Cormac Ó hEadhra is a smart guy but he asks some pretty dumb questions
For someone who seems like a smart guy,
Cormac Ó hEadhra
can ask some pretty dumb questions. At the very least, the cohost of
Drivetime
(
RTÉ
Radio 1, weekdays) betrays a certain failure of imagination when covering a survey on news consumption in Ireland.
As he considers the annual Digital News Report Ireland, Ó hEadhra sounds incredulous at the answers given by respondents. 'Forty per cent say they actively avoid the news,' he says, 'Isn't that startling?' To which one might reply: is it, though?
Given that Tuesday's edition of the show also contains items on the spiralling conflict between Israel and Iran, and the intensified Russian attacks on Ukraine, the real wonder is that a majority of Irish people remain interested in the news.
Dr Eileen Culloty of Dublin City University, one of the report's authors, doesn't seem to find the proportion of news dodgers surprising. 'It probably is to you, because you're a journalist,' she archly remarks to Ó hEadhra. (The implication that journalists are drawn to stories about the news seems borne out by coverage of the report on Radio 1's flagship,
Morning Ireland
.)
READ MORE
On the positive side, the survey also finds that more people in Ireland – 56 per cent – trust traditional news sources than in countries such as the United States, where partisan podcasts are increasingly the norm.
'If you're polarising and passionate, it's much easier to draw attention and listeners,' says Ó hEadhra, not above being provocative himself. 'But the truth is in the nuance.'
His guest agrees: 'Any of us can have opinions and offer them to others.' (Cue columnist shuffling feet and staring nervously at floor.) The real challenge, says Culloty, is investigative reporting, which can take time and money to produce.
There's the rub, particularly in the cash-starved, morale-sapping environment of RTÉ. So while Drivetime regularly carries well-researched reporting – John Cooke's valuable dispatches on refugees nationwide spring to mind – the show's menu skews towards interviews and analysis, albeit with the aim of informing rather than inflaming.
Hence Wednesday's edition has Ó hEadhra talking to a Georgetown University academic, Tara Kangarlou, on whether Donald Trump will join Israel in
attacking Iran
, to largely speculative effect.
'Could there be a toppling of the Iranian regime?' the host asks. 'That could be a possibility,' his guest replies, not so much hedging her bets as highlighting the limits of snap analysis of such a fluid, unpredictable situation.
On the other hand, Monday's conversation with Kira Rudik, a Ukrainian parliamentarian, on the latest wave of Russian destruction in Kyiv has the urgency of lived experience.
Rudik describes spending the night in a bomb shelter as Putin's forces deliberately targeted apartment blocks with drones and missiles; all this 'when America is walking away from supporting us'.
When Ó hEadhra suggests that the Trump administration may eventually impose more sanctions on Russia, Rudik lays out the stakes in stark terms. 'We hope that,' she says, 'But let me ask, do I know if my family and I will survive to this point?'
Not that stories from home are much better, as when the reporter Barry Lenihan hears of a mother's anger at the 'unduly lenient' prison sentence for an uninsured driver who killed her son in a hit and run.
Ó hEadhra and Lenihan warn listeners of the graphic details in the case of
Dylan Killalee Maher
, a young Dubliner killed in 2021 by a speeding car driven by Cameron Cooper, whose eventual sentence of just over four years Maher's mother calls a disgrace. 'He deserved better than that,' says Catherine, who learned the full extent of her son's catastrophic injuries only in court: 'I just crumbled.'
She is seeking longer prison terms for drivers who cause fatal accidents, but rather than any legal argument it's her raw recollection of seeing her son's body in a forensic tent that gives her story such force. Some stories are impossible to ignore.
A current ad for Radio 1's other weekday current-affairs magazine,
Today with Claire Byrne
, promises 'advice on the issues that matter to you'. By way of emphasis, the lead item on Wednesday's show has Byrne discussing how the
Irish winner
of the previous evening's EuroMillions draw should claim the jackpot of €250 million: handy counsel if you're the lucky soul whose numbers came up but rather less useful to the rest of us.
Despite the various tips being in the realm of fantasy for the vast majority of listeners, Byrne sounds more exercised than usual, as when a financial adviser, Eoin McGee, suggests storing the winning ticket in the coin pocket of a pair of jeans. 'Then somebody washes your jeans,' the host frets. 'It's stressful.' Again, one asks, is it, though? It is a welcome bit of hypothetical fun, though, even if it scarcely qualifies as news.
Rest assured, however, the real world comes crashing in on the show, with the housing crisis featuring prominently, as it so often does. With the Government considering the construction of smaller apartments to boost the stalling supply of new accommodation, Byrne speaks to Fianna Fáil's housing spokesman, Seamus McGrath TD, and the journalist
Frank McDonald
.
The latter guest, a former environment editor of The Irish Times, says that the move adopts 'the property industry's dystopian playbook' by allowing cheaper build-to-rent apartment blocks, which will do nothing to make accommodation more affordable.
[
'Burn them all out': The prejudice bubbling under Ireland's thin veneer of normality
Opens in new window
]
McGrath disagrees, saying the measure will help overcome what he repeatedly calls a 'viability gap' that discourages developers from building new apartment blocks. Byrne doesn't sound convinced. 'What you're describing there is what developers want,' she suggests to McGrath.
The politician doesn't present the measure as a panacea, nor suggest it will bring down accommodation costs, but his rote performance, and Byrne's sceptical stance, only add to the impression of a Government desperately scrabbling for any ideas to alleviate the housing emergency (see also: rent pressure zones), in a situation so direly intractable it makes the Gordian knot look like a toddler's puzzle.
Of course, none of this is news, but it's still hard to hear.
Moment of the week
On Monday,
Oliver Callan
(RTÉ Radio 1, weekdays) interviews Garry Hynes, artistic director of Druid theatre company. Hynes recalls her stage triumphs as director, bemoans Ireland's lack of arts funding and candidly reflects on the recent death of her wife, Martha O'Neill: 'It's unbearable, unbelievable.'
She also reveals how her fabled Galway drama company, which celebrates its 50th birthday this month, was so named. 'I was reading the Asterix comic strip, and [there was] the character in it called the Druid,' she says, 'And I thought, That'll do for the moment, and we'll get a better name later.'
Not a bad choice in the end, and it could have been worse. The cartoon character's actual name is Getafix. Now that doesn't have the same ring as Druid.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Times
25 minutes ago
- Irish Times
Leaving Cert economics: A ‘great paper' with topical questions
A 'very topical' higher-level economics paper featured a broad mix of macro and micro questions, but students hoping for high marks needed to have studied the full course, teachers have said. Rob Quinlan, an economics teacher at the Institute of Education, said that the paper drew on topics such as GP numbers, pension auto-enrolment, hospitality closures, sustainability, the increased price of chocolate and international trade. 'Students who are alert to the unfolding events and economic discussions happening beyond the classroom will find that every chapter has real context, a real place in people's lives,' Mr Quinlan said. Pádraig Murphy, ASTI subject representative for economics and a teacher at St Declan's College in Cabra, said that students liked the topicality of the paper. READ MORE 'It was a fair paper that rewarded people who worked hard and kept up to date with current affairs,' he said. Section A Mr Quinlan said that section A was short questions that skewed slightly towards microeconomics. 'This will have favoured students who find the material more conducive to quick, direct answers, with staple concepts like cost benefit analysis, Germany's hosting of the Euro 2024 tournament, inflation and the minimum wage,' said Mr Quinlan. The only really tricky twist in this section occurred in question eight (B) which asked about 'greenwashing' and market failure. 'While the concepts are not themselves hard, the layout of the question was essentially a reverse-engineered version of the typical approach where students need to state the definitions. This will push those looking for the highest grades to sit back and reconfigure their approaches,' said Mr Quinlan. Section B 'The longer questions of section B were all rooted in important new topics but required a really broad knowledge of the course. If you had hoped to get away with only learning a select few chapters, you'll have found the scope of this paper tough. 'Q11 on health insurance and healthcare provision was a perfect balance of topics and scales that tested students' grasp of the full spectrum of factors at play in this pressing issue. 'Q12 on GDP and GNI was interesting in its emphasis on the latter as it was a good way to show the influence of multinationals on Ireland's economy. GNI also appears in Q13 in the context of international aid and the Official Development Fund (ODA). 'Q14's tech focus not only reflected key news stories (eg Amazon's expansion) but tasked students with considering more novel areas like Ireland's market economy in agriculture and sports. This was paired with fairly standard questions on supply and demand, as well as a gig economy that was similar to 2021,' said Mr Quinlan. Mr Quinlan said that question 15 on housing prices and mortgage relief will surely be familiar from discussions both in and out of the classroom. Question 16 focused on the topical issue of hospitality sector closures. 'This shows that a student looking to really succeed in the exams needs to keep an eye on what is happening in the world around them, as that is as good an indicator of what to expect as past papers.,' said Mr Quinlan. 'Overall, this was a great paper for those who really grasped how important economics is to their lives in the country and the world on the whole.' On the ordinary level paper, Mr Murphy said that it was balanced, fair and appropriately pitched.
Irish Times
2 hours ago
- Irish Times
Arts Council stopped three times from spending money on outside partners after botched IT project
The Arts Council was forced to stop spending money with an external partner for a third time in the aftermath of a botched €6.7 million IT project. Minister for Culture Patrick O'Donovan had previously told it to discontinue spending on legal cases pursuing some of the companies involved in the ill-fated project, and it was forced in March to pull a tender for PR advice in advance of Oireachtas grillings on the matter. Now, internal documents seen by The Irish Times show that it was last month also told to stop spending with an external firm of consultants on governance advice. In an email sent on May 21st this year, the department's secretary general Feargal Ó Coigligh reminded Arts Council chair Maura McGrath that the body had been told not to spend on services outside of its routine operational requirements. READ MORE It arose, he wrote, after Ms McGrath told a senior official in the department that a company had been engaged 'in respect of the appearance by the Arts Council at the Public Accounts Committee'. Mr Ó Coigligh demanded a report on the spending with the firm and why it was being undertaken. In response, Ms McGrath said the work being done by the firm did not contravene the earlier order from Mr O'Donovan, and forwarded an email from the firm concerned. It outlined that it was providing assistance in preparing the Arts Council delegation to 'understand and be in a position to fully discharge their statutory and code of practice related accountability obligations during the forthcoming appearance at PAC and JOC [Joint Oireachtas Committee]'. The email outlined that the firm did not provide PR or public affairs advice but instead focused on assisting clients 'understand and properly discharge their governance functions'. Despite several references in the emails to upcoming Oireachtas committee hearings, a spokeswoman for the Arts Council told The Irish Times that preparation was 'managed internally' and said that 'no company, including the one referred to, was engaging in work relating to committees prep'. She said the firm was engaged to supply advice to the Arts Council board and that 'professional services to the board are a separate matter'. The Arts Council outlined that the advice was coming under a pre-existing contract that was run in January 2024. Responding, Mr Ó Coigligh told the Arts Council chair that even though the firm was not providing public affairs or PR advice, he considered 'the work being carried out ... falls outside the routine operational requirements' and no further liability 'should be matured under this contract'. The Arts Council spokeswoman said it is 'confident in its compliance' with directions from the Minister. No further services have been drawn down under the contract since, she said. Elsewhere, the Arts Council has said that its former chair Maureen Kennelly declared a conflict of interest in 2023 when a publisher that released a book of short stories authored by her husband successfully applied for an €80,000 grant from the State agency. The publisher, Doire Press, was awarded the sum in the same year that it published Night Music by Fergus Cronin. A spokeswoman for the Arts Council said: 'In relation to all staff members, including members of the executive, a robust conflict of interest process is also in place. With 8,600 applications received each year, and the many connections that could arise therefore, this is a very necessary part of Arts Council process. A conflict of interest was declared for the Arts Grant Funding application of Doire Press for 2023 by Maureen Kennelly during the decision-making process.'
Irish Times
6 hours ago
- Irish Times
Israel-Iran latest: European foreign ministers to meet Iranian counterpart as Trump considers strikes
European foreign ministers are set to meet their Iranian counterpart on Friday aiming to create a pathway back to diplomacy over its contested nuclear programme despite the US considering joining Israeli strikes against Iran . Ministers from Britain, France and Germany as well as the European Union's foreign policy chief spoke to Abbas Araqchi earlier this week and have been co-ordinating with US secretary of state Marco Rubio . In a rare call, they pressed upon Mr Araqchi the need to return to the negotiating table and avoid further escalation. At Iran's suggestion, the two sides agreed to meet face-to-face. The talks will be held in Geneva, where an initial accord between Iran and world powers to curb its nuclear programme in return for sanctions lifting was struck in 2013 before a comprehensive deal in 2015. READ MORE They come after negotiations between Iran and the United States collapsed when Israel launched what it called Operation Rising Lion against Iran's nuclear facilities and ballistic capabilities on June 12th. 'The Iranians can't sit down with the Americans whereas we can,' said a European diplomat. 'We will tell them to come back to the table to discuss the nuclear issue before the worst-case scenario, while raising our concerns over its ballistic missiles, support to Russia and detention of our citizens.' The European powers, who were not part of Iran's nuclear negotiations with the United States, had grown increasingly frustrated by the US negotiating strategy in the talks. They deemed some of the demands unrealistic, while fearing the possibility of a weak initial political framework that would lead to open-ended negotiations. Two diplomats said there were no great expectations for a breakthrough in Geneva, where the European Union's foreign policy chief will also attend. But they said it was vital to engage with Iran because once the war stopped, Iran's nuclear programme would still remain unresolved given that it would be impossible to eradicate the know-how acquired, leaving it potentially able to clandestinely rebuild its programme. An Iranian official said Tehran has always welcomed diplomacy, but urged the European leaders to use all available means to put pressure on Israel to halt its attacks on Iran. 'Iran remains committed to diplomacy as the only path to resolving disputes – but diplomacy is under attack,' the official said. Speaking after holding talks in Washington with Mr Rubio and US special envoy Steve Witkoff, British foreign secretary David Lammy said there was a window for diplomacy. 'We discussed how a deal could avoid a deepening conflict. A window now exists within the next two weeks to achieve a diplomatic solution,' he said on X, referring to the White House saying on Thursday that US president Donald Trump would give two weeks before deciding whether to join Israeli strikes. Prior to Israel's strikes, European leaders and the US put forward a resolution that was approved by the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a UN watchdog, which declared Iran in breach of its nuclear non-proliferation obligations. As part of last week's IAEA resolution, European officials had said they could refer Iran to the United Nations security council later in the summer to add pressure on Iran if there was no progress in the nuclear talks. That would be separate to them reimposing UN sanctions, known as the snapback mechanism, before October 18th when the 2015 accord expires. The Europeans are the only ones who can launch the snapback mechanism, with diplomats saying the three countries had looked to set a final deadline at the end of August to launch it. 'Iran has repeatedly stated that triggering snapback will have serious consequences,' the Iranian official said. – Reuters
