As Pat Kenny (Newstalk, weekdays) finishes in the weekday midmorning slot that he’s occupied, in various iterations and on different stations, for nearly four decades, the arrival of Storm Chandra ensures that, whatever about dry eyes in the house, everything else is drenched.
Characteristically, there’s little teary sentiment as the veteran presenter sees out the final week of his current show.
In as much as Kenny acknowledges that he’s moving on – Claire Byrne takes over his spot next week, while he starts a new weekend show in March – it’s by thanking regular contributors for their input down the years. But one guest, recently retired himself, is determined not to let the occasion go unmarked without paying tribute to the host.
“You’re great fun, you’re a great gossip and your knowledge is breathtaking,” Joe Duffy gushes, sounding more emotional than Kenny.
The former Liveline presenter is ostensibly on the show to talk about life since retirement, but he admits he’s also there to be with his former RTÉ Radio 1 colleague in what Duffy describes as Kenny’s last week.
Hearing this, Kenny interrupts his old mucker to clarify, jocularly yet firmly, that he’ll still be on the radio: “I’m not going anywhere.” Thus corrected, Duffy amends his valedictory wishes: “Good luck with your days off.”
Still, the prospect of not being able to tune into Kenny each weekday is an odd one for aficionados of his distinctive style. Certainly, the last of his regular confabs with the motoring consultant Conor Faughnan again highlights one of the host’s idiosyncrasies: his tendency to get viscerally irritated about hypothetical scenarios.
Discussing the regulation of e-scooters and electric bikes, Kenny suggests that all bicycles should be registered for identification purposes. “If you whack into someone and then steal away, or damage someone’s car with your pedal,” he speculates, “or you get a bang on your roof by an irate cyclist who thinks you’re blocking them and they do damage, who pays?”
When Faughnan suggests that camera footage could play a part in resolving such situations, his host ups the ante. “You see a fella in a hoodie, making off having done damage to your car, no identification whatsoever,” Kenny fulminates, his annoyance growing as his conjectural scenario expands.
Accomplished broadcaster though his successor is, it’s hard to imagine Byrne illuminating the airwaves in the same gloriously cranky manner.
Kenny adopts a similar tone when covering Storm Chandra, though in this case the object of his exasperation – Ireland’s creaking infrastructure – is all too real.
Talking to Brian Caulfield, a professor of transportation at Trinity College Dublin, about the widespread flooding, the host suggests that poorly maintained drains exacerbate the effects of heavy rainfall, recounting how he saw a puddle quickly become “a lake”. “Are councils not doing their job any more?” he tetchily wonders.
His guest is perplexed by successive governments’ lack of investment, saying: “We’ve had a decade of large surpluses. What do we have to show for it?” This lack of investment has resulted in multiple infrastructural shortcomings, of which he adds: “If you were buying Dublin and it was a house, it needs to be rewired and replumbed.”
It’s a glumly familiar verdict, but the host handles the item with typical thoroughness, his miffed asides only enlivening matters further. If Kenny’s farewell festivities in his old shift are a damp squib, it’s likely because he’s keeping his powder dry for the next chapter of his storied career.
Radio 1: Liveline host Kieran Cuddihy. Photograph: RTÉ
Unsurprisingly, the havoc wrought by Chandra dominates Joe Duffy’s old bailiwick of Liveline (RTÉ Radio 1, weekdays). Now occupied by Kieran Cuddihy, the show is, ahem, inundated with accounts of the flooding. Callers such as Ronan Furlong, of Tyreworld in Enniscorthy, describe the devastating impact on their businesses.
Just as striking is the accompanying note of frustration at the continued absence of a long-promised flood-defence system for the Co Wexford town. “It’s layers and layers of bureaucracy and BS as far as I can see,” Furlong says, “No one’s answerable to anyone.”
Cuddihy isn’t holding his breath for things to change soon, sardonically commenting that it took 15 years for flood defences to be completed in his hometown of Kilkenny. But he taps into the rising tide of dissatisfaction that follows the week’s calamities, particularly when the effects are exacerbated by official missteps.
On Wednesday, Cuddihy raises comments by Minister for Housing James Browne, a Wexford TD, chastising Met Éireann for its messaging around Chandra, eliciting dismissive responses from his callers. “It’s just scapegoating,” says Kevin. “Stop passing the buck,” comments Helen.
The same sense of abandonment runs through Cuddihy’s conversations in the aftermath of the tragic death of Grace Lynch. The Dublin teenager was killed after being hit by a scrambler in Finglas last weekend. Callers testify to the problem of marauding e-scooters, quad bikes and scramblers, with Keith recalling how his son was hit by one of the latter while playing in his front garden.
Luckily, his son escaped serious injury, but the incident underlines the apparent impunity with which rogue bikes operate: after the collision, both the teen rider and his mother asked for the scrambler back. “We’re seemingly powerless when it comes to being able to tackle this problem,” Keith says.
Inevitably, some callers urge more aggressive Garda enforcement, with Hughie approvingly noting that in some countries police cars knock delinquents off their bikes. Cuddihy is incredulous at this notion, but Hughie is unrepentant: “If we’re not going to do that, people in working-class parts of Dublin are just going to have to put up with this.”
You don’t have to advocate such drastic measures to share the view that action might be firmer if the scourge of scramblers afflicted the capital’s more affluent areas.
It’s premature to say whether Cuddihy can ensure Liveline remains relevant. Duffy, when talking to Kenny, conspicuously ducks giving an opinion on his successor’s performance, instead bemoaning the ditching of the show’s old theme tune – hardly a ringing vote of confidence.
But Cuddihy’s coverage of the week’s big issues touch on a growing attitude of distrust and resentment towards the status quo, providing fertile ground for populist anger. Stormier times may lie ahead.
Moment of the week
It’s not just homes and roads affected by Storm Chandra: radio schedules also fall victim to the inclement weather.
On Tuesday’s Lunchtime Live (Newstalk, weekdays), guest presenter Tara Duggan is filling in not just for Andrea Gilligan – who’s on holiday – but also for her station colleague Anna Daly, who’s supposed to be helming the show for the day.
“You should be sitting where I am right now,” Duggan remarks as Daly phones in to explain how “the absolute chaos of the N11” stymied her journey from Co Wicklow to Dublin.
Daly recounts how flooding on the dual carriageway reduced traffic to a standstill, with cars even being abandoned on the road. “The stress was just absolutely nuts,” she says. “There just comes a time where you go, ‘I’m not going to make it.’”
Duggan is sympathetic – up to a point. “We will be putting a black mark on your report card,” she says, chuckling. Talk about a fair-weather friend.