Won't somebody please think of the parents? Whatever emotions children might have as Storm Barra shuts schools in much of the country, Clare McKenna, guest host of Lunchtime Live (Newstalk, weekdays), is more interested in the closure's impact on mams and dads.
Sitting in on Wednesday’s show, she reads tweets about the good old days when children were ushered out to school no matter how apocalyptic the weather, before questioning the necessity of the measure in binary terms: “Is it nice that people’s safety has been put first, or do you think it’s an overreaction by Government?”
McKenna admits she hasn't been overly inconvenienced by the closure, thanking her mother for minding her children and "allowing myself and my husband to waltz out the door to work". Likewise, despite the alarmist preface, her item on the matter is deflatingly level-headed. The journalist (and mother of seven) Jen Hogan, who writes regularly for The Irish Times, says that while notification of the closedown came late on Tuesday for Dublin schools, she's neither surprised nor especially annoyed: "I think there's something to be said about prioritising safety."
This is hardly a revelatory statement, but it’s telling that the point needs to be made, even allowing for parental frustration at the unexpected burden. The host later concedes as much, when talking to maintenance workers stranded on a lighthouse by the storm. After hearing just how rough conditions are there, she downgrades her own grumbles: “It’s just us disgruntled parents complaining.”
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When it comes to other parenting concerns, however, McKenna is more vocal. Discussing the announcement of vaccinations for five- to 11-year-olds, the host asks listeners for their “knee-jerk reaction” to the news. McKenna, who also presents Newstalk’s Sunday health show, Alive and Kicking, confesses to doubts about getting her children vaccinated, while fretting about raising the subject.
“It is with great hesitation that I’m going to talk of vaccine hesitancy,” she says, conscious of the “anger and vitriol” the issue stirs. The host is double-jabbed, her children were inoculated as infants, and her family has just emerged from home quarantine after her son caught Covid-19. But, she continues, “As a parent, I do feel differently about vaccinating children.” Worrying about possible long-term risks, she continues, “We need to ask these questions without being shouted down.”
As her tone underlines (“You can hear the emotion in my voice”), McKenna is undertaking a perilous high-wire act by raising such a charged issue. Admirable though her honesty is, canvassing listeners’ opinions on public-health matters can backfire if it’s seen as a gateway to Covid conspiracies. (Just ask the 2FM presenter Jennifer Zamparelli, who got in hot water after appearing to invite anti-maskers on to her show last year.) An on-air storm seems to be brewing.
But hold the popcorn. Far from being controversial, the ensuing discussion has the infectious-disease specialist Prof Sam McConkey making a convincing scientific case for the measure, while understanding the emotional reaction it provokes. “I cherish your passion,” he tells his host. Even so, McConkey firmly believes that children should be vaccinated, not to shield the elderly but to protect themselves: one in 3,000 children with the virus becomes very ill, he says. Equally, he admits the impossibility of yet knowing any long-term effects. (Though, as McKenna herself points out, the vaccine itself eventually exits the body, leaving antibodies behind.)
As she asks sensibly probing questions, McKenna sounds more reassured by her guest. Meanwhile, the once ubiquitous McConkey proves that he’s not just some 2020 nostalgia act, as his calm analysis and empathetic advocacy take the sting out of a potentially tricky item. It’s food for thought for concerned parents, spurred by McKenna’s hesitant candour.
The politics and perils of Covid are highlighted by Brendan O'Connor (RTÉ Radio 1, Saturday and Sunday), when he discusses the latest round of pandemic restrictions with his newspaper panel. Much attention is paid to the tensions between the Government and the National Public Health Emergency Team, with Dr Laura Durcan, a rheumatologist at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin, decrying the squabbles as "big egos in a room". Meanwhile, the economist Dan O'Brien opines that the medical advisers should be "put back in their box", prompting the host to reply that "maybe they're just doctors trying to do the right thing".
O’Connor keeps things moving briskly in this fashion, allowing panellists to speak their minds but reeling in their shakier pronouncements. When the Irish Examiner political editor, Daniel McConnell, talks of people being “beaten over the head” with reports about the disproportionate number of unvaccinated patients in intensive care, the host points out: “They’re the facts.” It’s an approach that allows stimulating debate without ever getting too sensationalist.
It also brings forth some sobering testimony. When O’Brien chafes at heavy-handed lockdown mandates – “We need to get it in perspective” – Durcan agrees that we should “congratulate ourselves” that mortality has been greatly reduced by vaccination. But she also details the grim toll Covid can take on unjabbed patients. “When they deteriorate, they are wide awake,” Durcan says, “They’re having a conversation with you while they tank.” O’Connor puts it more luridly, describing such unfortunate souls as “drowning alive, but fully aware of it”.
Such moments help explain why his show has become Radio 1's second most listened to programme, bettered only by the stalling Morning Ireland. Aside from his leaner, punchier Sunday newspaper panel, O'Connor has other notable encounters, such as Saturday's interview with the chef and restaurateur Marco Pierre White. Describing White as "the original enfant terrible" of British cuisine, O'Connor wonders if his guest is "mellowing out" as he turns 60. "When you get to my age you start to get nostalgic and reflect back on your life," comes the reply.
Sure enough, their conversation is thoughtful and open. White ruminates in entertainingly stentorian fashion on the influence his tough childhood had on his erstwhile bad-boy behaviour, while sharing tips for the perfect roast turkey (a meat probe is crucial, apparently) and singing the praises of vegan “redefined meat”. “You never cease to surprise,” observes the appreciative host. As for O’Connor, he’s become Radio 1’s surprise package.
Moment of the Week
Always looking to marry pop culture and intellectual fun, Seán Moncrieff (Newstalk, weekdays) comes up trumps on Wednesday, when he interviews the author Roy Schwartz about the Jewish roots of Superman. Schwartz highlights how the all-American superhero was created in the 1930s by two teenage Jewish writers as a reaction to Nazism in Germany and anti-Semitism in the United States.
More intriguingly, he calls Superman “the ultimate immigrant”, an alien who adopts the “waspy guise” of Clark Kent while keeping his “ethnic garb” underneath. It’s a deep dive into the comic book, touching on identity, history, religion and philosophy. Typically, however, Moncrieff also delights in other quirky details, gleefully congratulating his guest on his book title: “Is Superman Circumcised?” That we don’t discover, thankfully.
