McDowell goes wild on One

The best programme on radio, on any radio, is Mooney Goes Wild on One. The idea of doing a nature programme on radio mus...t have seemed bizarre at first. Doing such a programme on what is considered a very minority interest, on prime time radio was some brave decision. But what joy, what bliss, even for those of us whose only exposure to wildlife has been at discos in Cork and regattas at Kinsale and now, in the form of the Senor de la Casa.
Derek Mooney has the madness, the abandon, the enthusiasm and the knowledge to make it work and the choice of Eanna Ní Leanna as a regular panellist was inspired. She is funny, informed, fluent and has a great accent (what is it?).
On Saturday morning last (18 March) she was enthusing about the mating rituals of the dragonfly, who, apparently have some bulbous undercarriage when in heat, with which the male grabs the female of the species and dips her in lakes here and there, laying eggs along the way. Then someone was on telling us how bees were trained to be minesweepers.
But the star of that Saturday's programme was an elderly caller, Una, from Palmerstown, who had a problem with frogs in the pool in her garden. She had been worried about them during the bout of frost but a few mornings later she was going down her garden at eight o clock in the morning and the frogs were everywhere, moaning and groaning and, apparently, in great form. Eanna said the frogs were in great form because they were being visited by female frogs and something akin to a frog-orgy was underway. Male frogs hibernate in pools and around this time every year the female frogs call around for what Eanna said was a “court”. Una was very pleased with this news but went on to tell of a distressing event outside her back window, a sparrow-hawk had come along and killed a dove that Una had befriended. The sparrow-hawk had left the dove at the murder scene but returned regularly to eat a bit of it, which seemed very distressing.
There is nothing on any radio station anywhere as good as this. So delightfully different from everything else on radio, so soothing, so joyous. Enrapturing even.
Almost as good is Ruth Buchanan on Playback and for much same reason: delightful, joyous, even enrapturing. The Señor de la Casa has a thing for Ruth which is slightly annoying. He loves her singing which I hate. But the ease with which she draws together the best of radio on Radio One and the humour she brings to it is splendid. Even makes old codgers such as Pat Kenny, Myles Dungan and Vincent Browne seem interesting at times – the qualification is sooooo intended.
Did anyone hear Michael McDowell lose it on the News at One? Apoplectic. Got around to saying Richard Bruton, the boyish looking Fine Gael chappie, brother of the old codger Fine Gael chappie was only knee-high to him in terms of their contributions to Irish public life. I don't know whether the younger Bruton has done anything but what-on-earth has McDowell done?
He seems to think he has made some major contribution to Irish civilisation. But what is it? The Señor dela Casa thinks highly of McDowell (I suspect he votes PD although he claims always to have been an FF man) but the likes the law-and-order guff of McDowell and thinks he is intelligent (that is the Señor de la Casa thinks McDowell is intelligent and come to think of it the Señor de la Casa thinks he is rather intelligent too, about which on another occasion). But the outburst on the street somewhere near the Dáil on Monday early afternoon was wondrous. McDowell goes wild on One.