Radio: Making a moral case for the elephant in the courtroom

The law may well be an ass, but, as Steven Wise points out, it's not much use to real donkeys, or indeed to any species that isn't human. As a result the US lawyer has taken it on himself to represent animals in court. It sounds like a bad sitcom premise, but Wise is genuine. Appearing on Life Matters (RTÉ Radio 1, Sunday), he outlines why denying beings their rights solely on the basis of species is irrational and biased, by way of explanation for his lawsuit on behalf of four chimps. (You can insert your own joke about said simians fitting in well with the legal profession here.)

It’s a standout moment from a series that, to quote its presenter Colette Kinsella, “examines some of the ways we choose to run our lives” but that manages to transcend its arid mission statement to yield an offbeat and thought-provoking show. Kinsella and her cohost, Seán Duke, display an admirable spirit of inquiry as they draw on the worlds of law, science, philosophy and theology to explore, in this instance, whether we have moral responsibilities towards animals.

So we hear from the Australian moral philosopher Peter Singer, author of the influential book Animal Liberation, who says that if any being can feel pain it has rights in relation to the decisions that hurt it. But there is also Prof Tom Cotter, of University College Cork, who says that using animals for leukaemia research and the like is morally justified, particularly when balanced against having to tell children they will die because a drug cannot be tested.

Promising threads are left unexplored, however: more from Singer would be good, for example. And given that Kinsella and Duke previously presented the enjoyable Radio 1 science series What's It All About?, it's jarring to hear extended theological discussions about whether the Bible really gives humans the right to eat animals.

The presenters might do well to leave a more personal stamp on proceedings, but Life Matters works well overall, mixing thoughtfulness and unabashed intelligence with engaging contributions. And Wise's forthcoming lawsuit for some Illinois elephants surely merits more coverage.

Of course, humans also have their rights violated, sometimes in the most appalling way. Monday's edition of Today With Sean O'Rourke (RTÉ Radio 1, weekdays) is marked by the harrowing testimony of Niamh Cosgrave, who tells how she was raped in her home in a southwestern French village. So unflinchingly honest is the former Fine Gael senator's manner in her account of her ordeal that it affects even the normally unflappable O'Rourke.

A one-time campaigner for women who, like her, had contracted hepatitis C from contaminated blood, Cosgrave moved seven years ago to rural France, where the atmosphere was so welcoming that she happily left her door open at night. Then, in autumn 2012, she was woken in her bedroom by a tap on her shoulder. She paints a chilling picture of trying to talk her intruder out of raping her, before describing how he broke her jaw when she attempted to escape.

What followed was nightmarish. “The violence was horrific,” she says. As she was repeatedly raped she tried to turn down a framed photograph of her children, whom she felt were witnessing the attack. The rapist told her she would never see them again. Fully expecting to be killed, she played dead. “It was like I was looking at a horror film,” says Cosgrave, although the comparison does scant justice to the enormity of what was inflicted on her.

The aftermath brought little relief. Cosgrave is full of praise for the gendarmes who caught the attacker, a married local who was also a convicted rapist. But she also notes that, after such a trauma, “your house is no longer your own, your body isn’t your own”. She sold her home soon after.

Cosgrave rarely falters as she speaks, which only adds to the raw impact. O’Rourke, in contrast, sounds anguished as he quizzes his guest. In the end the presenter’s voice cracks. “Pardon me,” he says with a sob. “It’s just so moving listening.” It’s a reaction surely familiar to anyone who has heard this devastating piece of radio.

As for Cosgrave, she was determined not to be cowed. She recalls telling her attacker during his trial that “when you left my home you walked away with my dignity and my humanity”. When he looked away she felt “an immense feeling of power”. Faced with an animal in court, Cosgrave gave a remarkable lesson in human dignity.

Moment of the Week: Browne and out
The veteran journalist and broadcaster Vincent Browne is in vintage form when he appears on The Last Word (Today FM, weekdays) to discuss the attempted repossession of the Killiney home of the solicitor Brian O'Donnell. Egged on by the show's host, Matt Cooper, he scoffs at the self-styled "Land League" defending O'Donnell from eviction and is outraged that the solicitor wants to hold on to his luxury home while creditors are owed €70 million. Above all, he says, he's never seen so opulent a residence. Cooper is incredulous. "I've just remembered you were up in Charlie Haughey's," says the host, mischievously. But Browne is having none of it. "Charlie's house was a fraction of that." Nice gaff, so.

radioreview@irishtimes.com