Radio reviews: It’s a fair assumption that Mary Lou McDonald can’t have intended to end her interview in the way she did

Today with Claire Byrne and The Brendan O’Connor Show

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald. Photo: Getty

Declan Lynch

We should probably make more allowances for the fact people say things on live radio that they never intended to say, and that they don’t necessarily mean – and that they would probably say it a lot better if only they could have another crack at it.

The French call it “l’esprit ­d’escalier”, or staircase wit, this idea of realising too late the perfect thing to say. And live radio is a kind of never-ending monument to it. Even the smoothest operators in some quiet corner of their minds are haunted by the memory of men such as Joe Jacob.