If you came here looking for Clare Radio as opposed to Radio Clare then I can only apologise and try to make amends by redirecting you to http://www.clarefm.ie

The origin of the name “Radio” is a bit complicated to explain, seeing as I didn’t invent it myself and wasn’t even present at the moment of its inception.

As far as I understand it, the nickname makes reference to the fact that the surest way of broadcasting information around my circle of acquaintances is to tell me and wait for me to inform everyone else. Seeing as I would describe myself as a rather quiet and not at all talkative sort of person, who is equipped with an average amount of discretion, one might question the extent to which this title is appropriate.

Nevertheless, I do like chatting to people and by doing so I sometimes find things out which other people possibly don’t know, though arguably ought to if they had anything about them, and in those circumstances it seems almost rude not to pass the information on. In a tactful sort of way, of course, and only with the aim of helping the smooth running of the universe…

Perhaps there is an element of truth then

In any case, to me it doesn’t matter. I voluntarily adopted the nickname for myself, quite some time after it was first invented, because I needed a new tag on MSN. I had for the best part of a year been going by the name of “I used to think I was indecisive but now I’m not sure”, which I suspect may be a far more accurate, though obviously not as catchy, description of my personality. But my boyfriend, temporarily flirting with MSN whilst on a working jaunt to Germany, complained that it was far too long and kept cluttering up his screen.

Not wishing to give him an excuse not to speak to me, I promptly changed it back to simply “Clare”, but was rather perplexed the following day when another friend instantly greeted me and started admonishing me for something I had allegedly said to him last night. I hadn’t, to the best of my knowledge, actually spoken to him for several days, but it soon transpired that he already had one friend called Clare in his contacts, and there thus now existed the very real danger that he was going to get us confused. I usually have enough problems trying to make excuses for my own misdemeanours, so I certainly didn’t want to run the risk of having the crimes of some unknown pinned on me too. For that reason, another change of name seemed unavoidable, and I have absolutely no idea why but the Radio Clare joke came into my head. I guess I thought it would be a good way of distinguishing between me and any other Clares.

As time went by the name stuck, and quickly became abbreviated to Radio, occasionally “The Radio” when circumstances demand it. Whilst I may dispute the alleged lack of discretion which gave birth to it, I have nevertheless become quite fond of it, never having had any sort of nickname before. And so, when trying to think of a website name, Radio Clare seemed like the obvious choice