Comments on: Irish Democracy is Totally Screwed

By: andrew

andrew — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 16:33:50 +0000

Vincent Brown is back and still on air in 2010. It also has free reign to say whatever it likes. It has invited the most critical commentators onto the show. The very essence of democarcy. Free speech is alive and well in the Republic of Ireland and blossing. It is yet to be seen wheather free speech can generate change.

By: Bock

Bock — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 15:34:39 +0000

Conan: Whatever else might have happened to Frank Hall, the programme was definitely axed.

Wrinkly Joe: that's right. They had a go at everyone, and therefore all the politicians were glad to see the back of them.

Rambling Man: Well, I gove a fuck. And so does Wrinkly Joe, and Conan and Kieran and Nora and the Hangar Queen, and Mairead, and Medbh and Niall and . . . .

By: Rambling Man

Rambling Man — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 11:25:09 +0000

hey man – we're irish and we love this sort of thing … it'll take george bush and his cronies to put a nuclear weapons silo in the phoenix park before we realise what they are up to ! we couldnt give less of a fuck

By: Wrinkley Joe

Wrinkley Joe — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 07:27:11 +0000

Conan, I must disagree. Hall's Pictorial Weekly had a hop off everyone. The demented Ballymagash councillor , played by Frank Kelly, was very definitely FF and don't forget the slimy Charlie Hawkeye (I wonder who that was ?) . The only reason the Coalition got more stick was because they were the government at the time.

By: Conan Drumm

Conan Drumm — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 01:41:29 +0000

re Hall's pictorial weekly… Hall relentlessly satirised the coalition government, never had a go at the opposition and, if memory serves, he was rewarded with a state sinecure by the FF government when he was appointed Film Censor, without the post having been advertised.

By: Bock

Bock — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 21:44:56 +0000

Jesus, Nora, you were doing great until you mentioned the Independent.

Kieran, that's a complete pain in the arse, but maybe it will spur you on to even more insightful and witty coments. Who knows?

By: Kieran

Kieran — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 14:48:32 +0000

I wrote a fantastically insightful and witty comment, then the bastard page refreshed all by itself. Bloody censors, obstructing my hard hitting comments.

By: Nora

Nora — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 13:48:57 +0000

"I mean every Radio/TV station drops itÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s most successful programs at the height of the popularity - donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t they ?" They're saying Vincent's numbers were down ... It is understood that falling listenership figures were behind the decision by Ms Leddy to drop the show. "Vincent Browne has been consistently losing listeners for a while now, and he was also having problems holding down a backroom team, so it was probably coming," one Montrose insider said. but I grant you, that could be a load of waffle and spin ... on the other hand, wouldn't Vincent deny it? He hasn't, as far as I know. ... the 62-year-old said he was leaving RTE on good terms and revealed that he yesterday signed a contract with Random House to write a biography on his old sparring partner, Charles J Haughey. I'm quoting the Indo. Have a good 12th, all.

By: Bock the Robber

Bock the Robber — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 10:24:43 +0000

Well remembered. And furthermore, do you recall the incident on Nighthawks that caused such a furore? It was when the late Sean Doherty (former Justice minister) spilled the beans on Haughey during an informal interview on the show.

By: Wrinkley Joe

Wrinkley Joe — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 09:27:02 +0000

I'm not paranoid but… there once was a satirical program on TV called Hall's Pictorial Weekly that has been credited with the ousting of the Fine Gael/Labour government because of it's merciless lampooning of said government. Funnily enough the program's demise coincided with Charlie Haughey's election as Taoiseach. RTE's next attempt at satire was a TV program called Night Hawks. Despite attaining a top ten rating for most of it's lifespan Night Hawks was scrapped after 2 years. Next up was the infamous Scrap Saturday radio program, probably the funniest and nastiest of them all. It had HUGE listening audience but, following a now recognisable pattern, it was inexplicably 'scrapped' after 3 years. Of course I'm not implying that any political pressure was applied to RTE to drop any of these programs. I mean every Radio/TV station drops it's most successful programs at the height of the popularity – don't they ?