Pat Kenny has never been one to shy away from asking the hard questions of politicians or pundits. But the veteran host goes one further on Tuesday (The Pat Kenny Show, Newstalk, weekdays), when he puts one of his colleagues on the spot. Casting a gimlet eye over the newly announced National Development Plan with political correspondent Seán Defoe, Kenny is particularly annoyed at reports that the Government may seek planning exemptions for key infrastructure measures, prompting him to vent in exasperation. “Why do we keep reinventing the wheel?”
It’s a query that leaves Defoe somewhat flummoxed, at least judging by the silence that ensues. “That’s a good question,” he eventually replies, “Why do we keep on coming back to this planning thing?” It’s a good answer too, with Defoe decoding Kenny’s inchoate outburst for the benefit of listeners. (For this one, anyway.)
The host’s peevish ponderings may occasionally be baffling to others, but there’s no doubting the sincerity of his concerns. On the Government’s ability to deliver on its plan, Kenny points to a shortage of construction workers as well as the ballooning costs associated with State projects. “You don’t get as much for a billion as you used to get,” he drily remarks.
If Kenny’s attitude to splashy Government spending plans is jaded, he sounds sickened by the horrors in Gaza, where aid agencies are warning of mass starvation. “It’s very hard to overstate what’s going on in Gaza,” he comments on Wednesday. “It is appalling, it’s a humanitarian tragedy and it’s one, it would appear, of Israel’s making.”
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This is, if anything, an understatement. Juliette Touma of refugee agency UNRWA paints an apocalyptic picture of spreading famine, exacerbated by the forced displacement of the Palestinian population. She says “people have been treated like pinballs”. Kenny references the “sadistic death traps” of aid points organised by the American-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, where hundreds have died while seeking food.
“This seems to be the project of the Israelis, to render the destruction so great that there is no liveability available to the Palestinians,” Kenny suggests. As has been his style throughout the Gaza carnage, he avoids hyperbole, instead marshalling the facts to back up his grim assessment of Israel’s intentions. (Not a difficult feat, admittedly.) That said, his guest’s emotionally direct verdict hits harder: “We are going to lose our humanity.”
Kenny’s handling of issues isn’t always so deft, particularly if they’re of less gravity. Following his item on the French government’s cost-saving proposal to abolish two public holidays, the host adopts an arch tone as he meticulously lists off Ireland’s bank holidays. “We’re okay, but maybe another one or two, perhaps, would be nice to have,” he concludes, his voice heavy with irony. It’s presumably meant as a lark, but hearing a highly-paid broadcaster mockingly imply that the public has too many holidays is unedifying. A questioning approach is one thing, but there’s a fine line between being healthily sceptical and dyspeptically jaundiced.
There’s no such subtlety on Drivetime (RTÉ Radio 1, weekdays), where the atmosphere careens from sombre to farcical to explosively argumentative, all within a couple of minutes. Wednesday’s programme opens with host Cormac Ó hEadhra speaking to reporter Vincent Kearney about the terrible shooting incident in Co Fermanagh, in understandably subdued fashion. But their conversation is cut short with incongruous abruptness by a burst of big-band music and the excited voice of Radio 1 wildlife presenter Derek Mooney.
“Hello and welcome to the programme,” chirrups Mooney, “What a cracking show we have in store for you.” It would want to be, crashing in so suddenly. This is, of course, a technical cock-up, an occupational hazard on live radio. (It’s a rogue recording of Monday night’s Mooney Goes Wild, for anyone wishing to check how cracking the show is.) Sure enough, the broadcast promptly cuts to a commercial break, before Ó hEadhra returns to the air, playing down the spectacular snafu in his best “nothing to see here” manner: “Apologies for the disruption before the break.”
It’s nothing compared to the turbulence that follows, however, when Ó hEadhra clashes with Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary. The flashpoint is the Government’s €2 billion allocation to kickstart the MetroLink underground line between Dublin Airport and the city centre. O’Leary is in pugilistic form, even by his own standards, as he dismisses the perma-stalled rail project as an unnecessary extravagance. “We’re useless at this kind of infrastructure in Ireland”, he says, suggesting that a small fraction of the multi-billion budget would improve the bus service.
Not without a combative streak himself, Ó hEadhra spars with his guest on the need for the MetroLink, but is outpunched by the airline boss, who fires off a barrage of statistics while belittling the host’s “stupid comments”. When Ó hEadhra changes tactics and targets air travel emissions, O’Leary aggressively parries: “The growth of air travel will not immolate the world.” Meanwhile, the host’s pertinent observations, like his suggestion that his guest’s constant disparagement of Government is “muckraking”, get lost in the scrum.
It’s fun for anyone who enjoys on-air slugging matches, but it also shows the limits of Ó hEadhra’s brawling instincts: in a shouting contest, there are few who can best the Ryanair supremo. Notably, his approach has been less effective against Radio 1 presenters such as Claire Byrne, whose understated persistence has in the past made O’Leary come across as a boorish loudmouth.
Ó hEadhra is sole presenter throughout this scrap, with his usual co-pilot Sarah McInerney “away on holliers”. But intriguingly, he’s accompanied on Tuesday’s show by Claire Brock, formerly presenter of The Tonight Show on Virgin Media TV. The presence of Brock, an experienced current affairs host who delivers a poised and confident performance, will surely fuel rumours of a possible shake-up in Radio 1’s schedule following Joe Duffy’s retirement.
But Brock first has to face an examination from her co-host, who directs her attention to a study on shorter working weeks. “Just to gauge straight away what type of a colleague she is and will be,” Ó hEadhra says, “I just wonder if you’re a four day or a five day working week colleague?” Brock doesn’t hesitate: “Give me the four day working week – isn’t that what any employee would say?” Well, maybe not Pat Kenny.
Moment of the Week
Séan Moncrieff (Newstalk) is in patriotic form when he’s joined by fellow presenter Kieran Cuddihy for the daily preview of items on The Hard Shoulder. Noting how he has cheered on England in the Euro 2025 women’s football championship, Cuddihy muses: “Why is it okay, seemingly, to support the Lionesses, but not the English men’s team?” Both broadcasters chuckle conspiratorially, before Moncrieff replies: “It’s because British women didn’t keep us under the yoke for 800 years.”
“Exactly, it was a male yoke,” Cuddihy agrees. The Elizabethan plantations notwithstanding, they may be on to something.
