There’s a lot of political talk beyond the Pale — but is anyone listening?

TRYING to trace the national conversation, I spoke to some of the nation’s great listeners. The hosts of Ireland’s most tuned-into local radio talk programmes — the ones that outpace locally, the big names and stations nationally. One of those conversations was on air on Monday morning when I chatted with Joe Finnegan on Shannonside Radio.

He was curious to talk to a past political practitioner about why ministers swarm en masse across the countryside during elections. He had obviously picked up more than a bit of annoyance about ensuing traffic jams in small towns. There was grumpiness about political posters too.

We think in story boards not pie charts. We remember stories better than facts. There is a lot of that in our situation now. We all have our stories, but few of us feel any commensurate obligation to have our facts aligned. We can tweet, Facebook, call Joe Duffy on Liveline or any number of talk shows on local radio, but talking at people is no substitute for being listened to. Most of the noise up in the ether, is not conversation; it’s just sounding off. It provides passing relief from anger but no lasting satisfaction at all.