Marian Finucane

JonathanAnon

Just been listening to Brendan Balfe interviewing all the RTE heads in a program made for the 50th anniversary.. He'll be doing well to catch up with Marian before the 100th anniversary at this stage...

Gergiev

I know it's unkind but listening to Charlie Bird interviewing Mary Fitzgerald (Irish Times correspondent on the ground in Libya, Syria, etc), I can't help but reflect on his televised travails in the Antarctic, USA, etc.

Somehow, I can't shake that image of Charlie, alone on his bar-stool in Washington and bemoaning his lot in Washington, DC, where important people in the US won't even deign to take his phone-calls!

And let's not even contemplate his hardship in the Antarctic, boldly and intrepidly following in the footsteps of Shackleton, Crean, etc.

Contrast this with Ms FitzGerald, smuggling herself alone into various danger zones, in her flak-jacket to get the story out...

JonathanAnon

Gergiev wrote: »

I know it's unkind but listening to Charlie Bird interviewing Mary Fitzgerald (Irish Times correspondent on the ground in Libya, Syria, etc), I can't help but reflect on his televised travails in the Antarctic, USA, etc.

Haha.. I was listening to this on the way back from work tonight.. all I could think was....

- Journalist Mary Fitzgerald, who risked her life by reporting from Syria..
- Charlie Bird, who risked loneliness by reporting from the US.

GSF

Ah now Charlie reported on Gulf War 1 from a 5 star hotel room. At one stage the mini bar ran low.

grey_so_what

GSF wrote: »

Ah now Charlie reported on Gulf War 1 from a 5 star hotel room. At one stage the mini bar ran low.

Charlie did it for us you know.....He was particularly brave that day......

It's a medal he should be getting alone for the stress of checking into the Hotel ....

I felt his pain.....your life can depend on the contents of a Mini Bar....;)

mike65

WTF?

GSF

mike65 wrote: »

WTF?

care to elaborate?

Callan57

Best bit of comedy I've heard in a long time :D:D

Dirigent

If tomorrow is (allegedly) Charlie's last day in RTE, can we expect Made Marion back next weekend, or will we get another stand-in? Or maybe she'll follow Charlie's lead and go and cough and splutter somewhere else.

mike65

mike65 wrote: »

WTF?

GSF wrote: »

care to elaborate?

Irish Pictorial Weekly

Callan57 wrote: »

Best bit of comedy I've heard in a long time :D:D

The opening was very dodgy with the worlds least plausible Michael Noonan but yes it picked up well esp Olivia O'Leary (get under that under that calm exterior and one does indeed suspect she might go postal at any point!).

Callan57

mike65 wrote: »

Irish Pictorial Weekly



The opening was very dodgy with the worlds least plausible Michael Noonan but yes it picked up well esp Olivia O'Leary (get under that under that calm exterior and one does indeed suspect she might go postal at any point!).

Maybe I wasn't paying full attention but the first minute I actually thought it was Noonan. They gave poor old Charlie Bird a fair old battering too

washiskin

I think I would like to have heard more of Pheilim O'Rourke.....sounded like he was shut up to avoid the vested interests from getting upset.

juan.kerr

The long holidays for the RTE multimillionaires are a joke. I'd ring into Joe Duffy to vent my anger but he's probably still on his holidays.

Callan57

washiskin wrote: »

I think I would like to have heard more of Pheilim O'Rourke.....sounded like he was shut up to avoid the vested interests from getting upset.

He should learn to make his point without interrupting and shouting across the other panelists. I still don't understand what his point is, first he waffled on about statistics and how they are compiled then he was on to pensions ... lost me anyway.

washiskin

Callan57 wrote: »

He should learn to make his point without interrupting and shouting across the other panelists. I still don't understand what his point is, first he waffled on about statistics and how they are compiled then he was on to pensions ... lost me anyway.

Agreed, he was a bit short on interview etiquette - but he was annoyed that the visitor numbers pumped out by Tourism Ireland are skewed by including emigres returning home on visits (one of whom is his daughter). And then he said (which was news to me) that Bord Failte part timers are being let go while at the same time the CEO's pension is being topped up by 75k so he can retire at 55.
I think the whole segment got Charlie Bird a bit flustered as he was not expecting fur to fly.

JonathanAnon

Michael Patwell first tells us that he left working in customs because one day his boss forced him to hand back contraband to a famous Irish rugby player, having found it in a search of his bags.. And then goes on to admit that when he was making it on to the district court, he pulled a few political levers.... Pretty hypocritical imo.. He's against corruption, except for when it's to his benefit. Why didnt Charlie Bird pick him up on this?

GSF

Not this nonsense that the Apollo 11 was all filmed on a Hollywood film set. And here is Leo Bloody Enright again. Is there only 1 person who knows about space in Ireland?

Lapin

GSF wrote: »

Not this nonsense that the Apollo 11 was all filmed on a Hollywood film set. And here is Leo Bloody Enright again. Is there only 1 person who knows about space in Ireland?

David Moore must be on holiday.

They usually have him on in the same way they have Conor Faulknan on every time they're talking about petrol prices. He's been on the radio more often than Joe, Pat and Marian all week.

Oh, wait.....

GSF

Bird's lack of basic knowledge makes me wish he would retire to the moon

mike65

What did we get out of going to the moon? Charlie squawks with an almost desperate existential tone of voice.

Lapin

GSF wrote: »

Bird's lack of basic knowledge makes me wish he would retire to the moon

Thanks GSF - I won't get this out of my head for the rest of the day now.

my friend

RTE would rather blow our cash on big payoffs to its elites than spend money on proper phone lines...

Had they Leo calling in on Skype?

Terrible

Lapin

Probably the radio moment of the week just there -

The irony of Leo Enright telling us how the moon landings contributed to the advancement of technology before his phonline breaking down.

my friend

Who are these gimps?

Reaching for power on/off ....

Lapin

They're taking the silly season a bit too far.

GSF

It just makes you despair at how poorly RTE reacts to any unplanned news at the weekend. Lets have Charlie Bird discuss the moon landing with Peter Matthews to fill time.

Quick lets call Jim Power for his thoughts too - I'm sure he predicted a soft landing

my friend

More debt forgiveness shïte talk from an ärsehole that won't deliver on what he signed for

Man up RTE, tell your staff to quit pushing the debt forgiveness agenda

constitutionus

my friend wrote: »

More debt forgiveness shïte talk from an ärsehole that won't deliver on what he signed for

Man up RTE, tell your staff to quit pushing the debt forgiveness agenda

but but but...

...so many of them will need it !

europa11

GSF wrote: »

It just makes you despair at how poorly RTE reacts to any unplanned news at the weekend. Lets have Charlie Bird discuss the moon landing with Peter Matthews to fill time.

Quick lets call Jim Power for his thoughts too - I'm sure he predicted a soft landing

Classic! :pac:

donaghs

Are they still calling it the Marian Finucane show? I presume she'll be back some time between September and the next 2013 primary school holidays?

JonathanAnon

donaghs wrote: »

Are they still calling it the Marian Finucane show? I presume she'll be back some time between September and the next 2013 primary school holidays?

She's back next week... (filling in for Charlie Bird who is retiring ).

mike65

I assume they don't have smoke alarms in that studio.

europa11

JonathanAnon wrote: »

She's back next week... (filling in for Charlie Bird who is retiring ).

Fair play to Marzie. Despite declining standards, she's still the best guest presenter of the MF Show, can't wait to hear those clattering coffee mugs, the rustle of "research" a.k.a the Sunday papers, furious scribbling and of course, that trademark 80-a-day cough wafting through every conversation.

btw, Ladbrokes have closed the book on Jim Power making the panel for Her Heinys' return....mind you the odds of 1/33 were never going to attract much interest, much like Mr. Soft Landing himself.

DuckStab

Who's the stand-in this week? I think I recognise her voice but I've only heard her filling in once or twice in the past.

Bits_n_Bobs

brendan o'carroll. Again. I guess he is at least a bit less shrill than charlie bloody bird.

Rebelheart

So, when's Marian Finucane's contract up for renewal? Surely this information is in the public domain?

Likewise with the rest of these obscenely overpaid RTÉ presenters.

Rebelheart

If true, that's an interesting history of [commercial] contract law and the reason the name "royalties" is used (apparently oil contractors paid a fee to Arab royalty) from of all people Brendan O'Carroll.

Rochester

St Brenan O'Carroll. Is he ever off the radio? The bar is so low in RTE. now he is trying to justify swearing

Rebelheart

Is there a reason Finucane just referred to Martin Naughton as "Mr Naughton"? Is Naughton so rich and esteemed that he's above a first name, sort of like "Sir" over in Britain?

What an idiot of a Yank talking now - Don Criqui - about how, unlike the Irish, he doesn't understand... cricket. Er, did he even look at a map before he came on an Irish radio programme? Or read even a five line (one line?) summary of Irish-British relations? Or hear of the GAA?

EchoO

Rebelheart wrote: »

So, when's Marian Finucane's contract up for renewal? Surely this information is in the public domain?

Sometime this year, exactly when I don't know. We won't find out the details until 2014, but from what the Director General has said it will for 1/3 less than the last one.

Callan57

The extensive research this week didn't even extend to knowing Martin Naughton's first name :mad:

Harry Angstrom

Is anyone else sick and tried of hearing Brendan O'Carroll being interviewed on RTE? Okay, it's great that Mrs Brown's Boys has done so well blah blah blah, but practically every interview he gives is identical to his other interviews - the same old quips and anecdotes. It's getting boring. Hopefully they might do a version of Mrs Brown in Kyrgystan and O'Carroll will have to go out there for a year or two.

Happyman42

Harry Angstrom wrote: »

Is anyone else sick and tried of hearing Brendan O'Carroll being interviewed on RTE? Okay, it's great that Mrs Brown's Boys has done so well blah blah blah, but practically every interview he gives is identical to his other interviews - the same old quips and anecdotes. It's getting boring. Hopefully they might do a version of Mrs Brown in Kyrgystan and O'Carroll will have to go out there for a year or two.

BUT you are not allowed to be critical, (despite the fact that he uses the most hackneyed jokes in the world, the acting is atrocious and the quaint use of his family wears out after 1 episode)
The boy showed the Beeb a thing or two and did good in Blighty 'Arry.....shut the fook up yeh auld begrudger!

RoundyMooney

Harry Angstrom wrote: »

Is anyone else sick and tried of hearing Brendan O'Carroll being interviewed on RTE? Okay, it's great that Mrs Brown's Boys has done so well blah blah blah, but practically every interview he gives is identical to his other interviews - the same old quips and anecdotes. It's getting boring. Hopefully they might do a version of Mrs Brown in Kyrgystan and O'Carroll will have to go out there for a year or two.

He's an arrogant little bollix-spent most of the interview likening himself to Shakespeare and Wordsworth. I'm not kidding. Then lolling at the invitation from Denis Desmond(?) to throw some old tat together to fill a couple of weeks in the Gaiety. (I'm paraphrasing O' Carroll, paraphrasing Desmond. Then making light of the fact that he has his whole family stuck in the Brown's Boys juggernaut, regardless of talent.

Between himself, his equally croaky other half, and Finucane (whose cough is getting ominously worse-she really needs to nip the smoking in the bud)-it was at times hard to tell who was talking!

JonathanAnon

Brendan O'Carroll was on with Miriam and on other shows recently and it's way too soon to have yet another interview with him.... I think the success is starting to go to his head a bit with the references to Wordsworth and the like... And after he had left the studio, Marion referred to him as Brendan O'Connell..?

Harry Angstrom

Happyman42 wrote: »

BUT you are not allowed to be critical, (despite the fact that he uses the most hackneyed jokes in the world, the acting is atrocious and the quaint use of his family wears out after 1 episode)
The boy showed the Beeb a thing or two and did good in Blighty 'Arry.....shut the fook up yeh auld begrudger!

Ah, if it isn't me ould adversary Happyman!

EchoO

How come RTE stars are still on hols?

AUTUMN is here and the schools are back -- but RTE's highly paid presenters are working off a summer roster.
It means some of the station's big names, including Pat Kenny and Marian Finucane, are still not back from their holidays.
But Montrose bosses have defended the amount of time taken off by the stars.
Pat, Marian and Mary Wilson are understood to be back on Monday -- not long before the Dail gets going again a couple of weeks later.
The station insists the days of the RTE's top radio presenters disappearing for the summer are gone.
Annual leave for the likes of Pat, Marian, Ryan Tubridy and John Murray is staggered, so the "integrity" of Radio 1's service is maintained, a spokesman told the Herald.
Radio spokesman Joe Hoban said John Murray, Derek Mooney and Joe Duffy are all back, though Pat Kenny is still on leave.
"Ryan Tubridy is back on air. He was on air last week and this week. RTE changed its practice and policy with regard to presenter leave about three years ago. John Murray and Pat Kenny would not be off at the same time. Joe Duffy and Mary Wilson would not be off at the same time. Broadly speaking, we have followed that pattern across the summer," Mr Hoban added. "There isn't really any more of that period when all the presenters were off air in the one block of time," he said.
The change of policy was implemented to "maintain the integrity of the service" during the summer months.
"We're a news and current affairs station and the news agenda keeps running across the summer," said Mr Hoban, who also pointed to issues of audience loyalty.
He said the term annual leave for many of RTE's top presenters is inaccurate as they're contractors who get paid for the days they work.
The latest figures from the broadcaster show Pat Kenny had earnings from the station of €729,604 in 2009, while Late Late Show presenter Tubridy raked in €519,667.
The total of earnings of the top ten presenters in 2009 was €3.95m, a reduction of 11.2pc on the 2008 total of €4.45m.
Of the ten, eight are contractors providing services to RTE and two are staff employees.


http://www.herald.ie/news/how-come-rte-stars-are-still-on-hols-3216696.html

Someone seems to have forgot to tell Marian about this (alleged)new summer holiday rostering system. She has been off since the first weekend of July.

Infoanon

EchoO wrote: »

Someone seems to have forgot to tell Marian about this (alleged)new summer holiday rostering system. She has been off since the first weekend of July.

And during Marians prolonged break she came to the conclusion that the country had rowed in behind the property tax.......thank god for Dan O'Brien bringing some reality to marzieland this morning.

Harry Angstrom

Infoanon wrote: »

And during Marians prolonged break she came to the conclusion that the country had rowed in behind the property tax.......thank god for Dan O'Brien bringing some reality to marzieland this morning.

It's definitely not good for somebody whose show revolves around current affairs to be taking such long holiday breaks. She couldn't even get Paul Ryan's name right this morning.

Lapin

The cloud of arrogance that follows Finnucane around became even denser yesterday as she wheezed herself back on the airwaves without as much as a word of thanks to any of those who filled her shoes over the last few months.

Not so much as a name mentioned or even an acknowledgement from the €50 per minute presenter.

Someone should tell her that a bit of manners costs nothing.