Declan Lynch

George Lee outside Leinster House when he was a Fine Gael TD. Picture by Damien Eagers

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Declan Lynch Opinion George Lee is the grand wizard of the Stop Relaxing Brigade

In simpler times I used to write about the Stop Relaxing Brigade – that obscure but powerful force which was always keeping an eye on us, fearful that we might be enjoying ourselves in ways that were upsetting to them.

President Éamon de Valera with Jacqueline Kennedy at Áras an Uachtaráin in June 1967

Radio reviews: Civilisation couldn’t take it, but Ireland could

The Pat Kenny Show

Thin Lizzy's Live & Dangerous, 1978. Photograph: Robert Ellis/Repfoto

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From Springsteen at Slane to U2 in the Baggott Inn, Declan Lynch looks back at the glorious gigs of his past

The drama series The Terror, set in the middle of the 19th Century, is being viewed by some as an allegory for Covid-19 times. The crews of two ships are stuck in the Arctic for two years, going increasingly mad — all the more so when their tormented imaginations are visited by flashbacks of the old world that they knew.

The Masters tees off at Augusta this week — but at home our golfers have been unable to take to their local courses. Picture by Michael Madrid-USA Today

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Declan Lynch Opinion Paddy can only dream of a stroll on faraway fairways

Paddy loves the Masters.

Former Italy coach Cesare Prandelli reacts during the 2014 World Cup match against England. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach

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Declan Lynch Opinion Prandelli has cast light on a dark tunnel of mental health

Comedian Dave Chappelle has a riff about the late Anthony Bourdain, the man who, in Chappelle's opinion, had "the greatest job that show business ever produced". He "flew around the world, and ate delicious meals, with outstanding people".

Radio review: Kieran Cuddihy holds court as Niall Boylan riles up the bar

The Hard Shoulder

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Declan Lynch Opinion Bookies won't take a gamble when it involves online betting

Though I've been writing on this subject for much of the 21st century, there's an aspect of it which can momentarily escape my attention - as it did last week when Cheltenham brought on a lot of media analysis of the nature and the extent of online gambling.

How about a moratorium on vaccine chat?

LiveLine

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp. Photo: David Balogh/Getty Images

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Declan Lynch Opinion Liverpool's lads mown down by one bad thing after another

In the last year we have learned much about the way that a virus can jump from wildlife to humans, a process called zoonotic spillover. And thanks to Liverpool Football Club we have also learned about a similar process, whereby the characteristics of some other species can somehow invade the bodies of elite professional footballers - with catastrophic consequences.

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Declan Lynch Opinion Racing was as cruel as it was beautiful long before Elliott

Betfair were first out the gate, ending their sponsorship of Gordon Elliott, because the picture of him sitting on a dead horse was "completely at odds with the values of the Betfair brand".

Radio reviews: DJs are truly the curators of our own golden age

You know the way you’re listening to a music presenter, and they read out a request from a listener for a particular track, and they say they won’t be playing the track today, but hopefully soon they’ll get around to it? I don’t like that. I realise that in the list of human depravity it may not be close to the top, yet it’s one of those small things which to me indicates a broader malaise.

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Declan Lynch Opinion Tiger Woods: a genius the world needed, and then meanly rejected

In 2008 Tiger Woods won the US Open at Torrey Pines, with two stress fractures of the leg and extensive knee damage. Every time he hit the ball he was in agony, but he kept it going somehow, not just for the 72 holes of the tournament, but for a play-off round against Rocco Mediate.

Radio... So many agents of change, only one Joe Duffy

One of the reasons why Liveline will go on forever, is that it doesn't have to be "good" all the time.

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Declan Lynch Opinion Nothing that is any good can be called 'content'

In an essay on the film director Federico Fellini in the latest issue of Harper's magazine, Martin Scorsese has a few things to say about "content" - about the use of that word to describe "all moving images: a David Lean movie, a cat video, a Super Bowl commercial, a superhero sequel, a series episode".

Radio: Knowledge of Radio Garden of Eden goes viral

David Pogue, an American writer, discovered Radio Garden last week, and tweeted about it: "This is the COOLEST. A Google-Earth type representation of the planet. Every green dot is a radio station. Click any dot to listen in. It's like cultural teleportation. You could spend hours with this thing…"

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Radio... There's always time for a chat with the Gaffer

It was good to listen to the music business legend Billy Gaff from the Curragh of Kildare, talking on Sunday with Miriam for no apparent reason except that he is a music business legend.

Ben Cole as Charles Lindbergh in The Plot Against America

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Declan Lynch Opinion Trump is still driving this plot against America

The six-part HBO adaptation of Philip Roth's The Plot Against America, shown last year on Sky Atlantic, imagines what would have happened if Franklin D Roosevelt had lost the 1940 election to Charles Lindbergh - the celebrated aviator who, in Roth's vision, collaborates with the Nazis, keeping America out of the World War II.

DOLLY PARTON: She probably saw this coming

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Declan Lynch Opinion Dolly Parton is our last defence against a plague of propaganda

I've read a few good books during the pandemic, especially in the early stages when there was no football on TV to connect me to a higher contemplation of existence. These were books I had in the house that I'd meant to read for years - we'd be talking Austerlitz by WG Sebald, and That They May Face the Rising Sun by John McGahern, and the obvious pick, Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Ryanair Chief Executive Michael O'Leary. Photo: Reuters/ Peter Nicholls

Radio: Morning jabs by O'Leary pay off in the afternoon

Michael O'Leary actually did two interviews last Monday morning in which he said roughly the same things - but only one of them made it to Liveline.

As a child, Hozier would eagerly root through his dad's record collection before going to bed

Radio... When pirates ruled the waves, and a magic year

My most cherished personal memory of pirate radio was the Pat James Rock Show on Radio Dublin, to which my friend and Hot Press colleague Liam Mackey and I would go out on Wednesday nights with a load of records.

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Declan Lynch Opinion Would you care for a drop of nationalism in your vaccine?

There's a virus that has been with us for a long time and will be with us long after Covid-19 has ceased to be an issue, and it found its way into the body politic last week during the AstraZeneca rumpus.

Olivia O'Leary has her own version of America

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Radio... Donnelly visa makes Larry the voice of America

One of the odd things about our relationship with America, is that loads of Irish people have gone to live over there, but apparently only one of them has come in the other direction - that would be Larry Donnelly, the NUIG law lecturer who could be heard last week talking about Trump on Today FM, and on RTÉ, and who would be no stranger to Newstalk.

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Declan Lynch Opinion Trump is finally out, but the flood of toxic nationalism never stops

It wasn't that James Conner of Republicans Overseas could be heard on RTÉ's TV coverage of the Biden inauguration saying that "two frauds just got sworn in... one is a bona fide criminal" - no, that is to be expected, it is what this James Conner and all the other James Conners do.

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Declan Lynch's Diary Opinion President Donald John Trump... so bad they impeached him twice

Watching the impeachment of Donald John Trump, at times you felt that you had wandered into the wrong courtroom - that instead of legal argument about whether the defendant should face the mandatory death penalty or have his sentence commuted to life imprisonment, they were nailing him for violations of the Road Traffic Act.

Pat Kenny brings rigour to debate. Photo: Steve Humphreys

Radio... Paddy's Covid antics drive poor Pat to despair

I'll tell you what you don't want to be - you don't want to be someone from the HSE being questioned by Pat Kenny on a Monday morning when it seems that everything is out of control.

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally for the Republican candidates for U.S. Senate at Dalton Regional Airport January 4, 2021 in Dalton, Georgia. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images

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Declan Lynch Opinion As fascism rampaged, a beautiful thing happened way down in Georgia

In the run-up to the US election of 2016, you would find people talking about fascism - about whether Trump and other "populists" were part of a larger movement against democracy, or whether they were just pushing back against political correctness gone mad and everything would be all right.

Why, deep in our hearts, we're all on the 'N 17'

While there's usually not much tangible reward in the making of art, there's an old line that "it gives you a ticket for the Sweep" - or whatever is the current means of receiving some outlandish stroke of fortune.

Sunday a day of rest for hounds of political hell

Two of the main programmes on RTÉ Radio 1 on Sundays, This Week and Sunday Miscellany, were first broadcast in 1968. Indeed, the basic structure of the station on Sundays has remained unchanged for a very long time. There is still the deeply reassuring morning voice of the RTÉ legend, which used to be Ciarán Mac Mathúna and is now John Bowman. There's the sport in the afternoon, and the radio play in the evening.

A vial of the Oxford University/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine. Photo: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire

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Declan Lynch Opinion If only there were a vaccine against conspiracy theories

In a hardware store in Co Kildare recently, Richard Lennon, an American filmmaker living in that area, was near the checkout. Behind him was a man in his 50s, speaking to the woman who was next in line.

Silence is golden even if omerta is still the enemy

I was driving out of Arklow, listening to the Lyric feature The Silence in Between, when it occurred to me that I could have this column done by the time I got home - in theory at least.