Radio Review:Dark mutterings of voting pacts, electoral bias and being gutted by the result - flippin' heck, but don't we take Eurovision seriously?, Bernice Harrisonasks.
If we can get so worked up about that vote - what's it going to be like next weekend? The writer of the Irish entry, John Waters, made himself very available on the morning after the mortifying night before (Marian Finucane, RTÉ Radio 1, and The Wide Angle with Karen Coleman, Newstalk, Sunday) for a bit of deep analysis.
All I could muster were idle musings about whether Mrs Doubtfire in tinfoil from the Ukraine was a man or a woman; didn't the Serbian singer look like one of the prison warders in Bad Girls, or was it Prisoner Cell Block H?; and if my toes were ever going to uncurl after the horror of the Irish entry. Who could be in the mood for a sociopolitical - from a pop angle (yes, really) - analysis of our eastern neighbours? Karen Coleman, whose Sunday newspaper review is consistently the best - most thorough, unexpected panel, lively questions - of the three on offer (Finucane does one, as does Sam Smyth on Today FM), had a bit of fun with the story. One of the papers reported that Waters had suggested that the Eurovision was a bit too gay, and he took the opportunity to deny the quotes and the sentiment. Prodded by Coleman, who was in top form, he said: "I've nothing against gays being involved in Eurovision" - a bit like saying it's okay if that fat bloke in the fur-trimmed red suit is around at Christmas.
Mr Poptastic, Larry Gogan ( The Gerry Ryan Show, 2FM, Monday), is the real expert.
Gogan, who has to be the kindest person on radio - listen to how he treats the low scorers on his Just a Minute Quiz - said: "I didn't think it was that bad. They did their best, nothing wrong with the song. They did what they were asked to do." He was in Helsinki for the live coverage on RTÉ radio (though surely it's now a purely TV experience) and spilled the beans on what happened after the contest. There was no camping it up at a glam party - surely coming Paddy-last would, in the surreal world of Eurovision, be reason to party all night, but no, the Irish delegation went to a quiet pub for what sounded like a bad wake.
For real handbags at dawn stuff, it was hard to beat Derek Mooney (Mooney, RTÉ Radio 1, Tuesday), with his show's - and possible the country's - biggest Eurovision anorak, Paul Gee, returning from Helsinki. Gee certainly knows a disturbing amount about the song contest, but he's really an innocent abroad: on the day before the contest he breathlessly informed Mooney that, having heard the rehearsal, Dervish were definitely going to be in the top five. On Tuesday, Mooney sounding rather too pleased with himself, played the tape to a crestfallen Gee. A bit mean, that.
With all the political pundits on air this week, you won't catch any of them staking their reputations with predictions about the general election - though I doubt that even in the cut-throat world of politics anyone would be mean enough to actually replay the tape directly after the event.
There was endless (though oddly same-sounding) general electioneering coverage, with one of the lowest points being Brian Cowen and Richard Bruton going at each other like muck savages ( The News at One, RTÉ Radio 1, Monday). The next time Seán O'Rourke has a teachers' representative in studio moaning abut the challenge of controlling shockingly behaved teenagers, he can rightly trump them by replaying Monday's performance by the Minister and his opposite number in Fine Gael.
Matt Cooper ( The Last Word, Today FM) had a reporter on hand for this week's other bit of bad behaviour - the corner-boy carry-on by Michael McDowell and John Gormley at a lamp post in Ranelagh. Not politics' finest hour.
As the clock is audibly ticking, candidates will clearly do anything for a bit of publicity. Strange, then, the ones who refuse it. Cooper has been saying for the past couple of weeks that he has repeatedly invited the Minister for Transport, Martin Cullen, to come on the show but with no luck. On Wednesday, with Cullen opening a bit of road somewhere, Cooper tried again and this time he revealed that he offered the Minister a pre-recorded interview - usually good bait, because the interviewee feels more in control - but again Cullen passed on the chance to talk on a national programme to nearly 200,000 listeners. Sometimes, amid all the airtime noise, who you don't hear and why is the more interesting question.