Ciara Kelly and Shane Coleman strive for balance on Drumcree. But it’s a strain

An articulate broadcaster and a seasoned journalist, Shane Coleman is never stuck for words when it comes to his job as one of the hosts of The Hard Shoulder (Newtalk, weekdays). Well, hardly ever. As listeners discover on Tuesday’s show, it turns out that there’s one word that leaves the otherwise eloquent Coleman as tongue-tied as a toddler tangling with “spaghetti”.The presenter and his co-host Ciara Kelly are covering the news that the tech mogul Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, have donated €150,000 to three GAA clubs near their recently purchased castle in Waterford when Coleman becomes unusually flustered as he grapples with the adjective that describes the couple’s largesse. “Philantro … philanthranopic … What’s the word, Ciara?”Kelly duly provides the correct pronunciation. “Philanthropic,” she enunciates, with a commendable absence of Schadenfreude at her partner’s difficulties. But Coleman still sounds mortified. “My apologies. I had a complete mental block about it there,” he says, his embarrassment evident. He’s still expressing contrition for his verbal mishap several minutes later.READ MOREMaybe it’s down to this stumble, but Coleman’s approach during the ensuing item is more soft-focus than hard-shouldered. By way of expressing gratitude for the donation, Emer Barry of Lismore GAA outlines the difficulties of raising such an amount in normal circumstances, while the presenters ponder the possibility of the Zuckerbergs’ children lining out for the local side. “It’s a fantastic story,” Coleman remarks. “It is nice,” Kelly replies, somewhat curtly.[ Mark Zuckerberg donates €150,000 to Waterford GAA clubs after buying castle in the areaOpens in new window ]If Kelly sounds less enthusiastic than her colleague, it’s possibly because the monetary gift, immensely welcome though it is for the GAA clubs, is a minuscule amount for a multibillionaire such as Zuckerberg, particularly when it produces such positive publicity at time when tech titans are losing their lustre. That this theme goes unexplored might be a lapse, but it’s also understandable. After all, Zuckerberg’s gesture counts as a feelgood story in a week when charity is otherwise in short supply.Kelly neatly captures the prevailing mood on Monday’s show. “The world feels like a grim place at the moment,” she glumly observes. “It feels like we’re being dragged backwards in terms of hate and conflict.” Kelly is referring in part to the controversy surrounding the Republic of Ireland’s soccer matches with Israel, an issue later discussed, in notably balanced fashion, with the former Irish diplomat Daniel Mulhall. But she’s most obviously talking about the ominous events in Drumcree, which she characterises as “extraordinarily regressive”.[ Drumcree row is a useful smokescreen for cynical Sinn Féin and DUPOpens in new window ]The hosts hear from the Newstalk reporter Henry McKean, who has been speaking to people at the stand-off between Orange Order members wanting to march down the nationalist-majority Garvaghy Road and local residents blocking the contentious parade. McKean talks to the DUP MP Carla Lockhart, who condemns the blockade as “mob rule”. Lockhart describes the Orangemen as “very respectable and reasonable people” with a “lawful determination” to march on the road for the first time in 28 years, along a route approved by the Parades Commission. While Lockhart’s wounded manner casts the Orangemen as innocent day-trippers spitefully prevented from returning home after a carefree outing, McKean hears a different take on the story. He speaks to residents who see the planned parade as a provocative act by a sectarian organisation (the Orange Order admits only Protestants as members), which revisits the scene of the original conflagration between marchers and residents in 1998.As the reporter notes, that confrontation was so bitter that it resulted in the firebomb murder of three children, the brothers Jason, Mark and Richard Quinn. Inasmuch as there’s common ground between the opposing groups, it’s a resolve not to yield to one another. As McKean ruefully remarks, “Both sides are digging in.”The presenters try to maintain a balanced approach in their coverage, though it sometimes appears a strain. Certainly, Coleman gamely attempts to mask any sympathies when asking Claire Hanna, the SDLP leader, if the Orange Order has been handed a PR victory by the blocking of a legally authorised march.[ Drumcree standoff puts a significant achievement of the peace process at riskOpens in new window ]“If that’s the analysis, it’s penny-wise and pound-foolish,” Hanna replies, referring to the potentially catastrophic repercussions of the marchers’ actions. “I totally get that, but the point still stands that the law is the law,” the host responds, sounding faintly anguished at having to posit such a narrow view. If nothing else, Coleman shows off his professionalism, not to mention his – how to say? – charitable side.The gravity of the Drumcree situation means that it dominates the airwaves early in the week. Much of the coverage follows predictable lines, however, exemplified by Monday’s tit-for-tat debate between the loyalist activist Jamie Bryson and the Sinn Féin TD Louise O’Reilly on The Claire Byrne Show (Newstalk, weekdays). Amid the well-worn positions, however, the occasional unorthodox voice breaks through, as Andrea Gilligan discovers on Lunchtime Live (Newstalk, weekdays).Like her Hard Shoulder colleagues, Gilligan laments developments in Portadown, but her conversation with the journalist Gemma McSherry offers an alternative view, not exactly optimistic but at least not despairing. [ Decades after flashpoints of the 1990s, Drumcree is just as dangerousOpens in new window ]Though she is from a unionist background in Newtownards, McSherry opposes the Orange march at Drumcree, describing it as a “distraction technique” by a scandal-embattled DUP.But it’s not so much McSherry’s seemingly atypical political stance that stands out as her insights into her thirtysomething peers in the North. While Gilligan notes that her guest has largely lived in a time of peace, McSherry says her contemporaries are “constantly haunted by the memories of the Troubles”, which are freshly resurrected with every new outbreak of strife. “Most of us want a better future,” she says. “It’s not fair that we’re being held hostage by a small angry minority.”As for what a better future might look like, Gilligan’s guest tentatively aspires to “a new Ireland” while pointing to more solid reasons for hope, such as the participation of Protestant pipe bands in Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann in Belfast in August. While hardly a prescription for imminent reconciliation, McSherry’s lesser-spotted take on life in the North – “Nobody wants this” – provides some much-needed seedlings of sanguinity. We shouldn’t need to rely on internet billionaires for our good news. To coin a phrase, philanthropy begins at home.Moment of the weekBy way of underscoring his status as top dog on RTÉ Radio 1, Brendan O’Connor (weekends) talks to a Dublin beat combo named U2. The megastar rockers chat with the host on Sunday to promote their new album, but the interview really comes to life when the group reminisce about their formation, 50 years ago, at Mount Temple Comprehensive School in north Dublin. [ U2 podcast: Drummer Seeks Musicians - the story of how U2 beganOpens in new window ]The four members inject irreverent energy into the well-known story of how they first met in Larry Mullen jnr’s home, after the drummer pinned up a notice looking for musicians. Asked by O’Connor if he was pleased by the original turnout, Mullen jokes about having the odd moment of regret at the group’s subsequent trajectory: “I could have been a nobody.” Stereotypical nation of begrudgers that we are, some will wish that was the case; otherwise, however, the conversation has a joshing camaraderie that would win over all but the most hardened U2 cynic.