Best movie?
Inside I'm Dancing. I watched it with my children and we all enjoyed it, it’s very seldom that you get a movie that the whole family can enjoy, but that one was brilliant.. I thought it was great for children especially, it teaches them about disability and difference.
Best record?
Actually I’m afraid to say this to Hot Press but it was Hopes And Fears by Keane. We played it non-stop driving across Italy. And anything by Damien, Paddy or Declan, of course!
BEST BOOK?
The Gene Kerrigan book Little Criminals. I only read it in the last few days. I’ve always been a fan of his anyway, but this is his first novel and it’s brilliantly written. It’s a superb debut from a journalist.
BEST TV PROGRAMME?
Pure Mule, without a shadow of a doubt. I see myself as a cross between Terese and Bomber. I was actually thinking about it this morning, it was just brilliantly acted, brilliantly directed and brilliantly written. I liked Colin Murphy’s Blizzard Of Odd this year as well.
HERO OF 2005?
A guy called Noel Barry. He was the first person who called Liveline and raised the issue of being over-charged by solicitors at the re-dress board in late October. After that, we got an avalanche of calls from people in the same situation. The law society launched the inquiry as a result of that. They had only had one complaint before and, through Liveline, they got 147 in 5 days. And it all started with Noel Barry.
VILLAIN OF 2005?
The board of the Mater hospital in Dublin. Last April they hired a PR company to refuse the offer of three state-of-the-art units supplied by the Liveline listeners to alleviate over-crowding in A&E. Between the three of them they are worth nearly E200,000, and the hospital refused to take them. And still we hear about people being treated in broom closets in the A&E unit in the Mater hospital. It’s shocking. In the end we gave them to three charities so they did get used, but I really think the Mater should have taken them.
BEST PERSONAL MOMENT?
Seeing my three children graduate to Senior Sea Scouts.
BEST THING ABOUT THIS YEAR?
I was the MC and one of the people who helped to organise the Make Poverty History demo in Dublin. It was a march and a concert in Merrion Square on the last day in June, and there was 25,000 people at it. Glen Hansard did an incredible rendidtion of Mic Christopher’s ‘Hey Day’. I remember thinking that from the home town of Bono and Bob Geldof it was really important that we kicked it off, and that’s what happened when he played that song. I had hairs on the back of my neck, I’ll never forget it.
WHAT TICKLED YOUR FUNNY BONE?
I get a laugh out of a lot of things. I think the funniest thing, again this year, is how politicians still take themselves so seriously!
HOPE FOR NEXT YEAR?
Good health, obviously. I was reading a report there last week saying that if you’re of a lower income your health is just so more much reduced. I just hope that there’s a greater understanding and recognition, and less cynicism, about poverty. And more openness to actually deal with the issue itself.
The biggest controversy of 2005?
Either the A&E overcrowding, but that’s on-going, or the solicitors double charging. Probably the solicitors, in terms of the public impact and the result it achieved.