McGurk seems to think every bit as well of himself as Kenny does, but the listener is not obliged to entertain his views on every given subject (except maybe rugby).

More importantly, though, there's something so much more maverick and unorthodox . . . so much less RTE Guide . . . about McGurk.

Good morning? Good morning, " he says every day. That second 'good morning' always sounds like some tiny but perfectly understandable malfunction.

But if his greeting was a mistake in the first instance, he never rectified it, and instead made it into a personal signature. There's confidence for you.

McGurk clearly enjoys chairing a programme that has . . . unhappily for us . . . come to regard itself as a top current affairs show. He's been haranguing his guests after the fashion of Jeremy Paxman.

On Tuesday's programme, for example, he put the screws on the mild-mannered Green TD, Trevor Sargent. Sargent was stating his objections to the building of another runway at Dublin airport. To build another runway, he said, would be to put all our eggs in the one basket and end up with a white elephant". Weehee!

Mixed metaphor of the week.

So the Greens in the next election will be opposing the new runway" McGurk asked. As long as it was not too late, said Sargent.

If contracts are already signed, it will be very likely. . . whistling. . .after the plane has left the runway. . ." he tailed off, perhaps humbled into silence by the colossal failure of another metaphor.

McGurk was persistent. ?Are you saying you will not go into a coalition that will build a fourth runway?" Sargent said the party would not approve the wasting of public money. McGurk repeated himself. ?Are you asking me to do the negotiations on the air?"

laughed Sargent, trying desperately for a ceasefire.

I am asking you to answer a question! , " said McGurk. He was roaring at him by now. There was more insistence from Sargent about cost-benefit analyses and public resources, interrupted by shouts of YES OR NO!" from McGurk. The exchange brought about that peculiar hybrid of boredom and embarrassment for which I don't think there's a word.

The next day he was once again trying to intimidate the harmless . . . this time Fr Iggy O'Donovan, the priest who concelebrated mass with a Church of Ireland minister. Mind you, McGurk wasn't the only one struggling to make something of this story. If the archbishops hadn't taken exception to the idea of two or more consenting adults having mass together, the media wouldn't have had to bother about it at all, but they did, so we've been led around all week by journalists chasing a phantom schism.

McGurk's angle had nothing to do with bishops sulking over not being asked for permission. He was all about transubstantiation, hundreds of years of conflict and innumerable wars". God, these are Anglicans we're talking about. If O'Donovan had said mass with a rabbi, now, that might be something.

You believe it becomes the body and blood of Christ and he doesn't, " said McGurk, pressing the eucharistic point. That is a generalisation, " corrected the priest. The Church of Ireland believes it too. It is just that down the centuries there have been theological and philosophical quibbles, much of it hair-splitting."

This is actually true, but the wording was too much for McGurk. No, no! Hang on!" he laughed, all phony incredulity.

It's hardly hair-splitting! This is one of the most fundamental divisions in Christendom! This has divided Europe for 700 years!"

How long do you have to spend hosting a talk show before you feel yourself equal to arguing points of Catholic doctrine with a priest . . . let alone a priest who teaches theology in Rome and can pronounce the word ?ecumenism" much more faithfully than you can?