A lesson in gutsy broadcastingMUCH AS PARENTS naturally want the best education possible for their children, the experience of actually sending them to school…Sat Sept 01 2012 - 01:00
The perils of stepping on Irish turfRADIO REVIEW: DURING THE 1970s, Frank Kelly wrote and recorded a series of sketches for The Glen Abbey Show on RTÉ radio which…Sat Aug 25 2012 - 01:00
A little chutzpah clearly gets resultsRADIO REVIEW: IT’S THE moment that Leaving Cert students dreadSat Aug 18 2012 - 01:00
A clear winner among radio lightweightsRADIO REVIEW: AMID THE excitement of the past week’s boxing, it was easy to miss the action in another arena, which saw two …Sat Aug 11 2012 - 01:00
Sideburns and scooters: why the mod enduresWHEN HE triumphed in the Tour de France last month, Bradley Wiggins not only joined the select band who have won the famed yellow…Sat Aug 11 2012 - 01:00
A restaurant, a dinner and a side-serving of shockFOUR YEARS ago, after Herman Koch finished writing The Dinner, his sixth novel, the Dutch author asked several friends to read…Wed Aug 08 2012 - 01:00
Maeve's circle of friends out in forceRADIO REVIEW: AS A MEDIUM that essentially operates on a small-scale, subjective basis – a voice or two talking about random…Sat Aug 04 2012 - 01:00
Scrutinising the myths of the pastONCE AGAIN the airwaves were thick this week with lurid accounts of casual violence and riotous behaviourSat Jul 28 2012 - 01:00
Let's take a good look in the mirrorRADIO REVIEW: THE OUTCOME OF the Michaela McAreavey murder trial, in Mauritius, may have evoked an understandably indignant …Sat Jul 21 2012 - 01:00
Between a rock concert and a jail cellRADIO REVIEW: The programme challenged the widespread portrayal of the concert as the ninth circle of hellSat Jul 14 2012 - 01:00
A new arrival and not so fond farewellsIT’S THE TIME of year when the holiday exodus from the workplace kicks off in earnest, but there was at least one person who …Sat Jul 07 2012 - 01:00
Julian Gough: acting the goatThe writer has never been afraid to make a statement – or to step on a few reputations – and there are clear targets in his ‘…Fri Jul 06 2012 - 01:00
Ewe say it best when you say nothingRADIO REVIEW: LAST WEEK CAME with a stark reminder of how far we have come in 20 yearsSat Jun 30 2012 - 01:00
Turning on and off the stereotypesRADIO REVIEW: IT’S HARD TO BELIEVE there could be a more irritating radio ad than those TV licence spots – the ones that go, “…Sat Jun 23 2012 - 01:00
Following Rosanna on a race to the bottomRADIO REVIEW: GIVEN THE SENSE of deflation that descended after last weekend’s disappointing results, it was no surprise that…Sat Jun 16 2012 - 01:00
On the road to nowhere - and PolandRADIO REVIEW: AS THE RESIGNATION and apathy of the fiscal-treaty campaign suggested, our attitude to Europe has become increasingly…Sat Jun 09 2012 - 01:00
Curious case of Bishop and Mrs BrownRADIO REVIEW: THE OLD MAXIM about laughter being the best medicine is, at the best of times, a debatable propositionSat Jun 02 2012 - 01:00
Chewing on the hand that feedsRADIO REVIEW: EVEN BY RTÉ’S prodigious standards of self-promotion, a radio interview plugging a television programme about …Sat May 26 2012 - 01:00
Racism gets the green lightRADIO REVIEW : AT THE RISK of never being able to hail a cab again, it is probably safe to say that the prospect of agitated…Sat May 19 2012 - 01:00
Rash acts and savage wordsRADIO REVIEW: CONTRARY TO POPULAR opinion, not all politicians are congenital liarsSat May 12 2012 - 01:00
Stories of abuse hit homeRADIO REVIEW: IT IS A GRIM SIGN of the times that once-taboo tales about authority figures abusing their young charges have …Sat May 05 2012 - 01:00
The curse of morning radioTHE ECONOMY IS IN tatters, a succession of reports have uncovered abuses of power in civic and clerical life, and countless numbers…Sat Apr 28 2012 - 01:00
The unsinkable might of MontroseRADIO REVIEW: IT MAY HAVE been due to satiety of chocolate eggs or the holiday absence of some of our more provocative broadcasters…Sat Apr 14 2012 - 01:00
Irish happiness, and other delusionsRADIO REVIEW: THE ABILITY TO GET into a lather about newspaper stories is an obligatory part of every radio host’s armoury, …Sat Apr 07 2012 - 01:00
Sunshine boy Gaybo tootles off againRADIO REVIEW: ASIDE FROM CAUSING an unseasonable outbreak of alabaster limbs protruding incongruously from skimpy clothing, …Sat Mar 31 2012 - 01:00
Rage is all the rageRADIO REVIEW: THE GOVERNMENT suffered another embarrassing defeat in a key vote last weekSat Mar 24 2012 - 00:00
When Joe Duffy sees an elephant cryNEVER ONE TO RESPECT outdated shibboleths, Joe Duffy again proved his credentials as a fearless iconoclast last week, when he…Sat Mar 17 2012 - 00:00
From no food to no tasteRADIO REVIEW : BACK IN THE grim days of the H-block protests there was a joke about the UDA’s abortive 1980 effort to be segregated…Sat Mar 10 2012 - 00:00
We're consumed by alcoholRADIO REVIEW: IN TERMS OF predictable answers, asking whether Ireland has a problem with alcohol is up there with inquiries …Sat Mar 03 2012 - 00:00
Mooney gets seriousRADIO REVIEW: FOR ALL the guises Derek Mooney has adopted in his career, from nature broadcaster to gameshow host, he is not…Sat Feb 25 2012 - 00:00
The green under foreign coloursREBEL BALLADS may not be to everyone’s musical taste, but their ability to rouse martial ardour in Irishmen is undeniableSat Feb 18 2012 - 00:00
How low can you go?RADIO REVIEW: NOBODY EVER WENT broke by underestimating the taste of the public, according to the adage, so it is hardly a shock…Sat Feb 11 2012 - 00:00
Moscow plotter's silence the real coupRADIO REVIEW: JUST AS IT IS SAID that if you can remember the 1960s, you weren’t really there, so it appears that if you were…Sat Feb 04 2012 - 00:00
Too much information, GeorgeRADIO REVIEW: A COMMON confidence-building tip given to nervous public speakers is to imagine the audience in their undergarments…Sat Jan 28 2012 - 00:00
Pride, prejudice and the picaresque life of the PeckerTALK TO those who have met Pecker Dunne, and anecdotes about the veteran singer soon start flowing – whether it is how he met…Thu Jan 26 2012 - 00:00
Dunne strings his listeners alongRADIO REVIEW: AMONG THE MANY jokes musicians tell about themselves, one speaks volumes about the pecking order in the hierarchy…Sat Jan 21 2012 - 00:00
When two nerds collideRADIO REVIEW: A SMART CHAP whose fogeyish fashion sense and self- deprecating manner hides neither his showy cleverness nor …Sat Jan 14 2012 - 00:00
When the presenter becomes the topicFOR A MAN who regularly encourages his audience to get fit and stay healthy, Ray D’Arcy did not offer much in the way of succour…Sat Jan 07 2012 - 00:00
The battle for political supremacy in the newsroomIrish media mythology paints the programme Today Tonight as the key front in an internal and vicious tussle for power at RTÉ …Tue Jan 03 2012 - 00:00
John Boorman's 2020 visionBoorman’s drama was driven by a palpable distaste for injustice absent from would-be Irish satiristsSat Dec 31 2011 - 00:00
Kim Jong-il dead? You're having a laughRADIO REVIEW: THIS MAY BE the time of year when children fervently express their belief in the existence of a benevolent old…Sat Dec 24 2011 - 00:00
Mac Coille forensic on a taxing issueNOTHING IS CERTAIN but death and taxes, yet just as some people seek to triumph over mortality through cryogenic or genetic treatments…Sat Dec 17 2011 - 00:00
What does European culture mean?Is the blandness of the euro note’s design symbolic of the inability of Europe to shape a shared identity? Or will the cultural…Tue Dec 13 2011 - 00:00
Double acts and bad impressionsRADIO REVIEW: THE DECISION to stage this week’s budget over two legs may have left some observers perplexedSat Dec 10 2011 - 00:00
A bad week for elves and trollsRADIO REVIEW: THE RECESSION has decimated industries and professions that thrived during the boom, but, if the airwaves are …Sat Dec 03 2011 - 00:00
Shrugging off the saintly mantleRADIO REVIEW: AN UNWRITTEN RULE of celebrity culture is that if a public figure is hit by serious illness, the tone of their…Sat Nov 26 2011 - 00:00
Big pay cheques and the little peopleRADIO REVIEW: THE PAYROLL and practices of the State sector came under scrutiny last week, as public-service workers robustly…Sat Nov 19 2011 - 00:00
Arts vs politics: We haven't got the balance rightAS BEFITS a man who values his poetic vocation as highly as his political ideals, President Michael D Higgins used his inauguration…Fri Nov 18 2011 - 00:00
Outside the Montrose comfort zoneRADIO REVIEW: HE HAS endured a torrid time of late, but if Ryan Tubridy is feeling sorry for himself, he isn’t showing itSat Nov 12 2011 - 00:00
The sound of huffing and puffinsACCORDING TO an epigram variously attributed to Elvis Costello and Frank Zappa, writing about music is like dancing about architecture…Sat Nov 05 2011 - 00:00
