Comments on: Irish Democracy is Totally Screwed

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 it’s most successful programs at the height of the popularity - don’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 ?

By: old knudsen

old knudsen — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 08:02:43 +0000

I know nothing about this so I’ll wish ya a happy 12 th july.