If you’re acquainted with Seán Moncrieff (Newstalk, weekdays), perhaps you should watch your back. So candid is the presenter about his yen for swapping gossip that he admits to it on air, even roping in roving reporter Henry McKean as a co-conspirator. “Maybe once or twice over the last 20 years, we may have zeroed in on the occasional individual,” Moncrieff confides, before hurriedly playing down his colleague’s role in such duplicity: “I did most of the talking.”
Apart from absolving McKean – who, as always, comes across as a paragon of decorum and civility when conducting his vox pop on gossip for Tuesday’s show – Moncrieff otherwise appears unrepentant, doubling down on his fondness for tittle-tattle. When one texter wheels out the cautionary adage about not saying something if you can’t say it to someone’s face, the presenter’s response is one of incredulity: “Where’s the fun in that?”
Where indeed? Some listeners may tut-tut about Moncrieff’s apparent enjoyment of hearsay – though most of us, let’s be honest, revel in such behaviour – but there’s no denying that the host’s sly sense of mischief is a crucial element in his long-running show’s formula. (It’s also worth stressing that when it comes to the content broadcast on his programme, the host is emphatic: “We have to actually check if it’s true or not.”)
He particularly delights in diverting discussions in unexpected but entertaining directions. Devoting an item to celebrity chef Jamie Oliver’s campaign to ban chewing gum is random enough, but Moncrieff’s conversation with dietitian Orla Walsh quickly goes completely off-road.
As Walsh explains how chewing helps with gut health by stimulating the bowels, several esoteric yet unforgettable factoids emerge, such as the average number of times people fart each day. (Fourteen, since you ask.) All this is grist to the mill for the host, who wonders – with seeming sincerity – if there’s an optimum ratio of burps to flatulence, or whether it’s just “good that you’re getting it out”.
When the air turns stale, it’s down to a guest’s incompatibility with, or indifference to, the host’s default tone of clever playfulness. Tuesday’s segment about the Government’s inaction on human trafficking is never destined to be a laugh riot, but Moncrieff’s interview with law professor Siobhán Mullally on the subject falls conspicuously flat.
The host, who regularly tackles difficult topics with due seriousness, is curious about the issue, but despite adopting an appropriately diligent manner, he’s unable to spark the encounter into life. Mullally, a former UN rapporteur on human trafficking, gives a thorough overview of such practices, carried out for reasons of forced labour, criminal activity or sexual exploitation. But the analysis, while admirably full of forensic legal detail, doesn’t stir the emotions as much as one might expect, given the egregiousness and extent of the crimes involved.
“As in any contexts, there are certain unknowns as regards to the scale, but we are very much aware that this is a problem in Ireland as it is globally,” Mullally says, adding that the Government has “been put on notice that more action needs to be taken”. While Mullally is obviously annoyed by the Government’s sluggish response to date, her demand for a “multi-agency response” doesn’t exactly deliver a stirring call to arms. (To be fair, she’s a legal expert, not a polemicist.)
Moncrieff, for his part, dutifully quizzes his guest on the specifics of the problem. But despite his efforts and indeed the distressing nature of the issue, it resembles a Q&A session at an academic seminar rather than an item on an ostensibly idiosyncratic radio show. Not all topics translate into juicy stories, even for Moncrieff.
A far more compulsive atmosphere prevails on Liveline (RTÉ Radio 1, weekdays), as Kieran Cuddihy learns about the shockingly shabby accommodation offered to newly arrived migrants by their employers. On Tuesday, Cuddihy hears from Richard, who tells of discovering that his late parents’ house in south Dublin, leased out by a letting agent, contained 34 bunk beds, while full of damp and mould.
Initially, it sounds like the kind of dubious practice discussed by Moncrieff, but it turns out that the property is, or rather was, home to 26 people, all Chinese nationals legally working as chefs for a Dublin restaurant group, Cainte Entertainment. Accordingly, company director Ian Keegan contacts Cuddihy on Wednesday to clear up the situation, with limited success.
Keegan insists he’s not justifying what has happened – “I’m not trying to abscond or anything” – but as he outlines how his firm leased the house to accommodate staff freshly arrived from China, there’s a distinctly exculpatory undertone. “We were trying to do the right thing by our staff,” Keegan says, pointing to the difficulty faced by non-English speakers seeking accommodation in Dublin: “It was a benefit for them.”
Cuddihy hears out his caller, but remains sceptical, wondering if there wasn’t also a benefit for Keegan and his business partner Ryon Wen: “Do you acknowledge you were saving money by having 26 people in one house?” Keegan sheepishly agrees, before stating that his firm will now pay a rental subsidy to their staff rather than put them up. “With hindsight, there was little or no incentive for them to go if they were living rent-free,” he reflects, prompting a quietly withering reply from his host: “It sounds a little like you’re blaming the staff there, Ian.”
[ Unlike Joe Duffy, Kieran Cuddihy doesn’t ramp up the drama on LivelineOpens in new window ]
Keegan eventually admits that as a company director, he ultimately bears responsibility for the situation, though neither he nor his firm emerge with much credit by the time Cuddihy has finished. The host, however, gives an object lesson in gripping radio. Though the story touches on urgent issues, most obviously the housing crisis and the treatment of migrants, the host doesn’t get distracted from the main task of uncovering the facts in wry yet relentless fashion. When it comes to scandal, it pays to get serious.
Moment of the week
Those only paying casual attention to the conversation between Oliver Callan (RTÉ Radio 1, weekdays) and AI technician Grace O’Gorman could be forgiven for thinking it’s yet another item on increasing ubiquity of artificial intelligence, in this case in the agricultural sector. Yet as Callan hears how his guest embarked on her AI career after inheriting her father’s farm, it becomes clear they’re not talking about shiny data centres.
“Did you use AI services on your farm?” asks Callan. “No, we were bull only,” Grace replies. Yes, it turns out host and guest are chatting about the only kind of AI that matters in the farming world: the artificial insemination of cattle. Grace goes on to describe, with icky vividness, how she initially felt overwhelmed when learning her trade, “but by day three you should know what you’re grasping”. Quite. Still, her job isn’t likely to be replaced by a computer any time soon.