Marian Finucane

michael999999

Isn't mary hanafin still vice president of fianna fail?

JonathanAnon

Mary Hanafin must be one of the most conceited people in Ireland.. "I give lectures, and I chair this and that"... She's a school teacher, no more no less.. She was afforded the opportunity to move up the ladder because a) her father was well connected in FF and b) being a teacher she will have her job waiting for her no matter what else happens..

And this crap "nobody in the opposition was calling for cuts in spending, more regulation etc etc"... She wasnt hugely paid to be more competent than the opposition, she was prepared to be competent at the job in her own right.. It's simply not good enough, given the amount of money she still continues to pull from the State, to say "well we were incompetent, but the opposition were too".

goose2005

JonathanAnon wrote: »

And this crap "nobody in the opposition was calling for cuts in spending, more regulation etc etc"... She wasnt hugely paid to be more competent than the opposition, she was prepared to be competent at the job in her own right.. It's simply not good enough, given the amount of money she still continues to pull from the State, to say "well we were incompetent, but the opposition were too".

FG called for cuts and regulation and slowdown in 2002, and they got slaughtered by Middle Ireland. So they gave up.

Callan57

Infoanon wrote: »

Did I imagine it ? or when Mary Hanafin said it was difficult to adjust to life after the Dail , did one of the contributors said that was a reason why the Seanad should be retained so that politicians would have something to do ??

Took until 12.25 to cover Cyprus...for all of 4 minutes...

Yes indeed someone did say it .... and added because of their great knowledge and wealth of experience! Knowledge & experience of how to submit expense claims while simultaniously beggering the country ... never mind the small matter of democracty. I thought that was the one power people had in a democracy that we could vote them out now this genius wants a back door to let them back in again despite the peoples verdict. This is one of the reasons I want to see an end to the Seanad and the sooner the better.

Roger_007

Why is Nessa Childers on the airwaves again...she's just a bandwagon-jumper.

mike65

She sounds a desperately "sincere" type.

She'll be on Newstalk later I bet.

Spliter!

Roger_007

She went to Ringsend Tech in order to get into MEDICINE! Who's she kidding?

honeybear

2 Film and TV reviewers acting like children with petty squabble about a review (re medical condition about lead character). Felt sorry for Marion. Anyone else hear it. Just felt there was tension between the two reviewers.

RadioRetro

Yeah, heard that. Agree, yer wan sort of slapped down yer man saying "I can definitely tell you it's [insert illness here, I wasn't paying attention]".

P. Breathnach

So one studio guest disagreed with another. That's hardly a first for radio.

For what it's worth, one said Alzheimer's, and the other said Parkinson's.

honeybear

P. Breathnach wrote: »

So one studio guest disagreed with another. That's hardly a first for radio.

For what it's worth, one said Alzheimer's, and the other said Parkinson's.

I just thought that the two reviewers were niggling each other and quite unprofessional. This segment reminded me of disagreements that we used to have as children where we would always try to have the last word (and run out the door as we said it!)

Callan57

Just listening to the podcast now & is it me or is Nessa Childers extremly inarticulate? I have listened to her and, as with the last controversy she was involved in, I can't make head or tail of exactly what her position is. I know what she's saying I just do not understand what she means ... she seems to be all over the shop. IMO she could do with a few sessions of psycoanalysis herself

Colours

honeybear wrote: »

I just thought that the two reviewers were niggling each other and quite unprofessional. This segment reminded me of disagreements that we used to have as children where we would always try to have the last word (and run out the door as we said it!)

I was going to start a thread specifically in reaction to that complete sham of a film review today given by those 2 individuals: Natasha Fennell and the other guy whose name evades me - call him Mr A.

Yes I picked up on their childish bickering one-up-manship over the air but what's a lot worse is that the quality of the film reviews - which is the purpose of them being given air time at all - was so bad as to be unacceptable. I went to see A Late Quartet in the IFI this afternoon and I thought it was excellent - gripping storyline, smooth pace of plot development, brilliant acting by the whole cast, beautiful scenes of New York and lovely pieces of music played throughout.

It was clearly communicated in every advert I've heard about this movie that it centered on the fallout in the quartet after its leader gets diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. What was revealed when Mr A brazenly claimed that Christopher Walken's character was suffering from early onset Alzheimer's and not Parkinson's - even after being challenged by Natasha Fennell on this - is that Mr A hadn't bothered his ass to actually watch the film properly or at all.

Natasha Fennell, who I generally find to be ok in her TV reviews, then slammed A Late Quartet on the grounds that the characters weren't credible in their performances as musicians and because the fact that Philip Seymour Hoffman's character goes jogging in the morning didn't ring true for her because in her opinion this guy would no more be into jogging in the park than the man in the moon - or words to that effect. I think Natasha Fennel was being shallow and superficial in singling out these minor and irrelevant aspects of the movie to dismiss it as a bad movie because they were only a tiny fraction of all the other scenes and character expositions that filled the movie. I personally found all of the actors' portrayals as musicians to be very convincing.

This 10 minute film and TV review slot on the Marian Finucane Show is supposed to be discerning and informative to the listener but it was neither. All it did was highlight the amateur and unconvincing performances of its two protagonists Natasha Fennell and Mr A and they get zero stars out of five from me.

JonathanAnon

Callan57 wrote: »

Just listening to the podcast now & is it me or is Nessa Childers extremly inarticulate? I have listened to her and, as with the last controversy she was involved in, I can't make head or tail of exactly what her position is.

I've listened to it a couple of times, and it's kind of hard to believe that she's "achieved" as much as she has.. she comes across as being childish and fickle.. She transferred to the Greens (under the Bosman Tom Parlon rule, i.e. that you should never hold back your personal progress by adhering to principles), then said that she was approached by Gilmore before the European elections, and chose to transfer back.. just because she was asked, not because she aspired to be a member of the European parliament

Same recognisable conceit as Mary Hanafin... "I could have gone to medical school".. When in reality, it's hard to believe that she would have been elected to a school committee without her surname. And I've heard enough about psychoanalysis rubbish from Michael Murphy to discredit that particular profession for the rest of my duration..

Harry Angstrom

Must be a very slow news day if Dave Fanning is being allowed to waffle on about The Rolling Stones for the past half hour :rolleyes:

michael999999

Harry Angstrom wrote: »

Must be a very slow news day if Dave Fanning is being allowed to waffle on about The Rolling Stones for the past half hour :rolleyes:

Imagine the amount of research that saved the overworked marion!

real rocker

Harry Angstrom wrote: »

Must be a very slow news day if Dave Fanning is being allowed to waffle on about The Rolling Stones for the past half hour :rolleyes:

Perhaps the show will come from Glastonbury at the appropriate time if a big enough CLOUD can be found.

JonathanAnon

Just read the latest from Noel Curran.

RTÉ said the projected wages bill for the highest-paid presenters in 2013 is expected to be in the region of €3m, a reduction of more than 30pc compared to 2008. Under her latest deal, Marian Finucane earns €295,000 – down 48pc from her peak pay in 2008. Mr Curran said:

"Marian Finucane has taken an absolutely huge reduction in her fees and she is continuing to deliver audiences which by European standards at the weekend are quite phenomenal. RTÉ on the weekend is way ahead of comparable broadcasters in Europe in terms of the audiences Marian’s shows bring."

Curran just doesnt get the point. Finucane should not be paid more than 150K, it doesnt matter what percentage of her wages she's dropped, she is still hugely overpaid for four hours on air time. Nonsense about her being "European quality"... Rachel English and anybody else presenting the job did just as good a job as Finucane when they took over on one of Marian's many breaks.. RTE cannot afford Marian Finucane and somebody in there should have had the balls to just simply say this to her at the last contract negotiation..

VinLieger

JonathanAnon wrote: »

Just read the latest from Noel Curran.



Curran just doesnt get the point. Finucane should not be paid more than 150K, it doesnt matter what percentage of her wages she's dropped, she is still hugely overpaid for four hours on air time. Nonsense about her being "European quality"... Rachel English and anybody else presenting the job did just as good a job as Finucane when they took over on one of Marian's many breaks.. RTE cannot afford Marian Finucane and somebody in there should have had the balls to just simply say this to her at the last contract negotiation..

Exactly its a disgrace how RTE prop up these salaries with the tv license, 300k for 4 hours air time a week?

Caledonman

VinLieger wrote: »

Exactly its a disgrace how RTE prop up these salaries with the tv license, 300k for 4 hours air time a week?

The salary problems in RTE are not what the presenters are paid. The bigger issue that they have to deal with is the amount of staff they have, producers, researchers and so on that are on inflated salaries, and seemingly can't be touched... I would love to know how many staff put the likes of Tubridy or Colm Hayes show together and compare it to commercial stations like Today FM or Newstalk. On Finucane salary, why is 150k ok but not 300K?? Is she staff or on contract? The unions control the whole place anyway

Callan57

Caledonman wrote: »

The salary problems in RTE are not what the presenters are paid. The bigger issue that they have to deal with is the amount of staff they have, producers, researchers and so on that are on inflated salaries, and seemingly can't be touched... I would love to know how many staff put the likes of Tubridy or Colm Hayes show together and compare it to commercial stations like Today FM or Newstalk. On Finucane salary, why is 150k ok but not 300K?? Is she staff or on contract? The unions control the whole place anyway

IMHO 150K would still be obscene for <4 hours attendance. :mad:
This is exactly the argument used for not touching pay at the top in all sectors but the reality is that the example shown at the top naturally trickles down and why shouldn't it? Anyone offered those kind of terms would be a terrible fool not to take it but it's those who negotiated these kind of inflated salaries that are at fault and questions should be asked about their negotiating skills & suitability for their jobs.

Lapin

I'm getting a bit tired of all the stories stemming from that blasted teapot that Haughey presented to Thatcher now.

It seems that nobody who was present at the time can recall the importance of the meeting between the two leaders but everyone enjoys a little titter at Charlie's crafty ingenuity in presenting Maggie with a teapot she couldn't use. (People who normally treat Haughey with the same disdain we've seen reserved for Thatcher this week).

I doubt Thatcher gave a damn about it and it was probably forgotten within an hour of the summit while she was busy running or ruining the world depending on your opinion.

Meanwhile 30 odd years later we're still giggling over a frigging teapot.

Sierra Oscar

michael999999 wrote: »

Isn't mary hanafin still vice president of fianna fail?

No, and she hasn't been for a long time either.

Anyways I am a big fan of Ben Tonra, interesting to hear his take on Thatcher and her foreign policy!

my friend

Geraldine Kennedy can't even ad lib

She's reading poorly ....

Lost her scan twice now in the current diatribe

snubbleste

RTÉ encouraging the youth of the country to emigrate instead of rebelling!

newcavanman

JonathanAnon wrote: »

Just read the latest from Noel Curran.



Curran just doesnt get the point. Finucane should not be paid more than 150K, it doesnt matter what percentage of her wages she's dropped, she is still hugely overpaid for four hours on air time. Nonsense about her being "European quality"... Rachel English and anybody else presenting the job did just as good a job as Finucane when they took over on one of Marian's many breaks.. RTE cannot afford Marian Finucane and somebody in there should have had the balls to just simply say this to her at the last contract negotiation..

Couldnt agree more. you hit the nail on the head .

serfboard

JonathanAnon wrote: »

anybody else presenting the job did just as good a job as Finucane when they took over on one of Marian's many breaks

Wouldn't agree with you there ... remember Charlie Bird? :eek:

JonathanAnon

serfboard wrote: »

Wouldn't agree with you there ... remember Charlie Bird? :eek:

Ya, I was thinking about that when I wrote it.. He went a bit over the top with the amateur dramatics, but the other presenters were great.. Esp Rachel English.

constitutionus

JonathanAnon wrote: »

Ya, I was thinking about that when I wrote it.. He went a bit over the top with the amateur dramatics, but the other presenters were great.. Esp Rachel English.

and lets remember.

the audience figures went up when she was on holiday. still galls me that she took credit for that !

seriously why is she still there ? if she wanted a permanent job at RTE she shouldntve gone conrtact only . all business logic says she's disposable now and if she's big enough to take the cash pay off when she's worth it she's big enough to be sacked now she's not.

LordSutch

Inhale, "It has to be said" the 1st three minutes of last saturdays encounter with Marion nearly had me contacting the district nurse for a drag on her nebuliser and/or a loan of a St John's ambulance oxygen tank for the duration of Marion's two hour gulp fest! Personally I find all that gulping, smacking of the lips and gasping for air too much of a distraction to concentrate of the the topics at hand "it has to be said"

constitutionus

jays lads how crap was the show that it didnt even generate a page of comments ?

was gonna stream last sundays when it got slow but now im in two minds.

todolist

I see RTE are running propaganda ads on tax funded radio(RTE) stating how much they spend in the economy.They obviously know it's going to be hard to jail a citizen for not paying his contribution to th inflated salaries of comrade Duffy,and Pat Kenny,not to mention dour Turbidity.

L.Jenkins

Mod Note: Please keep on topic.

Rebelheart

Would Maureen Gaffney ever stop saying "you know". It consumes each and every interview with her. It's fucking brain dead. Every second sentence she's saying "you know" even though she's telling us about something new which, you know, most people, you know, wouldn't like, you know, know about.

Vacuous, lazy communicating style. No doubt she's paid for this lazy-arsed waffling, time-filling appearance handsomely.

JonathanAnon

I'd say Michael Murphy was busy talking b*ll*x somewhere else today so they had to get somebody else...

I had to laugh at Marian's intro of Pierce... "You had a rough start in life..You were born in Navan" :pac:

JonathanAnon

I'd say that Dave will find the engine of his car melted down when he heads outside to drive home.

Callan57

Excellent interview with Edmund Honahan, the man seems to be a rock of common sense & none of the usual hubris and pomposity we generally have to endure from members of the legal profession.
From what he said it seems to me that those who have been royally screwed over by the banks, developers & FF politicians are going to be screwed again by solicitors, barristers & so-called insolvency "advisors".

Colours

Rebelheart wrote: »

Would Maureen Gaffney ever stop saying "you know". It consumes each and every interview with her. It's fucking brain dead. Every second sentence she's saying "you know" even though she's telling us about something new which, you know, most people, you know, wouldn't like, you know, know about.

Vacuous, lazy communicating style. No doubt she's paid for this lazy-arsed waffling, time-filling appearance handsomely.

Completely agree, extremely poor communication style which is very irritating to listen to and distracts from whatever she's trying to say as the listener is distracted by the copious "you know"s she throws in because it would seem that she doesn't know what she's trying to say herself. It's so bad it actually sounds like some kind of tic which you'd imagine she'd have the psychological insight to do something about.

I've no doubt that Maureen Gaffney gets paid handsomely for her stints on RTE radio and TV - wasn't she just plugging her new TV show on RTE - and has a handy number going with RTE whereby she comes on the airwaves every few weeks to deliver that sub standard performance.

She should be replaced in that slot by someone else who is just as qualified and can string a sentence together and in fact if this were done RTE would also be demonstrating to the listeners and public at large that it means business and is putting the interests of the listener ahead of the vested interests of certain minor celebrities who get wheeled out on these kinds of programs time and time again entirely due to a sense of entitlement they appear to command.

washiskin

JonathanAnon wrote: »

I had to laugh at Marian's intro of Pierce... "You had a rough start in life..You were born in Navan" :pac:

:eek::eek::eek: The cheeky aul'cow!!! :D:D:D:D

Callan57

Breda O'Brien makes me puke .... like hell the teacher's "agonised" over the recent vote. Don't make me laugh the only issues teachers agonise over are their own "overgenerous" pay & conditions.

Pappa Charlie

Callan57 wrote: »

Breda O'Brien makes me puke .... like hell the teacher's "agonised" over the recent vote. Don't make me laugh the only issues teachers agonise over are their own "overgenerous" pay & conditions.

Puke away!

constitutionus

ha!

ya heard it here first guys, an ex lab leader saying the PS cant shut down the country.

how things change eh ?

JonathanAnon

This Iona Institute woman is embarrassing...

emo72

JonathanAnon wrote: »

This Iona Institute woman is embarrassing...

who in the name of Jesus is that woman? she sounds retarded.

Infoanon

JonathanAnon wrote: »

This Iona Institute woman is embarrassing...

Peter Boylan is making a show of Breda O'Brien - see Marian jumping in now to save Breda.......

Callan57

Typical Brenda ... ignore the facts when it doesn't suits your agenda. Peter Boylan is the cool, calm type of doctor I'd want in my corner if I was pregnant and ill.

JonathanAnon

I think it's Breda O'Brien.. She really needed to know the information backwards and forwards if she was gonna start questioning the doctor about it..

Infoanon

Breda O'Brien is digging a bigger hole for herself with every word she speaks - this should be the last time she appears on the RTE after this embaressment but alas she is probably now top of the contributors pick list.

Thankfully Peter Boylan was a guest to provide the truth.

JonathanAnon

I'd say Rónán Mullen is wishing that he'd gotten up early and gone in to studio himself this morning.. When Breda's argument was not working she then tried to discredit the doctor.. "I think you should put your cards on the table", "Where do you stand on 'x'?"... Awful stuff..

Callan57

JonathanAnon wrote: »

I'd say Rónán Mullen is wishing that he'd gotten up early and gone in to studio himself this morning.. When Breda's argument was not working she then tried to discredit the doctor.. "I think you should put your cards on the table", "Where do you stand on 'x'?"... Awful stuff..

Oh I'd say he was lecturing the radio. You'd think a teacher would have at least read up on the facts before rowing in but then facts don't really bother the Iona people. :rolleyes: