{"id":543099,"date":"2026-06-19T07:20:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T07:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/543099\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T07:20:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T07:20:12","slug":"new-arguments-against-abortion-surface-in-a-retro-kieran-cuddihy-liveline-show-the-irish-times-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/543099\/","title":{"rendered":"New arguments against abortion surface in a \u2018retro\u2019 Kieran Cuddihy Liveline show \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Heated arguments about abortion, earnest debates on Irish unity, paeans to footballers from Ireland performing heroics at the World Cup<\/a> finals: there\u2019s a decidedly retro feel to the topics on Liveline<\/b> (RT\u00c9 Radio 1<\/a>, weekdays) as Kieran Cuddihy<\/a> sounds out callers on a range of subjects that wouldn\u2019t have been out of place three decades ago. <\/p>\n

It could be seen as a case of the more things change, the more they stay the same \u2013 barring the fact that the Republic of Ireland are absent from the football festivities in North America, of course \u2013 but while the issues covered by Cuddihy are hardy perennials, he\u2019s not merely indulging in nostalgia.<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s discussion about abortion, for instance, is prompted by Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s (subsequently passed<\/a>) D\u00e1il motion to remove the mandatory three-day wait for such procedures, with the views of some callers underlining that it remains an irreconcilably charged issue. <\/p>\n

Kiera tells the host why she\u2019s against removing the waiting period \u2013 \u201cYou never make a very important decision when you\u2019re in desolation\u201d \u2013 before talking about the effect of \u201caborting babies\u201d on women and the virtues of seeing any pregnancy through to full term.<\/p>\n

Kiera\u2019s tone is heartfelt and compassionate, but her fundamental position is unwavering, as Cuddihy notes: \u201cThese are mainly arguments against the access to abortion full stop.\u201d <\/p>\n

Similarly, Mike is opposed to ditching the mandatory wait on grounds of prudence \u2013 by way of baffling comparison, he cites the 30-day cooling-off period for consumer purchases \u2013 but also articulates his implacable hostility to abortion, stating that \u201c100,000 babies will be killed\u201d over the next decade.<\/p>\n

Cuddihy handles this ever-controversial topic with fairness and patience, letting his callers use their terminology of choice and only calling them out if things start to get tendentious. When one caller suggests the three-day period allows women with emergency pregnancies to research their choices, the host coolly responds that this \u201cmakes it sound like they\u2019ve popped down to the GP for an abortion\u201d.<\/p>\n

And while the rationales for or against the waiting period get somewhat lost in the retread of impassioned arguments, new elements in the debate seem to emerge. Some of the loaded phrases that callers use \u2013 \u201cEurope is dying because of abortion\u201d; \u201c10,000 Irish babies were saved\u201d \u2013 hint that that anti-abortion sentiment here may be dovetailing with nativist ideas, intentionally or otherwise.<\/p>\n

Themes of identity and division inevitably arise during Monday\u2019s ruminations on the possibility of a united Ireland. The announcement by T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris that Fine Gael will publish a blueprint for a \u201cunified island\u201d prompts some predictable arguments but, thankfully, little of the virulence that once accompanied such exchanges. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s still the odd curveball, however, such as Kevin\u2019s steadfast opinion on why he doesn\u2019t want the Republic to \u201ctake\u201d the North.<\/p>\n

\u201cViolence is in their DNA up there,\u201d the caller says. \u201cThey\u2019re racist. They\u2019re not like us down here.\u201d <\/p>\n

Cuddihy pushes back, sounding more amused than outraged: \u201cNo offence, that is utterly daft.\u201d <\/p>\n

Still, it\u2019s a diverting discussion, even if, as with the abortion programme, the reliance on dependably contentious chestnuts to generate excitement doesn\u2019t dispel the impression of a show struggling to retain relevance.<\/p>\n

Amid it all, Cuddihy\u2019s chat with Judy Lopes, mother of the Cape Verde soccer player Pico Lopes, is a welcome bright spot, highlighting as it does the fact that at least one Irish-born player has made it to the World Cup. <\/p>\n

Talking before Cape Verde\u2019s clash with Spain, Lopes says that her son, a Crumlin native who qualifies for his country through his father, Carlos, is \u201ctaking it all in his stride\u201d, an assertion subsequently confirmed by his impressive performance in the drawn match. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s the second time in a week that Cuddihy speaks to Lopes, a self-confessed Liveline fan (there are still a few), but, far from being overkill, it\u2019s an unambivalently celebratory tale that couldn\u2019t be more timely.<\/p>\n

\"RadioRadio 1: Today presenter David McCullagh. Photograph: RT\u00c9 <\/p>\n

He may represent Cape Verde, but Lopes, who also captains Shamrock Rovers, is the first active League of Ireland player to appear at the World Cup, as Stephen McGuinness of the Professional Footballers\u2019 Association of Ireland points out on Today with David McCullagh<\/b> (RT\u00c9 Radio 1, weekdays). <\/p>\n

With racist attacks and anti-migrant rhetoric growing ever more brazen, Lopes\u2019s feats provide an uplifting, if unspoken, rejoinder to those who would frame identity in zero-sum terms. As for Cuddihy, he sounds happier talking about hopeful omens for the future than covering old ground.<\/p>\n

While the four women whose stories are retold on Control<\/b> (2FM, Monday-Thursday) are familiar to the point of global fame, the resulting portraits of Mariah Carey, Kate Bush, Enya and Sin\u00e9ad O\u2019Connor are designed to shatter stultifying preconceptions about women in music. <\/p>\n

Broadcast over four evenings on the 2FM New Music Show with Beto da Silva<\/b> (weekdays), the documentary recasts its central protagonists, all of whom are Irish or have Irish ancestry, as innovative musicians and pioneering producers rather than as singing stars. (Full disclosure: in a previous life, its producer, Kate Butler, and I were colleagues.)<\/p>\n

The series, which is narrated by Renn Miano, recounts the way these women embraced new technology and emerging genres to make music that challenged the accepted gender (and racial) norms of the male-dominated music industry.<\/p>\n

While the thematic thread is underpinned by a commendably wide array of contributors, with only an occasional surfeit of academic jargon, the broader musical story is recounted in fascinating detail. <\/p>\n

Whether it\u2019s Enya\u2019s use of the Fairlight synthesiser to produce the signature sound of her seminal hit Orinoco Flow, or Mariah Carey\u2019s working with the hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan to break out from an unwanted pop image, the series is studded with surprising anecdotes that keep the narrative flowing.<\/p>\n

Told with the passion and conviction of a manifesto \u2013 the final part looks to what the future might hold for female practitioners \u2013 the documentary isn\u2019t obviously pitched at the youthful, pop-oriented demographic traditionally courted by 2FM. <\/p>\n

But just as Luke Clancy\u2019s long-running Lyric FM arts strand, Culture File, unapologetically trades in highbrow sensibilities yet lifts the curtain on seemingly forbidding forms, so Control offers curious 2FM listeners a passionately argued and thought-provoking alternative history of pop. <\/p>\n

Yet there\u2019s nothing remotely retro about it: you\u2019ll never hear an Enya track in the same way again.<\/p>\n

Moment of the week\"ArenaArena host Rick O\u2019Shea. Photograph Nick Bradshaw\/The Irish Times <\/p>\n

It has been a striking couple of weeks on Arena<\/b> (RT\u00c9 Radio 1, weekdays), with Rick O\u2019Shea, its presenter, conducting enjoyable interviews with the broadcaster Graham Norton and the novelist Maggie O\u2019Farrell. <\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s edition is again noteworthy, as the host invites the author Colm T\u00f3ib\u00edn<\/a> to mark Bloomsday by demystifying James Joyce\u2019s modernist classic Ulysses. <\/p>\n

T\u00f3ib\u00edn, who teaches a course on the novel at Columbia University, in New York, talks knowledgeably about the opus but also has simple advice: rather than \u201ctreat it as a big hard book for big boys written by a genius\u201d, readers should divide the volume up into episodes (\u201cas Joyce did\u201d when he wrote it) and dive in. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Shea, who brings a silky irreverence to his confident tenure as Arena host, is suitably impressed by his guest\u2019s accessible guide to Joyce\u2019s daunting novel: \u201cI can already feel people unclenching. This is fantastic.\u201d Blooming marvellous.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Heated arguments about abortion, earnest debates on Irish unity, paeans to footballers from Ireland performing heroics at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":543100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[75],"tags":[28810,231214,31872,18,117,43216,19,17,16002,22019,23900,978,73796,143898,1181,944],"class_list":["post-543099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-abortion","tag-bloomsday","tag-colm-toibin","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-enya","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-james-joyce","tag-kate-bush","tag-kieran-cuddihy","tag-mariah-carey","tag-pico-lopes","tag-rick-o-shea","tag-rte","tag-sinead-oconnor"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=543099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/543100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}