Worth staying up for the bewitching hour

RadioReview: Listening to the first thoroughly enjoyable instalment of Gay Byrnes new series, Spreading our Wings (RTÉ Radio 1, Saturday), you got a very good idea where the expression "flying by the seat of your pants" might have come from.

To establish just how far we've come in such a short time, Irish-American astronaut James Reilly remarked that when his grandmother emigrated from Ireland in the early 1900s, it took a week for her boat to reach New York. Tipping around the Earth in his space shuttle only a lifetime later, he was able to make the same trip in a matter of minutes.

The first Aer Lingus flights in the 1930s sounded a panic. "Every landing was an adventure," said one pilot - not the most reassuring thing a pilot has ever said - and the air hostesses handed out chewing gum and smelling salts. Blankets were also doled out, because - and not wishing to give Ryanair another cost-cutting idea - there wasn't heat on the planes.

Back then, it was all such a novelty that every day The Irish Times printed the previous day's passenger list in its social diary, which must have put a bit of a damper on couples planning a clandestine weekend away.

That's something that would require rather a lot more energy than I can muster given that I managed to fall asleep in the middle of the first two programmes of Round Midnight (RTÉ Radio 1, Monday to Friday) and it had nothing to do with the content, which was as strong as it was varied, and everything to do with the lateness of the hour. It meant that I missed two things I particularly wanted to hear: satirist and ace mimic Joe Taylor on Monday and Colum McCann's letter from New York in Donal O'Herlihy's internationally-focussed programme on Tuesday.

There's a different presenter each evening, and each has their own style and focus, and while the lateness of the programme means that it's probably going to be one that many listeners dip into and conk out of, it gives new presenters a try-out without the pressure of a prime time audience and gives the more experienced ones the chance to try new things.

By programme three on Wednesday I'd built up a bit of stamina and lasted for the duration of Alison O'Connor's debut, which featured an extended interview with the engaging and easygoing Cork hurling star Seán Óg O'hAilpín. He revealed that when he was growing up the first language in his house was Manawatu (from his Fijian mother), Irish came second and English third. Not your typical north Cork household then, and there can't be many GAA players fuelled by Fijian currys - his mother Emily's cooking is one of Seán Óg's favourite things. Con Murphy and Tony O'Donoghue presented a sports show on Thursday and Donal Broghan finished up the week last night with jazz.

In this column last week the producer of the Documentary on One about writer Des Hogan was incorrectly credited - it was in fact Peter Woods. This week's programme in that time slot is also worth a mention. Gone too Soon (RTÉ Radio 1, Sunday) was an affecting look at SADs - variously interpreted as Sudden Adult Death Syndrome or Sudden Arrhythmia Death Syndrome.

The death of Gaelic football star Cormac McAnallen in March 2004 threw the spotlight on this shocking and deeply puzzling syndrome and since then it seems that something that was never really heard of before is actually quite common. There are no official statistics but the programme suggested that at least one Irish person per week under the age of 35 dies from SADS.

"How could someone so fit and healthy go to bed and just die?" asked one bereaved mother, and her unanswerable question was echoed by other contributors who had lost loved ones. A woman talked about her sister who died, a mother about her teenage son. Some hope was given amid all the tragedy. Another couple talked about their teenage boy whose heart problems brought them to the doctor several times, where they were given the all-clear time and again. They finally consulted a heart specialist, and after extensive surgery their son's condition, which had made him a candidate for SADS, was cured.

Current affairs programmes were dominated by discussions of the shambolic PPARS system used by the health service. It made Today at the Oireachtas (RTÉ Radio 1) a more lively listen, if only to hear the Taoiseach deny that the IT system was in fact an IT system (Tuesday) and Labour leader Pat Rabbitte refer to the big fee consultants involved, Deloitte & Touche, as "Delighted and Touche" (Wednesday). The award for most inept defence of the unfolding fiasco goes to Noel Dempsey (Morning Ireland, RTÉ 1, Wednesday) who described the cost of the system - enough to build a new hospital - as "relatively small", and then, as if the hole he was digging wasn't big enough, he went on to defend his last big idea - electronic voting machines. Enough said.