{"id":495698,"date":"2026-06-12T08:13:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T08:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/495698\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T08:13:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T08:13:11","slug":"with-elvis-costello-elizabeth-strout-and-surging-audiences-brendan-oconnor-is-riding-high-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/495698\/","title":{"rendered":"With Elvis Costello, Elizabeth Strout and surging audiences, Brendan O\u2019Connor is riding high \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

It may well be that Elvis Costello<\/a> is, at least in his own telling, the least nostalgic person you\u2019ll ever meet, but as the singer talks to Brendan O\u2019Connor (RT\u00c9<\/a> Radio 1, Saturday and Sunday) there\u2019s just a hint of the elegiac as he ponders the venerable medium he\u2019s appearing on.<\/p>\n

Asked why his current tour features only old numbers, Costello says he\u2019s interested in how these compositions hold up in today\u2019s world; he points to his 1978 classic Radio Radio, which he notes started out as a song in praise of the wireless but then became a critique. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat really wouldn\u2019t be an issue now, because radio is seen as a precious, rare commodity these days,\u201d the singer tells O\u2019Connor. \u201cBecause there\u2019s so many other ways that people can receive things, the whole argument of the song has a sort of wistfulness about it now.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to disagree with Costello\u2019s fond but slightly plaintive assessment, in terms of radio as well as (sorry) Radio Radio. For one thing, any platform that boasts a fiftysomething presenter\u2019s interview with an early-septuagenarian singer-songwriter as a weekend highlight clearly isn\u2019t courting Gen Z consumers. <\/p>\n

On the other hand, O\u2019Connor\u2019s engrossing conversation with Costello vividly illustrates why audiences, of whatever age, still tune in every week, even with so many alternatives available.<\/p>\n

The host is obviously delighted to be talking to Costello \u2013 he recalls the impact of seeing his guest on Top of the Pops in the late 1970s \u2013 but his questions are probing as well as admiring, contributing to a fascinating encounter. <\/p>\n

Among the topics covered are the ostensibly confrontational attitude of Costello\u2019s early years (he says the gap in his teeth makes him sound more bolshie), his deep Liverpool-Irish roots (he was born Declan Patrick MacManus) and his less-than-harmonious relationship with Shane MacGowan<\/a>: \u201cHe didn\u2019t like me very much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amid this candour there\u2019s also the odd note of doleful realism, as when Costello speaks of his unease at now playing another old favourite, (What\u2019s So Funny \u2019Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding. \u201cIsn\u2019t it slightly in bad taste right now?\u201d he ventures about the song\u2019s message. \u201cBecause there\u2019s a lot of people who don\u2019t want it.\u201d<\/p>\n

A similarly despondent thread runs through O\u2019Connor\u2019s talk with the American author Elizabeth Strout<\/a>, who dissects the alarming state of politics in her homeland in gloomy terms: \u201cThe country is very divided, and there\u2019s an undercurrent of fear, because we don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to be happening.\u201d <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Elizabeth Strout: \u2018It\u2019s a deeply sad time in the US\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Strout is no Trump supporter, but as a Pulitzer-winning novelist she thinks she understands some of the anger behind the Maga movement.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause they feel humiliated?\u201d O\u2019Connor asks. \u201cYes, precisely,\u201d Strout replies. \u201cBy people like you?\u201d he asks. \u201cYes, precisely,\u201d she answers. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s the kind of frank but respectful exchange that Strout says is missing in American society these days.<\/p>\n

But this baleful subject matter belies the joyful fashion in which the interview is conducted. Despite her pessimistic analysis, Strout laughs infectiously as she muses on writing and family as well as politics. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor sounds like someone genuinely relishing the intellectual cut and thrust with his guest, while gently ribbing her about turning 70 recently: \u201cI won\u2019t use the word \u2018sprightly\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

The host\u2019s upbeat mood is understandable. Powered by captivating interviews and surging audience numbers, he\u2019s riding high right now, providing one of the few unqualified bright spots in a Radio 1 schedule still gingerly feeling its way after last year\u2019s relaunch. In RT\u00c9 at least, O\u2019Connor\u2019s show is indeed a rare and precious commodity.<\/p>\n

The once all-pervasive pull of radio forms the dark backdrop to Pirate Predator (RT\u00c9 Radio 1, Sunday), the latest series from the station\u2019s Documentary on One team. In an indication of the inexorable direction of travel in the media world, however, it\u2019s primarily aimed at the podcast market, with online listeners accessing episodes a week before transmission on the airwaves.<\/p>\n

But however you hear it, the story of the pirate-radio boss and paedophile Eamon \u201cCaptain\u201d Cooke<\/a> is both riveting and horrific, though queasiness may end up getting the better of curiosity. <\/p>\n

Narrated by Peter Mulryan, one of its writers and producers, the series traces the sordid, scarcely believable life of Cooke, who transformed himself from an Inchicore electrician (whose first wife died in suspicious circumstances) into the scheming owner of Radio Dublin, the pirate station whose huge popularity in the 1970s gave him Pied Piper-like access to the children he preyed on.<\/p>\n

Like so many abusive predators, Cooke hid in plain sight \u2013 \u201cHe was a caricature of a dirty old man,\u201d the former DJ James Dillon says \u2013 while protecting himself by forging powerful friendships, be it with garda\u00ed or clerics. With grotesque inevitability, he even came to know the most notorious abuser of them all, Jimmy Savile.<\/p>\n

But Cooke was at his most sickeningly manipulative when it came to grooming and abusing children, using the lure of his garage \u2013 an Aladdin\u2019s cave of electronic goods \u2013 as \u201cthe bait in the trap\u201d, to use Mulryan\u2019s phrase. <\/p>\n

Anne and Siobh\u00e1n recall how, as young neighbours of Cooke\u2019s, they were invited to play on his premises before he began to sexually abuse them repeatedly. Both women are composed and even forensic in their accounts, but it\u2019s all the more harrowing for that.<\/p>\n

The production isn\u2019t perfect, with Mulryan\u2019s narrative style occasionally a tad over-egged. But he brings his own bracing personal experience to the tale: not only did he encounter Cooke in the 1980s; he has tapes of him broadcasting on Radio Dublin, creepily denying abuse allegations decades before he was eventually convicted.<\/p>\n

As the stories of Anne, Siobh\u00e1n and others attest, the documentary is a primer into the lasting effects of abuse on survivors. It\u2019s an issue once again given fresh urgency after the commission of investigation report<\/a> on the Waterford paedophile Bill Kenneally, which found that he \u2013 like Cooke \u2013 used his connections to shield vile crimes.<\/p>\n

After all that, it seems trivial to add that the series represents another reason for optimism in RT\u00c9: Pirate Predator is the latest in an impressive run of Doc on One true-crime podcast series that have successfully tapped into the booming \u2013 and worldwide \u2013 demand for such digital audio content. Sometimes the message is more important than the medium.<\/p>\n

Moment of the week<\/p>\n

With anti-immigration extremists seizing on the terrible stabbing incident in Belfast as an opportunity for racist rioting, Barry Whyte reports from the east of the city on the aftermath of the violence for The Hard Shoulder (Newstalk<\/a>). <\/p>\n

Speaking to the presenter Shane Coleman, Whyte describes \u201cthe smell of smoke still hanging in the air\u201d and hears how residents from migrant backgrounds were targeted. Pastor Jack McKee recounts rescuing two \u201ctotally traumatised\u201d congregants \u2013 both African women \u2013 from a brick-wielding mob. <\/p>\n

Whyte also hears a Scottish woman describe how her neighbours were burnt out of their home. Though obviously fearful, she neatly skewers the supposed rationale for the hateful actions of such self-declared protectors and patriots. \u201cAll they\u2019re doing is making people feel unsafe,\u201d she says bluntly. \u201cThat\u2019s not standing up for your community.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It may well be that Elvis Costello is, at least in his own telling, the least nostalgic person…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[93,61,60,212535,6129],"class_list":["post-495698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-pirate-predator","tag-rte-radio-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}