As he opens his show on Wednesday, Oliver Callan (RTÉ Radio 1, weekdays) is full of seasonal cheer: “The weather is only lovely out there.” It’s a short-lived bright spell, however, the presenter quickly turning his attention to a less benign variety of spring.
“It’s yet another health scandal,” he says as he ponders the report on the use of unapproved spinal springs in scoliosis surgery on children at Temple Street hospital in Dublin. “In this incredibly rich country of ours,” he sighs wearily, “we get this”.
Rather than dwell on “scarcely believable” findings of the report by the Health Information and Quality Authority, however, the presenter concentrates on the stubbornly persistent issue of children waiting long periods for scoliosis procedures.
Callan talks to the mother of Daniel Collins, a teenager from Tralee, who recounts how her son has been awaiting corrective surgery since being diagnosed in 2023, during which time his spine has curved from 22 degrees to 95 degrees.
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“His ribs are leaning on his hips,” says Louise, to Callan’s shock. The ongoing delay in treatment means that Daniel – whose story recently featured in The Irish Times – now requires two corrective operations instead of one.
Daniel was also born with epilepsy, autism and spina bifida, but, as his mother emphasises, scoliosis has been particularly cruel. “Until 2023 he was a very happy child,” says Louise. “But pain has changed all that now.” So much so that the Collins family felt obliged to take the drastic step of campaigning for treatment. “We’re begging for help,” says Daniel’s sister, Allanna, who welcomes the Hiqa report but doesn’t sound hopeful for meaningful change: “Holding people accountable is nothing without action.”
As so often with accounts of health-service failures, the individual details are deeply distressing, but the broader sweep of systemic inefficiency and institutional indifference is grimly familiar: more than 230 children are still awaiting scoliosis surgery. Callan provides a sympathetic ear to Daniel’s plight but offers little in the way of deeper analysis beyond earlier decrying the high salaries of health executives. Louise, meanwhile, remains unwavering in her focus: “These are not statistics. They are children.”
The spinal-surgeries report is covered more rigorously on The Hard Shoulder (Newstalk, weekdays) when Kieran Cuddihy interviews Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill. Cuddihy, who has long highlighted the failings around scoliosis treatment, hears Carroll MacNeill describe the affair as “a very wrong thing to have happened”.
But while the Minister expresses dissatisfaction, she’s cautious about making specific commitments about what her host calls the “ongoing problem” with orthopaedic treatments, as she’s awaiting further reports. “You don’t need to wait for other reports to tell you how long the waiting lists are,” Cuddihy tartly replies.
The Minister is guarded about sharing any plans but more forthcoming when it comes to defending her party leader, Tánaiste Simon Harris. Cuddihy recalls that, when minister for health in 2017, Harris promised that children wouldn’t wait more than three months for scoliosis surgery. Carroll MacNeill promptly corrects him, noting that Harris actually said four months.
She adds that the optimum time for surgery for growing child patients isn’t always within four months. “Ah, sorry now, Minister,” Cuddihy gasps in exasperation. “It is absolutely not the case that children are waiting more than four months simply because it’s the right thing to do from a surgical point of view.”
For one promising moment an argument seems set to explode, but the Minister de-escalates the exchange, saying that there’s excessive focus on Harris’s old statement. It’s a revealing priority. At Cuddihy’s prompting she also outlines the factors, such as recruitment, that contribute to the surgical shortfall, but she avoids giving a timeline for progress.
In this instance the host understands her stance: “Your predecessor famously gave a timeline, and it’s come back and bit him on the ass several times since.” For children seeking relief from scoliosis, however, the waiting seems set to continue.
It’s not a great week for uplifting stories about personal health. Speaking on Today with Claire Byrne (RTÉ Radio 1, weekdays), the People Before Profit-Solidarity TD Richard Boyd Barrett reveals that he has throat cancer and will be stepping back from politics. The deputy is warily hopeful, though he notes that, while his prognosis is good, “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried, because there’s no guarantees.”
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The mood seems more radiant on The Ray D’Arcy Show (RTÉ Radio 1, weekdays), where the host marks the fine weather with clips of each day’s forecast accompanied by cover versions of the Beatles song Here Comes the Sun. But that just lulls the audience into a false sense of comfort. On Monday D’Arcy talks to Jill Neilon about living with cystic fibrosis. A lively presence, Neilon recounts how she and her twin sister, Amy, grew up with the condition, which worsened as they got older. Both women required double lung transplants; Amy died two years after her operation.
Since then Neilon has had a son by surrogate pregnancy but also suffered complete renal failure, necessitating a kidney transplant from her husband, Seán. The upbeat ending notwithstanding, it’s a tough listen and possibly too long: D’Arcy is so enthralled by Neilon’s story that he takes the rare step of cancelling his daily quiz. Which, of course, could also be seen as a plus.
There’s little upside to Tuesday’s interview with Úna Crawford O’Brien about the dementia afflicting her partner (and fellow actor), Bryan Murray. The couple have previously appeared on the show to speak about Murray’s condition, but today she’s on her own, so sharply has his memory declined. She unflinchingly describes how Murray can’t be on his own any more, while he no longer believes he’s living at home.
“When I look at him he doesn’t have the joy that he had in his face before,” she says, noting how dementia has changed their relationship. “He’s not the person I fell in love with.”
She doesn’t give in to despair, but it’s a stark, sombre account. Perhaps understandably, D’Arcy largely resorts to generically empathetic questions, though he’s surely correct in bluntly characterising Murray’s dementia as horrific. Childhood illness is unspeakable, but the autumn years can be a cruel season too. Enjoy the sunshine while you can.
Moment of the week
On Saturday Brendan O’Connor (RTÉ Radio 1, weekends) hears the author Eoin McNamee spin a tale so incredible that it took years before he could write it, in his new novel The Bureau. Moreover, it’s true. The Co Down-born writer recalls life with his “intelligent but not shrewd” father, a high-profile solicitor who went bankrupt, then set up a bureau de change along the Border that again led to bankruptcy, as well as tiger kidnappings and dealings with shady characters who were later murdered. O’Connor is naturally stunned by the jaw-dropping story from the wryly understated McNamee, which seems to confirm the chestnut that truth is stranger than fiction.
