Joe Duffy has never been afraid to speak his mind, but there are a couple of times this week when he is silenced. Not by any perfidious powers that be but by minor irritations to his throat, triggered in turn by major annoyances to his sensibilities.
It’s Monday, and as he discusses the general election’s low voter turnout on Liveline (RTÉ Radio 1, weekdays) Duffy momentarily goes slightly hoarse. “I’ve laryngitis from shouting at the radio and television over the weekend. Mostly when Gerry Hutch arrived at the RDS. That’s when I was throwing things at the telly,” the host explains, referring to the gangland figure and Dáil candidate. “But, anyway, you can’t say that,” he adds, saying it anyway.
It’s not the only occasion when Duffy’s voice seizes up. On Tuesday he coughs so loudly that he apologises to a caller before apparently taking remedial action: a plinky-fizzy sound is heard in the background. One sincerely hopes Duffy is in rude health, but as he overcomes his strained vocal cords and chesty hacking, the unkind thought occurs that he might stay quiet more often.
Certainly, his programme-length discussion of the low general-election turnout is marked by a high level of aimless musing, as the host implores listeners to come up with possible explanations. “I don’t care where you pluck this from, just give me one reason why you think people didn’t vote – apathy, the weather, Friday, boring,” Duffy pleads in seeming desperation.
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Several callers point to a lack of spark or buzz (about the campaign, not the show) while others speak of more general disillusionment. But when Paul phones in to suggest that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil don’t want people in deprived areas to vote, the host is indignant, irascibly talking over his guest while citing the poor turnout in the wealthy Dublin Bay South constituency. “It’s little to do with poverty,” he harrumphs before abruptly ending their exchange: “Let’s try and deal with facts.” Just because you can talk to Joe it doesn’t mean he’ll listen.
When another caller, Joan, complains that candidates with the most first-preference votes don’t get elected, Duffy again interrupts, this time to explain the country’s proportional representation system. That said, Joan is so palpably angry by the lack of housing and hospital care in Waterford that the host is reluctant to cut her off.
But he sounds more at ease when the conversation turns to less overtly political territory, chatting happily to older callers who feel excluded by social media and revel in the social aspect of election day. Unthreatening and heartwarming though such conversations may be, they do little to explain low voter participation. Nor, for that matter, do they offer much when it comes to attracting the coveted under-65 demographic.
Still, never let it be said that Duffy doesn’t try to sex up proceedings. On Tuesday he talks to Antoinette about the unwanted goods she received in place of footwear ordered online. “The toys we will be talking about in the next few minutes will not feature on the Toy Show,” the host says with a chuckle, gleefully performing the audio equivalent of nudges and winks.
As Antoinette explains how she gradually realised her parcel contained an array of sex toys, Duffy switches between mock innocence – “I haven’t a clue what you’re talking about” – and double entendres that Sid James might deem too obvious. (Antoinette: “There was more to come next.” Joe: “So to speak.”) It’s a quirky item, but the host’s puerile approach would leave you speechless.
Of course, Duffy remains a formidable broadcaster, capable of more than tutting or tittering. His conversation with Theresa, an Inchicore resident, starts out as darkly farcical – the poor woman accidentally reversed her mobility scooter into the Grand Canal, nearly drowning herself and her blind shih tzu dog – but ends up highlighting the challenges faced both by people with disabilities and by their carers, one of the election’s hot-button issues. With Liveline still one of Radio 1′s most consistently popular shows, Duffy may justifiably see little reason to tweak a trusted formula. But, as the election shows, you can’t take high turnouts for granted.
Lorcan Sirr of TU Dublin questions the effectiveness of the government’s grants for house buyers, characterising it as ‘handing people more money to bid against people with more money’
With the horse trading over the formation of a new government under way, Today with Claire Byrne (RTÉ Radio 1, weekdays) delivers a salutary rejoinder to any politician hoping that the housing crisis may be improving. “Mortgage approvals are up and mortgage drawdowns are down,” observes Margaret Barrett, a broker. “So people can get the money but not the house,” Byrne says, summing up the situation more pithily.
Barrett deems the market static, but this seems a generous assessment, particularly when she notes that the number of second-hand houses for sale nationwide has halved since before the Covid-19 pandemic. She also observes that while people on the average industrial wage qualify for a mortgage of €345,000, a three-bedroom semi in Dublin now goes for more than €500,000, putting it beyond the limit of the help-to-buy scheme. Meanwhile, renters pay such high rates that saving for deposits is difficult.
Such Catch-22 scenarios abound throughout. Lorcan Sirr of TU Dublin questions the effectiveness of the government’s grants, characterising it as “handing people more money to bid against people with more money”. Most new builds in the capital are apartments for rent or social housing, which again narrows the choice for potential home buyers. Byrne’s guests point to the future societal problems being created by the shortfall, as adults live with parents, relationships are strained or people delay starting families. The longer they talk the more intractable the problem appears, a puzzle so fiendishly complicated it makes a Rubik’s cube look like tic-tac-toe.
Accordingly, a decidedly pessimistic air reigns as the item ends. “I think we’re being quite negative,” Byrne ruefully remarks, showcasing an impressive talent for understatement. But whoever forms the next government, they can’t say they weren’t told.
Moment of the week
As his weekly motoring slot attests, Pat Kenny (Newstalk, weekdays) has always been something of a petrolhead. (Though with ever more EVs on the road, that term should probably be updated to lithiumhead. But I digress.) Still, it’s surprising to hear the act of driving celebrated on his regular environmental Green Scene segment, even more so when it turns out that those behind the wheel are – brrr – rats. But as his regular contributor Dr Ruth Freeman tells Kenny, cognitive experiments in the United States have demonstrated that the animals are apparently enthusiastic drivers.
Researchers in the US discovered not only that rats could be taught to operate simple vehicles but also that they apparently enjoyed driving, preferring to take their cars to retrieve treats than walking to them. In this, of course, they resemble many humans. Whether the rodents retain their enthusiasm for motoring when stuck in commuter traffic has not yet been discovered, alas: they are members of the rat race, after all.
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