Clearly, it's hard for the farmers to get it right. A couple of years ago they had the temerity to hold a legal demonstration and snarl up traffic in Dublin, and they were nearly drowned in the outpouring of bile from the urban public at large - at least, the public as heard on the radio.
This week, they've done what many people suggested at that time: they've slapped pickets on the parties who they believe to be beggaring them, the meat processors. And - oops - the law of the land says they can't, and sets them back a few bob in the bargain.
But at least this time the urban public at large ain't agin' them. "The IFA, for once, has the public on its side," as one commentator on Agriview (RTE Radio 1, Wednesday) put it. Right enough, at the beginning of the week we urbi types might have wondered about the sang-froid of an organisation that seemed prepared to cough up a mere 100 grand a day to maintain its pickets, but we knew of old how we felt about the meat processors.
And by midweek - which is, I'm afraid, about as far as this column gets - we were pleased with the predictable cuteness of its evasion of much larger contempt fines. I think that was a grin I heard late Wednesday on the face of RTE's agriculture correspondent, Joe O'Brien, as he told us that the farmers were represented in negotiations by "Tom Parlan, the man who says he's not the president of the IFA". By Thursday's Morning Ireland (RTE Radio 1, Monday to Friday), O'Brien was still using, and building on, that patter: Parlan was there "in a private capacity, lending his experience and expertise".
For all I know, Agriview is generally a quiet affair, as suggested by its 9 p.m. slot - as near to seclusion, I think, as the Radio 1 schedule permits. This week was certainly lively, and live, as producer Frances Shanahan and presenter Damien O'Reilly camped at Kildare House and brought us excellent lobby talk that, you can be sure, had the ears of many of the State's farm families.
The programme tried not to be partisan. In fact, O'Reilly lobbed a very quare question indeed at a farmers' rep: "You wouldn't complain about the factories operating a cartel if they were paying you 90 pence a pound." Well, indeed, but when did a cartel ever get together to ensure that the terms of trade were as fair and generous as possible for all concerned?
IS LYRIC FM really to be RTE Radio's dumping-ground for all things high-cultural? When Sean O Riada produced the seminal series, Our Musical Heritage, in the 1960s, it was a national event on the only airwaves that mattered. Now that Richard Pine is revisiting, and re-visioning, the same territory, he's away on Lyric.
The 15-part Music, Place and People: the Irish experience 1740-1940 (Lyric FM, Monday) nonetheless demands listening (despite its dissertation title). This week's programme explored - with help from the archives - the musical and social connections between Irish traditional and European baroque music in the 18th century, as well as O Riada's insistence on the uniqueness of Irish forms.
This column has been known to grouse about the dearth of black music on the national airwaves; three weeks ago I specifically lamented the late, great soul artist Curtis Mayfield, who died on Stephen's Day, and the absence of presenters who could do him justice. This week, Karl Tsigdinos caught up with Mayfield on River of Soul (Today FM, Sunday) and brought us two wonderful hours of music.
Tsigdinos expressed his preference for Mayfield's heartachingly beautiful, emotionally complex 1960s love songs. But he made sure we knew about Mayfield's latter-day courage. Paralysed from the neck down in 1990, when a lighting rig fell on him, Mayfield recorded his 1996 album, New World Order, by having his wheelchair tipped forward so there'd be sufficient pressure on his lungs for him to sing, quite sweetly, just one line at a time. Now that takes determination - farmers take note.
Harry Browne can be contacted at hbrowne@irish-times.ie