The arts and literary sectors in Ireland may lose out substantially with the decision to drop Rattlebag from RTÉ Radio 1's afternoon schedule.
The mainstream arts, books and entertainment programme covered a very broad range of subjects, and hosted events such as public interviews with authors. Although RTÉ has indicated it is to have a late-night radio arts programme from 11pm to midnight, this may represent a significant downgrading of its arts coverage.
There has been no dedicated arts correspondent in the station's newsroom since Colm Connolly retired. With the television arts review programme The View (hosted by John Kelly) also in a late-night slot, RTÉ's public service remit to cover the arts would appear to be seriously diminished.
Willie White, artistic director at the Project Arts Centre in Dublin, was disappointed by the loss of both Rattlebag and Mystery Train.
He was dismayed at the proposal to drop Rattlebag and replace it with an arts programme at 11pm.
"Well, you might as well not have it on if you do it at that time," he said. It means there will be "no arts coverage at any kind of humane time of the day".
If they wanted to shake up the schedules, he said, they could have moved Rattlebag to Saturday morning,
This would have been a more imaginative move, he felt.
He was disappointed by the loss of the music show Mystery Train, too. "I don't see anyone else delivering programmes quite like that."
He instanced a couple of weeks ago when Arsenal lost to Barcelona in the Champions League final in the French capital. Instead of playing a more predictable choice, presenter John Kelly featured a suite of music including Elvis Costello's Crimes of Paris, showing a "level of imagination" not evident elsewhere.
