Yesterday I was invited in to DublinSouth FM to do a bit of radio. They had asked me to come in and speak a bit about myself and some stories in the newspaper during their 11am current affairs show. I was nervous about this but with all the other distractions this week I didn’t have a huge amount of time to think about it. Which was a good thing.

I arrived in to the studio having diligently read the morning’s paper (IT and Indo). A first, I normally read the paper in the evening. A lot of topical issues and I was curious as to how the whole thing would work. Would we go over beforehand what stories we wanted to discuss or would it just be sprung upon me and I would have to respond (and what if I didn’t know the issue?!).

When I got there I was told that I would be on for the entire 1 hour slot. A lot longer than the ten minutes I thought they wanted me for. It was very much going to be a case of here goes nothing. In studio was myself, the presenter and another pundit – actually a guy I had seen on stage with the Ranelagh Players, which was kind of cool. 11am came and we kicked off.

We began with a bit about me and how I came in to politics and then got talking about international arms control, which was great. No one has asked me about it in years so it was fun to discuss it again. Though I have to say I’m not up to speed on the current stuff and my recall wasn’t as sharp as it should be.

We then moved in to issues of the day and it was really interesting actually. Three people having a chat about what’s going on. It’s a funny dynamic in studio and on the radio because it’s not the same as just having a conversation. You have to be aware that the listeners can’t see your body language. You also have to speak in complete sentences, which is very much at odds with how we normally converse (well, at least for me). There is no possibility of intimation.

But I very much enjoyed it. My nerves calmed quickly enough and the time flew. Good experience and good practice.