MAYBE it's the weather. More likely it's the re-emergence of armed violence,

North and South. You could also throw in a rise in unemployment amidst all the "economic growth" hoopla.

For plenty of pretty good reasons, 1996 has kicked off on a downer, with pessimism prevailing, (and not even Euro 96 to look forward to). Into the radio vacuum at the turn of the year, the New Year's Eve Sunday Show (RTE Radio One) caught the mood, with a sudden injection of live reality; into the pre-recorded seasonal fantasy.

Sean Duignan is temporarily in charge there, and his well-mixed first panel was in philosophical mood. Brendan McGahon's attempts to praise John Bruton were stoutly resisted, and when the Louth TD asserted that Ireland is a grand little country with no poverty, he was positively rounded upon.

However, anyone despairing about the possibility of anything, or anyone, changing will have been heartened (not to say staggered) to, hear Eamonn Dunphy on that programme declaring that Northern nationalists, and in particular the IRA, now hold the "moral high ground" - an especially valuable piece of territory in the Dunphy property portfolio. (Mind you, he was talking about the "peace process", not about murdering drug dealers -and Dunphy has not been a generator of the media hysteria about crime and drugs that has virtually legitimised "Direct Action...")

Dunphy's intervention, critical of the British government and respectful of the IRA's movement since the ceasefire, was so unexpected that Anne Cadwallader, speaking from Belfast, prefaced her next comments with the virtually automatic "I have to disagree with Eamonn Dunphy", though it didn't seem she was doing anything of the sort.

The new year has at least one new item on offer in the primetime radio menu or rather several new items in one slot.

The departure of Riverrun (how did it finish up anyway?) frees up a 20-minute 12.30 p.m. position on Radio One, and wisely RTE has not opted to fill it with drama every day. By varying programmes, daily, the station has given this column no fewer than five new shows to assess; in honour of the departed, we'll start with the Friday serial.

The first episode of Lee Dunne's", Konvenience Korner, set around an inner-city mini-mart, had several notable qualities - like one of the shortest -lived characters in soap history: Marie (Liz Lloyd) pours out her heart and background for most of 15 minutes before snuffing it. Also, producer Laurence Foster has conjured up above-average ambience.

But the strongest element of Korner is not surprising. Avoiding the main serial pit-fall Dunne, a hugely popular playwright, makes his characters speak in dialogue rather than in plot.

That's not to say that the speech is "realistic"; it employs the heightened version of linguistic reality typical of strong comedy and drama. But the author has noticed that the main purpose of conversation is only rarely the direct conveying of hard information, and that time spent revealing character rather than unfolding action is rarely time wasted.

Thus Jimmy (Vincent Smith)- sings along - terribly - with Frank Sinatra on the car radio, then heads into a low-key slagging match with his wife, Madge (Barbara Brennan). When Roxanne (Deidre Molloy) tells her boss that something "is important for me as a woman," Teddy (Jim Reid) fires back: "You should be in politics." Barry (Jonathan White), like other characters, speaks in a vaguely hip mid-Atlantic manner: "Did Roxanne say what the scenario was about Marie?"

Konvenience Korner is not yet fully stocked. Last Friday it succumbed to a occupational hazard of first episodes and included some incredible and snooze-inducing background-revealing dialogue. And its youngest character, Roxanne's brother Tony, talks like that wired-up kid on the Weetabix ad, spouting a cliched version of "youth" obsessions.

But there's time to breathe life into this whole creation. If it continues to provide the fun on offer on Friday, we might even end up wanting more of it.