RTÉ Radio chaos brings out best in David McCullagh but bomb threats underline vulnerabilities

First they came for David, then they came for Claire and, just to prove they meant business, they came for Marty. One by one, the fixtures of Irish morning radio suddenly disappeared from the airwaves on Friday morning, with the situation moving from faintly farcical to decidedly discombobulating before reaching deeply disturbing status.

The first sign that things were awry came on RTÉ Radio 1 when David McCullagh failed to appear in his usual post-Morning Ireland slot at 9am. A brief period of dead air was followed by an eclectic – and conspicuously soothing – selection of pop-rock music, punctuated by a continuity announcer apologising for the ongoing interruption and promising to “try to get things back on track”. The net effect of this creepily serene segment – pre-recorded, as it later turns out – was as comforting as an air-raid siren.

The longer the disruption continued, the more listeners suspected things were going badly wrong. This impression was soon confirmed on Newstalk, where Claire Byrne abruptly informed listeners to her morning magazine show that she had to go off-air immediately; her broadcast was promptly replaced by a repeat of the previous day’s show.

The growing sense of alarm that Irish radio stations were under full-blown attack was confirmed when Marty Whelan – a beloved broadcaster but hardly a strategic asset – failed to reappear on his Lyric FM show. Instead, his station colleague Niall O’Carroll took to the air half an hour earlier than usual, not only filling in for Whelan but also providing the first scraps of information on what was happening. Broadcasting from Lyric’s Limerick studio, he told listeners that RTÉ’s Montrose campus in Dublin had been evacuated after a security alert.

A former newsreader, O’Carroll delivered this troubling news in admirably cool and reassuring tones. He even managed to inject some humour into the situation, sympathetically imagining “poor Marty” sitting on a wall in Montrose, while joking about invoicing the station for the extra 30 minutes of work.

Gradually, things started to return to a vague normality. “And we’re back,” announced Claire Byrne, with disconcerting chirpiness. (In fairness, she could be forgiven some adrenaline-induced euphoria after a security threat.) Though she explained that the Newstalk building had been evacuated, Byrne didn’t immediately deal with the widespread threats, instead talking to pharmacist Tom McKenna – whom she met while waiting outdoors – about cholesterol-lowering statins. Then again, if there ever was a time to talk about stopping the heart fluttering, this was it.

Then, finally, the voice of David McCullagh could be heard on RTÉ Radio 1. “It has been quite an interesting morning,” the presenter commented, in characteristically dry fashion. He was first joined by his producer Niamh Lyons, who had ordered him to leave the studio just before he was due to go on air. “You kinda spoiled my morning,” the host recalls.

[ Disruption at RTÉ, Irish Independent and Newstalk after email threatOpens in new window ]

Unsurprisingly, an improvised air still prevailed. McCullagh explained how he was broadcasting from RTÉ’s ‘roadcaster’ mobile studio – “It’s colder inside than outside” – with his transmission patched to the national network by colleagues in Cork. (If nothing else, the crisis will have underlined the value of regional studios to RTÉ management.)

But despite the circumstances, McCullagh did a good job in recounting developments. He interviewed Taoiseach Micheál Martin, who made all the right noises about remaining calm and staying focused on such disruptions in advance of next week’s EU summit, while studiously avoiding any comment on whether Russia was responsible for the threats. Martin did, however, note that people in Ireland now have some appreciation of the hybrid warfare experienced by the Baltic nations. But while the Taoiseach’s tone was controlled, his appearance only underlined the scale of the chaos.

Even so, the on-air atmosphere gradually grew less tense. McCullagh analysed the situation with typical thoroughness, hearing from a range of security experts who all pointed the finger of blame towards Russia, particularly in the light of the ongoing bomb threats to European flights and earlier cyberattacks on freezers.

And eventually, the mood took on an almost jovial hue, with guests and host exhibiting the kind of jumpy high spirits that can often follow a shock; Marty Whelan even turned up, thus reassuring a traumatised nation that he was safe, while Labour TD Aodhán Ó Ríordán made a pointed joke about the freezing McCullagh borrowing a tracksuit top from Ger Gilroy, the former Newstalk sports presenter recruited by RTÉ to the reported discontent of the State broadcaster’s staff.

By the time Oliver Callan took over from McCullagh, the air had become officially giddy. Callan noted that the mobile broadcasting unit only has an hour’s worth of power left, but otherwise carried on in his usual irreverent style, which never sounded more welcome.

But the breezy tone was deceptive. Far from being a jolly wheeze, the on-air pandemonium surely underlined the vulnerabilities lurking beneath our everyday lives. It certainly brought home just how easy it is for the things people take for granted – even institutions such as RTÉ – to be upended in a second. One suspects it will be some time before normal service is resumed.

[ On Liveline, Kieran Cuddihy receives a gift from the radio godsOpens in new window ]