question. He gave an equally easy ride to his guest’s glib contention that, by asking our political systems to do everything, we are asking for more than can be expected.

But, as the coalition parties squabbled across the airwaves while the state listed perilously, O'Rourke's avowed enmity towards government chimed somewhat with the general mood. Judging by the tone of Green Party TD Paul Gogarty on Lunchtime(Newstalk, weekdays), the only wonder is that the Government managed to survive thus far. Damien Kiberd asked Gogarty for his opinion on the statement by Minister Mary Hanafin that the Greens did not seem to have the best interests of the country at heart.

Gogarty declared himself flabbergasted, letting rip at his political partner. “Why the bleedin’ hell does she think we’ve stayed in government with Fianna Fáil for the last three years, when we knew they caused this bloody mess in the first place?” he said, audibly angry. It was an entertaining expression of political honesty, one mischievously stoked by Kiberd, who kept returning to the matter.

It is a sign of the times that current affairs programmes should provide more comic moments than lighthearted talk shows. Amid the all-pervasive gloom of the past few days, only the bleakest and most unintentional humour resonated, a public mood characterised by Dunne as “a national harrumph”.

Until such a time as Dunne's cri de coeurabout economic discussions becomes a reality, joviality will be in short supply.

Radio moment of the week

Brian Lenihan’s appearance on last Sunday’s edition of This Week (RTE Radio 1) was not just the most significant radio moment of the week, but the media event of the year.

The Minster for Finance began his interview with Richard Crowley with a preamble in which he pretended he had some choice in taking a bailout, saying he had consulted his officials and talked to EU and IMF delegates about the matter. Then he got to the point. “There will be a meeting of the Government this afternoon, [and] I will be proposing to my colleagues that we should formally apply for a programme.”

Thus, in flat Civil Service-speak, did a new chapter of Irish history begin: to paraphrase Crowley, the Tricolour had been taken down from Leinster House and replaced by a white flag.