Declan Lynch: It was peculiar that Liveline didn’t kick off Monday’s or Tuesday’s show with an update on the Seamus Culleton story which had changed over,the weekend | Irish Independent
Flor Lynch
Lyric FM's Liz Nolan is a soothing presence
Whither the tale of Seamus Culleton? Liveline host Kieran Cuddihy. Photo: Steve Humphreys
Aedín Gormley hosts 'Movies and Musicals'. Photo: Andres Poveda
Lyric FM's Liz Nolan is a soothing presence
Whither the tale of Seamus Culleton? Liveline host Kieran Cuddihy. Photo: Steve Humphreys
The latest radio listenership figures showed exceptional growth in the audience for Lyric FM. It increased its share to 3.1pc from 2.5pc, the kind of jump which is regarded as freakish by those in the radio audience percentage jump game.
It’s especially interesting because in many ways Lyric FM hasn’t changed. At least it hasn’t changed for the worse, which sometimes can get you more listeners than the better stuff. No, I believe it is the world that has changed.
Aedín Gormley hosts 'Movies and Musicals'. Photo: Andres Poveda
It seems there are many people who are finding the experience of being alive in 2026 such a head-wrecking ordeal they take a break from it for a few minutes with Marty Whelan or Liz Nolan or Aedín Gormley or Luke Clancy.
They find such a blessed peace there, it becomes their life. There are News headlines on Lyric, so it’s not like you’ve completely withdrawn from the world. You still know what’s happening out there, but in such small doses it merely reminds you why you came to this better place.
Lyric FM's Liz Nolan is a soothing presence
And Lyric is much, much better than it needs to be. There are “classical music” stations in other countries which have taken the low road. They see themselves as providers of a kind of musical Mogadon to motorists stuck in tailbacks; people who don’t really like music, who are too old to rock and roll, too young to die.
Lyric doesn’t see itself as a corporate Muzak vehicle. It has Marty Whelan, of course, whose legend is secure. And in their enthusiasm to share their musical knowledge, Liz Nolan’s The Full Score and Aedín Gormley’s Movies and Musicals can also teach you something, but not in a “stop-relaxing” kind of way.
I learned something recently from Bernard Clarke presenting The Blue of the Night. Like most people I always knew that Free’s All Right Now is a killer track, the high water mark of the Golden Age of Rock. And I knew their guitar maestro Paul Kossoff died at 25 from the effects of drug addiction. But I hadn’t realised the depth of Kossoff’s brilliance until Clarke took me there.
This was an important public service – to me, at any rate. And at a time when listening to most current affairs programmes is a form of self-harm, Lyric is contributing to more than just our cultural life – increasingly it is providing an invaluable mental health service.
Perhaps Liveline just couldn’t take the strain any more, but it was most peculiar that they didn’t kick off Monday’s, or indeed Tuesday’s, show with an update on the Seamus Culleton story which had changed somewhat over the weekend – and certainly since its first big radio moment on Liveline the previous week, when Culleton spoke to Kieran Cuddihy from an ICE detention centre in the US.
While they’re sorting out the legalities, a big takeaway from the story was how Ireland’s “great patriots” on social media were so keen to support America’s Black and Tans in ICE – even though these ICE stories signal the end of something vital to the Irish imagination: the dream of America.
By genuine coincidence, last Saturday’s Documentary on Newstalk (Newstalk, Saturday, 9pm) had This Land is Your Land, recalling the struggles in the 1980s of the Irish Immigration Reform Movement, which was set up by young Irish immigrants with the daunting ambition to change the immigration laws of the United States. Daunting though it was, they succeeded.
The most powerful part of producer Pavel Barter’s account of this movement and the times that were in it was that the main characters saw their struggle on behalf of the “undocumented” Irish as an essentially American story. In seeking to reform the system of their adopted country, they were also connecting with its infinite possibilities.
They were trying to rescue an entire generation because in America they thought they could.
That’s all over now.
Today with David McCullagh (RTÉ1, weekdays, 9am) also seemed to be de-stressing. During the first hour of Monday’s show, one of the main items dealt with the all-important issue that Barack Obama Says Aliens Are Real. Given all the other pressing matters on which Barack might have an opinion, his “take” on extra-terrestrial beings might not seem the one to go with.
It was the current affairs equivalent of a relaxing musical interlude – and for that we already have Lyric FM.