\u201cYou\u2019re great fun, you\u2019re a great gossip and your knowledge is breathtaking,\u201d Joe Duffy<\/a> gushes, sounding more emotional than Kenny. <\/p>\n The former Liveline presenter is ostensibly on the show to talk about life since retirement, but he admits he\u2019s also there to be with his former RT\u00c9 Radio 1 colleague in what Duffy describes as Kenny\u2019s last week.<\/p>\n Hearing this, Kenny interrupts his old mucker to clarify, jocularly yet firmly, that he\u2019ll still be on the radio: \u201cI\u2019m not going anywhere.\u201d Thus corrected, Duffy amends his valedictory wishes: \u201cGood luck with your days off.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, the prospect of not being able to tune into Kenny each weekday is an odd one for aficionados of his distinctive style. Certainly, the last of his regular confabs with the motoring consultant Conor Faughnan again highlights one of the host\u2019s idiosyncrasies: his tendency to get viscerally irritated about hypothetical scenarios. <\/p>\n Discussing the regulation of e-scooters and electric bikes, Kenny suggests that all bicycles should be registered for identification purposes. \u201cIf you whack into someone and then steal away, or damage someone\u2019s car with your pedal,\u201d he speculates, \u201cor you get a bang on your roof by an irate cyclist who thinks you\u2019re blocking them and they do damage, who pays?\u201d <\/p>\n When Faughnan suggests that camera footage could play a part in resolving such situations, his host ups the ante. \u201cYou see a fella in a hoodie, making off having done damage to your car, no identification whatsoever,\u201d Kenny fulminates, his annoyance growing as his conjectural scenario expands. <\/p>\n Accomplished broadcaster though his successor is, it\u2019s hard to imagine Byrne illuminating the airwaves in the same gloriously cranky manner.<\/p>\n Kenny adopts a similar tone when covering Storm Chandra<\/a>, though in this case the object of his exasperation \u2013 Ireland\u2019s creaking infrastructure \u2013 is all too real. <\/p>\n Talking to Brian Caulfield, a professor of transportation at Trinity College Dublin, about the widespread flooding, the host suggests that poorly maintained drains exacerbate the effects of heavy rainfall, recounting how he saw a puddle quickly become \u201ca lake\u201d. \u201cAre councils not doing their job any more?\u201d he tetchily wonders.<\/p>\n His guest is perplexed by successive governments\u2019 lack of investment, saying: \u201cWe\u2019ve had a decade of large surpluses. What do we have to show for it?\u201d This lack of investment has resulted in multiple infrastructural shortcomings, of which he adds: \u201cIf you were buying Dublin and it was a house, it needs to be rewired and replumbed.\u201d <\/p>\n It\u2019s a glumly familiar verdict, but the host handles the item with typical thoroughness, his miffed asides only enlivening matters further. If Kenny\u2019s farewell festivities in his old shift are a damp squib, it\u2019s likely because he\u2019s keeping his powder dry for the next chapter of his storied career.<\/p>\n Unsurprisingly, the havoc wrought by Chandra dominates Joe Duffy\u2019s old bailiwick of Liveline<\/b> (RT\u00c9 Radio 1, weekdays). Now occupied by Kieran Cuddihy<\/a>, the show is, ahem, inundated with accounts of the flooding. Callers such as Ronan Furlong, of Tyreworld in Enniscorthy, describe the devastating impact<\/a> on their businesses. <\/p>\n Just as striking is the accompanying note of frustration at the continued absence of a long-promised flood-defence system for the Co Wexford<\/a> town. \u201cIt\u2019s layers and layers of bureaucracy and BS as far as I can see,\u201d Furlong says, \u201cNo one\u2019s answerable to anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n Cuddihy isn\u2019t holding his breath for things to change soon, sardonically commenting that it took 15 years for flood defences to be completed in his hometown of Kilkenny. But he taps into the rising tide of dissatisfaction that follows the week\u2019s calamities, particularly when the effects are exacerbated by official missteps. <\/p>\n On Wednesday, Cuddihy raises comments by Minister for Housing James Browne, a Wexford TD, chastising Met \u00c9ireann<\/a> for its messaging around Chandra, eliciting dismissive responses from his callers. \u201cIt\u2019s just scapegoating,\u201d says Kevin. \u201cStop passing the buck,\u201d comments Helen.<\/p>\n![\"Radio](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769757968_163_IN7CXQRO3JDNXOOUVBI6JBLJQI.jpg\")
Radio 1: Liveline host Kieran Cuddihy. Photograph: RT\u00c9 <\/p>\n