Radio Review: Young men from west Dublin who hit the headlines rarely have such public support but one Leaving Cert student, Olunkunle Eluhanla, had the classic triumvirate of clergy, teachers and politicians on several programmes fighting his corner this week.
They were calling for a reversal of his deportation order to Nigeria and the youth himself was interviewed by Philip Boucher-Hayes (Five Seven Live, RTÉ1, Wednesday) in an attempt to dispel some of the myths that have built up around his story. His age, Boucher-Hayes told him, had been variously reported as being anything from 17 to 21. It's a key point, at least in the terms of people's emotive response to the case - there's a world of a difference between a teenage school boy and a young man in his twenties. A hesitant Eluhanla confirmed down the distant sounding telephone line from Lagos that he is, in fact, 20, born in January 1985.
Clips from the Dáil speech given by Minister for Justice Michael McDowell on the matter were played and Boucher-Hayes quizzed the young man about each of the Minister's statements. At each point he contradicted the Minister's version of events. McDowell said he had been offered and rejected legal representation; not so said Eluhanla; nor was it true that he had been given a letter on the aircraft with a number of a garda who could help him as soon he touched down in Nigeria. And over a week since his deportation, he was still wearing his school uniform - something Irish immigration officials said he was not wearing when he was picked up. There was no connection between the versions of events and that alone is worth further investigation.
A 10-minute interview was never going to satisfactorily explain the ins and outs of Eluhanla's failed bid for asylum, but hearing his voice and his story dragged the asylum-seeker issue back into the media. And all the publicity obviously paid off when McDowell reversed his decision.
It was an accident of timing but The Georges (Documentary on One, RTÉ1, Wednesday) was also about immigration and if anything was going to dispel the idea that all these foreigners are here to steal our jobs, women and social welfare, this intimate portrayal of a day in the life of an ordinary family was it.
The Georges of the title are a Romanian family who live near programme's producer Nuala Hayes, in Islandbridge, Dublin. George Domsa, the father, came here first from Transylvania, leaving wife Georgetta and baby daughter Georgiana at home. The only thing in the least bit peculiar about the family is their fascination with the name George - other than that they radiated a happy ordinariness.
He came to Ireland, he said, because his wages as a driver at home simply weren't enough for even the basics, "for food or shoes, the money was never enough". George was clearly an economic migrant but the system doesn't allow for such aspirations and so he applied for asylum. He brought his wife over a couple of years later and by the time there was money to bring over Georgetta, she was three and her mother was pregnant with George Jnr - an arrival that gave the family some rights in this country. Romanians like him, he said, weren't desperate for high status jobs - he's happy doing security work, driving or any job that allows him to provide for his family. That's all that matters - that and going back home when economic conditions improve there.
It's Easter week, but would radio listeners notice? If this was 1968, they'd be in no doubt. Gerry Ryan read out the RTÉ Guide listings for that year (Gerry Ryan, RTÉ2fm, Thursday) and it was a world away from our 24-hour, overwhelmingly secular broadcasting (leaving the ongoing row over the Angelus aside). On Good Friday, Ryan told us, Radio Telefis Éireann started broadcasting at 2pm, with news followed by a religious service. It closed down again at 3pm. At 5pm it was back up again for another religious service followed at 6.20pm by what was listed as "records". Then news at 6.30 and that was that. The rest of Easter weekend followed a similar schedule.
Ruth'n'Rick weren't even born when that was going on and they kicked off Easter week on 2fm by starting their new slot as replacements for Ryan Tubridy on the station's breakfast show, The Full Irish. It's probably enough to know that Rick's DJ name is Rick O'Shea (oh how we laughed) and you get a good idea that the new direction for a show which was once 50/50 music and chat is now wall-to-wall music interspersed with giddy mid-Atlantic-accented chat.
Sometimes they even play music underneath the chat, which is grand if you like that sort of thing, but I think it's more noise than a person can stand at that hour of morning.