The phone-in show as a court of last resort

Radio Review:  Often, listening to phone-in radio shows, you'd have to wonder what comes over a person that they feel the need to tell the nation about some whine or woe that would be as productively shared with a stranger at a bus stop.

But then, occasionally, the access that a phone-in show gives is a truly empowering thing for someone who feels crushed by the system and whose story is so powerful that it stirs up a national debate.

That's what happened when a Clare woman, using a pseudonym, called Liveline (RTÉ Radio 1, Tuesday) to explain her sense of hurt and betrayal that her rapist had walked free from court the previous day, despite a jury concluding that he was guilty.

By the following day, "Mary O'Sullivan" had dropped her pseudonym, presumably due to the avalanche of support she received on the airwaves, and a national debate about mandatory sentencing for rapists began. Duffy asked her sister on Wednesday why they had taken the brave step of going public with the one crime that, perversely, can heap more shame on the victim than on the perpetrator. She said that after their treatment in court the family felt it had no other avenue but to go to the media.

And then the programme blew it by allowing Clare-based politicians to come on air to bleat about their support for Mary. We didn't hear from them when Mary came to Dublin for the trial in December only to be sent home again when there was no judge to hear the case - imagine those train journeys - or on Monday when Mary, who has a hearing problem, was not facilitated in court, and therefore couldn't actually hear the judgment.

There are several new series in RTÉ Radio 1's evening schedule, including The Family Zone (Monday), which is, unusually for a programme in the 8pm time slot, live. Presented by Fiona Kelly, it deals with issues of interest to families, and the teenage years were this week's topic.

Psychologist Ian Robertson delivered the science bit - mainly explaining how teenage trademarks such as stroppiness and inability to understand consequences are down to immature frontal lobes, a part of the brain that doesn't quite come together until the early twenties.

Robertson is a man I could happily listen to all day, because aside from a fantastic radio voice, he has the knack of explaining science in an accessible way that makes you want to find out more. And he knows it's not all about science: "We have to be careful we don't over-psychologise what is cultural," he said. By which I think he meant that the current teenage obsession with Juicy Couture bags and American Eagle hoodies says more about our Americanised teens and their over-indulgent Celtic tiger parents than it does with underdeveloped frontal lobes.

Nora Sweetman, one of the other panellists, was a rock of maternal sense - "Parents want to be friends with their kids. They should have their own friends and so should you."

Fiona Looney's Backchat (RTÉ Radio 1, Tuesday) is - shock and amazement - a genuinely funny comedy programme. It's a familiar formula - a panel of professional funnymen discuss the week's events - and the second programme in the series was far better than the first, where everyone laughed rather too much at their own jokes. Looney's links are sharp and savvy, and this week Morgan Jones, Joe Taylor and the never less than hilarious Ding Dong Denny O'Reilly dished out quick-fire one-liners, including Bush receiving the traditional bowl of shamrock from Bertie - "Thanks very much for the garnish, where's the sandwiches?" - and "St Patrick is like David Gray: he couldn't make it anywhere else so he came here".

Every year I've moaned in this column - and yes, even I'm bored with it - about the tedium of the blanket coverage of the racing at Cheltenham, as if we're all somehow supposed to be interested in "our horses" or whether "the Irish" had a good day or not.

But this year eccentric racing pundit John McCririck (Morning Ireland, RTÉ Radio 1, Monday) did at least provide a laugh - of sorts. He rubbished talk of Irish favourites, said he was sick of being reminded about the recent rugby victory over England ("If I hear once more about Croke Park, I'll croak"), and called for women to go to Cheltenham - we need "more birds", he enthused in a wet-lipped class of a way. And if that doesn't put you off . . .