The Jackie Healy-Rae way to liven up a three-hour radio show

Presenting a talkshow for three hours a day might tax the stamina of some broadcasters, but Kieran Cuddihy, host of The Hard Shoulder (Newstalk, weekdays), isn’t one to shy away from tests of endurance. On Wednesday, as he talks to the personal trainer Dominic Munnelly about research that running marathons can age older men, Cuddihy poses a “completely hypothetical situation” for his guest to ponder. “Let’s imagine there’s a 39-year-old radio presenter who’s training for a marathon this coming October in Amsterdam,” he says with a knowing chuckle, wondering if said theoretical runner should train in moderation. “Like a lot of things in life, if you do it too hard, too often,” Munnelly replies, “then a lot of the benefits are lost”.

Cuddihy—or at least his conjectural doppelganger—may heed this advice when running, but when it comes to radio he rarely drops his pace. As he admits to Munnelly, he finds the idea of taking things slower counterintuitive. Despite the lengthy duration of his show—it could equally be called The Long Haul, and not just because of its drivetime slot—his approach is one of unflagging energy coupled with a wryly sceptical mien. This contributes to a lively atmosphere but doesn’t always lend itself to rigour or consistency.

On Tuesday Cuddihy hears how minimum unit pricing of alcohol in Scotland may have affected the “economically vulnerable”, potentially causing them to spend less money on essentials rather than on drink. The findings are ambiguous, but the host nonetheless tussles with Eunan McKinney of Alcohol Action Ireland about the efficacy of such pricing measures and, indeed, the extent of ill health caused by drinking. In his eagerness to create on-air heat, the host ends up arguing at cross purposes with his guest, with little clarity as a result.

Wednesday’s item on cocaine abuse is more straightforward, as he talks to the addiction specialist Michael Guerin about increased use among young Irish adults. Cuddihy refers to wider availability and reduced cost as factors, but he homes in on anecdotal evidence that people snort it for weight loss, particularly younger women. He hurriedly states the obvious, that cocaine isn’t a healthy way to lose excess kilos, but by focusing on this aspect rather the drug’s harmful consequences the host inadvertently downplays its negative impact. In fairness, he realises this, particularly after listeners text in: “I hadn’t intended to glamorise the problem.” It’s also to the host’s credit that he avoids the tut-tutting that often accompanies discussions on drugs—moralising rarely yields enlightenment—but his breezy manner comes across as a tad blase.

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[ Cocaine use: ‘You’d have it for a night out, like the way people have a few cigarettes’ ]

On the other hand, Cuddihy brings a brisk determination to issues that might otherwise get overlooked. Tuesday’s show has an arresting discussion of surrogacy, concentrating on those international births that won’t be covered by the long-awaited Bill on assisted human reproduction. He talks to Dora, whose baby was born to a surrogate mother in Ukraine. There, Dora’s parental rights are legally recognised, “but as soon as I step back in Ireland I am nobody to the child.” Cuddihy’s questions move between the personal and the political, but his sympathetic interview makes clear what effect the current “legal limbo” has on parents such as Dora: “I don’t know how our Government can leave us like this.”

Such quietly passionate items ultimately mean The Hard Shoulder is more of an enlivening jog than a gruelling slog. His gently slagging humour also helps: talking to the TV presenter Sinead Kennedy about her new show from Dublin Zoo, he impishly wonders if she was “one of those Cork snobs who didn’t go past Fota Island”. Though his show occasionally hits the wall, Cuddihy finishes with a flourish.

Of course, he’s not the only hardy broadcaster on the station. Pat Kenny (Newstalk, weekdays) shows no signs of slowing down as he continues to helm his own three-hour programme, anchoring the morning schedule while bolstering his status as both elder statesman and big beast. But, as with his colleague’s late-afternoon slot, the length of Kenny’s show means that he sometimes has to create controversy to eat up airtime.

On Wednesday, as part of his regular commuter spot, he discusses recent advice from the Society of the Irish Motoring Industry to save on fuel costs by avoiding unnecessary journeys, in the reliably annoyed company of a member of the Healy-Rae clan. Asked about the motoring body’s advice, the Independent Kerry county councillor Jackie Healy-Rae gets to the point. “My thoughts are very simple,” he says. “It’s very easy for people like this to talk about driving less, but they obviously don’t understand the geography of this country.” Healy-Rae has a point about people in rural areas having few viable alternatives to the car, but there’s a depressing familiarity to the issue being reduced to a “them-versus-us” narrative.

By way of balance, Kenny then hears another scion of a political dynasty with Fianna Fáil roots complain about country people being ignored by urban dwellers. Though more polished than Healy-Rae, the Independent TD Marc MacSharry is equally scathing about the fuel-saving tip, describing it as tone-deaf, and instead proposes that the Government drop all fuel levies to alleviate rising petrol prices.

Kenny suggests the advice is sensible rather than offensive, but he gets sidetracked by one of his pet peeves: speeding. “I didn’t know I was coming on to talk about speed limits,” a perplexed-sounding MacSharry replies while sticking to his own populist script. If the Government can find money for “impressing our international contemporaries”, he says, it should provide resources “to look after our own people on this occasion”. Maybe MacSharry is tone-deaf himself, but his statement is pitched perilously close to dog-whistle frequencies.

Coincidentally, Kenny later has an item on the science behind actual tone-deafness, allowing him to indulge his inner boffin—never far from the surface anyway. As he chats to Dr Peter Pfordresher, an American academic, about the difficulty of deliberately singing off key, Kenny sounds relaxed and even happy, making for an unexpectedly diverting item. He may be prone to bum notes, but his broadcasting instincts remain well tuned.

Radio Moment of the Week

On Tuesday’s Mystery Train (Lyric, Sunday-Thursday), its host, John Kelly, shares tantalising anecdotes of memorable gigs he’s seen. He fondly recounts a sparsely attended Belfast show by the cult rock’n’roller Billy Swan—“We all ended up on the stage with him”—before introducing a track by the roots-rock legends The Band. “Speaking of gigs, this wasn’t the best,” Kelly says. “I ran into a bunch of them down the side alley of [the Dublin venue] the Olympia, and I knew it wasn’t going to be a great show, let’s put it that way,” enigmatically adding that “John Martyn was involved.” Anyone who recalls the self-destructive addictions of the gifted Scottish singer-songwriter won’t need any more elaboration. Rock‘n’roll, phew.