RADIO REVIEW:IN A WEEK when hurling star Donal Óg Cusack publicly declared that he is gay and one when questions were raised about how the media chose to represent (or not) Stephen Gately's widower Andrew Cowles, Sunday With Norris(Newstalk 106-108) had a timely interview with Michael Barron, co-founder of the gay youth group BelongTo.

Barron spoke about growing up gay on a farm in Kilkenny and, later, working in his family’s pub in Glenmore. When he told his mother he was gay, she reportedly replied, “I thought you were going to tell me that some girl was pregnant.” He went to Trinity, which wasn’t the social nirvana he had hoped for. There were plenty of gay jokes on the cobblestones in the early 1990s. “That was really soul-destroying for me, I thought this place was going to be a bastion of queerness.” He soon discovered a colourful club culture outside those gates.

On a happier note, Barron said a gay pub in Waterford that organises friendly flash mobs recently landed at his family’s pub in Glenmore. “There was dancing and everything by the end of the night,” he said. “That’s a real sign of change.”

There was no cause for celebration on Weekend Blend(Newstalk 106-108, Saturdays). Restaurant critic Ross Golden-Bannon told presenter Orla Barry that early radio reports of Stephen Gately's death had no mention of Andrew Cowles. Other reports gave Cowles third billing. Citing a report from the funeral on Newstalk, Golden-Bannon said, "Andrew wasn't mentioned once." Consultant child psychiatrist Peadar O'Grady added, "Excluding next-of-kin, especially when reporting on a bereavement, is just shocking."

There was little chance of anything being forgotten during Joseph O'Connor's radio essay on Wednesday's Drivetime(RTÉ Radio One, weekdays). This was an ode to state support for artists. "In 1987, when I was aged 24, the Irish government helped me to become a novelist," he said. "I was as broke as a pox doctor's clerk." His essay sounded like an infomercial. Since his first visit to the Arts Council-supported Tyrone Guthrie Centre at Annaghmakerrig, Co Monaghan where he wrote the opening chapters of his first novel, O'Connor said he wrote six more, five books of non-fiction, a book of short stories, three stage plays, and film scripts. He said his novel, Star of the Sea, was translated into 38 languages. "In short, my country gave me a chance." Listing his impressive – and it is – literary achievements wasn't the only bum note. It was his delivery. Writers have an annoying habit of reading their own work with a solemn, mouth-watering relish, savouring every last clever turn-of-phrase.

McGurk on 4's (4FM, weekdays) Tom McGurk doesn't always do well on women's issues. A few weeks ago, the hard-hitting presenter barely let Susan McKay, director of the National Women's Council of Ireland, speak about why there should be more women in the Dáil. This time was different. Cristina Odone talked without interruption about her pamphlet What Women Really Want, based on a YouGov poll for the Centre for Policy Studies in the UK. She said real women value mothering and relationships and 99 per cent of women with young children want to care and nurture children. Nothing wrong with that. But she added, "They don't want to have incentives dangled before them in order to lure them out into the workplace."

“You condemn what you call your feminist colleagues in the media and politics as a small, influential and unrepresentative coterie who assume that women must achieve self-realisation through going out to work,” McGurk said.

Odone replied, “I think real feminism is about questioning the macho value system that says you are only as good as your paycheck . . .” Wrong. Real feminism is about allowing all mothers real choice.

“We’ve had a period over the last 20 years of all sorts of social policies and engineering dressed up as liberal values,” McGurk added, egging her on. “I think you’ve got a very good point,” she replied. Odone said when women went out to work they became consumers and wanted the second car. “Yes!” McGurk interjected. “ . . . And they would want the second telly,” she added. “Yes! Yes!” McGurk said. Wrong again. Women work to provide for their family – not to abandon them.

Forget what I said about McGurk being hard-hitting. And as for real feminists promoting their so-called liberal agenda? Long may it last.