Sean O'Rourke Today Show

PeterTheNinth

BarryD wrote: »

John Murray has been doing the radio sports coverage for quite a few months now. I'd often listen in and he seems relaxed and well informed on the whole.

I dont agree Barry. He's the wrong fit for the job and clearly is only there cos RTE cant fire him or dont have the heart to fire him. His "pretty little girl from Omagh" sketch on his own show was so unbelievably stupid. To not see the significance of the song clearly demonstrated that he didnt even have a passing interest in the GAA. (alebit Mickey Harte IS being petty by still not speaking to RTE five years later).

John was capable at the serious/business/political stuff and should have been left there. But RTE seem to have an amazing capability to fit round pegs in square holes. If they HAD to keep him, then they should have terminated Finucane's contract last time round and let Murray have Sat/Sun mornings. That would have made sense.

Brendan Bendar

PeterTheNinth wrote: »

I dont agree Barry. He's the wrong fit for the job and clearly is only there cos RTE cant fire him or dont have the heart to fire him. His "pretty little girl from Omagh" sketch on his own show was so unbelievably stupid. To not see the significance of the song clearly demonstrated that he didnt even have a passing interest in the GAA. (alebit Mickey Harte IS being petty by still not speaking to RTE five years later).

John was capable at the serious/business/political stuff and should have been left there. But RTE seem to have an amazing capability to fit round pegs in square holes. If they HAD to keep him, then they should have terminated Finucane's contract last time round and let Murray have Sat/Sun mornings. That would have made sense.

Peter!!!

Firstly Murray was passable on MI but had connections to Lab.

He was reasonable on the Business but after the stint on the 0900-1000 slot in my opinion has lost all credibility on the business/ political fields.

I could t take him seriously after that.

He's passable in Sport and I hope he 'grows into' the role, but with no background in any Sport or involvement that I know of, will always struggle.

Wish the lad well, though.


Replacing Finucane on Sat and Sun...!!! ....... I have a better chance and it would make more sense.

PeterTheNinth

Brendan Bendar wrote: »

Firstly Murray was passable on MI but had connections to Lab.

Yeah, but this really doesnt seem to hinder a person's progress in RTE. I mean Tubridy is an out-and-out FFer, and there he is interviewing Brian Cowan, Shane Ross, Enda Kenny (who he was actually very disrespectful to and nobody questioned why), Lucinda Creighton etc etc... So Murray's Labour background would be nothing to hold against him.

My point would be that I heard him standing in for Pat Kenny or Marian Finucane (a few years back) and he did a good enough job. So if they HAVE to keep him in RTE, then this is the sort of job they should give him. Not that awful comedy spot they had him doing at 9am, imitating famous people and telling knock knock jokes.

yosser hughes

If this was in any other loss making company, he'd be let go as would half the sports department who are twiddling their thumbs. They have no imagination and are shown up by the alternatives in Second Captains and Off the Ball.

BarryD

PeterTheNinth wrote: »

...they should have terminated Finucane's contract last time round and let Murray have Sat/Sun mornings. That would have made sense.

Maybe Murray is 'the wrong fit' in sport for you as people have pigeon holed him in the business type programming. But I do agree re above, he would suit the weekend morning shows and make a good fist of them, though there'd be added pressure you'd think in the political stuff.

On topic, that pair on S'OR this morning - the Harry Barry's would do your head in. I'm sure they're grand doctors individually but together it's the equivalent of water boarding the listener!

Callan57

Brendan Bendar wrote: »

Peter!!!

Firstly Murray was passable on MI but had connections to Lab.

He was reasonable on the Business but after the stint on the 0900-1000 slot in my opinion has lost all credibility on the business/ political fields.

I could t take him seriously after that.

He's passable in Sport and I hope he 'grows into' the role, but with no background in any Sport or involvement that I know of, will always struggle.

Wish the lad well, though.


Replacing Finucane on Sat and Sun...!!! ....... I have a better chance and it would make more sense.

Was it not the PD's he was involved with?

P. Breathnach

Callan57 wrote: »

Was it not the PD's he was involved with?

The uncertainty here suggests that his political profile is not very high. I have no knowledge of any political leanings he might have.

Brendan Bendar

Callan57 wrote: »

Was it not the PD's he was involved with?

My mistake Callan, it was the PDs, apologies.

P. Breathnach

P. Breathnach wrote: »

The uncertainty here suggests that his political profile is not very high. I have no knowledge of any political leanings he might have.

Mary Harney was so impressed with him on Morning Ireland that she hired him as her press adviser (make of that what you will, regarding his ideological bias), he then became Deputy Government Press Secretary and, according to wikipedia, Head of Government Information Services (Ministry of Propaganda, as it's called in the history books). He was the Axis Sally of the PDs, and I find it remarkable that he was able to walk directly back into a current affairs and political commentary position with RTÉ after the PDs imploded.

Sweet old Georgia Lee is still reporting on the cattle prices from Nenagh Mart.

I have never been a fan of John Murray, but he certainly doesn't belong in current affairs; not least because he had a habit of posting it in. He was about as enthusiastic about the 9am slot as his plummeting listenership was.

He's alright at the sports presenting, although that's probably because its a chairman role, where the analysis and commentary is performed by others. He's really only a talking scoreboard, and frankly, is about as charming.

Here follows a post-script & tangent:
I know this forum can come across as a bit bitchy, so let me say that my cynicism is not general. I've always loved the combination of Des and Jacqui in weekend sports coverage. Des might not be everybody's cup of tea, but has a bungling charm; Jacqui is a very astute interviewer and has a contagious enthusiasm for all types of sport. Bryan Carthy, for example, is simply superb, and I am constantly amazed how RTÉ can persistently overlook professionals like him in favour of the likes of Murray or some of the more mediocre commentators.

BarryD

Ah Eamon Dunphy, another chap who likes to 'run with the hare and hunt with the hounds'.

BarryD

Yes Eamon, it is the people's chequebook. The people who pay their taxes and lots of them. It's not Eamon Dunphy's chequebook.

BarryD

I don't think anyone in the general public is 'running down public servants and their wages'. It's Gardai, teachers, bus drivers etc etc who are pushing for increases, that's a very different matter. The pushing is coming from that direction. Methinks Eamon is just trying to raise his profile a bit. First he attacks Ross and then complains that independent TDs are being treated unfairly a few sentences later!

PeterTheNinth

Was that item supposed to have been balanced, or a promo spot for Hilary Clinton?

Brendan Bendar

BarryD wrote: »

I don't think anyone in the general public is 'running down public servants and their wages'. It's Gardai, teachers, bus drivers etc etc who are pushing for increases, that's a very different matter. The pushing is coming from that direction. Methinks Eamon is just trying to raise his profile a bit. First he attacks Ross and then complains that independent TDs are being treated unfairly a few sentences later!

Agreed Barry, can't see how a bunch of Independents with no whip could serve the national interest for any length of time

Lady Chatterton

I really enjoyed Sean's interview with Liam Griffin.

lawlolawl

PeterTheNinth wrote: »

Was that item supposed to have been balanced, or a promo spot for Hilary Clinton?

RTE as a whole are incredibly biased toward Hillary.

PeterTheNinth

It really is incredible that the Shinners are still taking the moral high ground on NAMA and Project Eagle, with their own involvement in it. Come on, Sean, let's have some hard questions.

BarryD

Mary Lou's excuse for not paying her water charges is simply pathetic. Talk about double standards

Noe she says the political landscape is replete with opportunity for Sinn Féin - and based on above, it seems certain they will shilly shally and flip flop on all manner of issues to gain a few votes. How can she hope to gain credibility?

SEPT 23 1989

yer man still got prison after all that effort to get straight?

ThisRegard

Did they go into his income etc? Maybe it was a case that we wasn't making any more of an effort than paying the minimum, despite given the time, and the judge said feic that, 6 months for you.

PeterTheNinth

All I'm hearing is Sean O'Rourke scribbling with his pencil and tapping on his keyboard.

kazamo

Ah No Eamon Ryan and Fergus O Dowd........was one waffler on the panel not enough

dulpit

Listened to the debate between the economist and dublin bus union man a while ago. Unions really need to cop on with who they have representing them on the airwaves. All he could say was buzzwords like "ordinary workers", "working people", "bankers ruined country", etc. etc.

As someone with no real interest in the Dublin Bus strike (I'm in Cork, thankfully), all he did was make me go against the union. I know nothing of their grievances, other than they're "ordinary workers, looking for what's owed" (apparently?).

:mad:

Brendan Bendar

dulpit wrote: »

Listened to the debate between the economist and dublin bus union man a while ago. Unions really need to cop on with who they have representing them on the airwaves. All he could say was buzzwords like "ordinary workers", "working people", "bankers ruined country", etc. etc.

As someone with no real interest in the Dublin Bus strike (I'm in Cork, thankfully), all he did was make me go against the union. I know nothing of their grievances, other than they're "ordinary workers, looking for what's owed" (apparently?).

:mad:

Sounds like he was a Corkman Dee.

Regrettably that kind of rhetoric has traction in certain strata of society.

signostic

MLOD is quite insufferable...

Call me Al

signostic wrote: »

MLOD is quite insufferable...

Did you hear the lady on earlier plugging her book about dating and romance for farmers?
Now that was insufferable.. All she was missing was the diddley iddle music. The word dowry was actually mentioned.

HeidiHeidi

This could go in quite a few threads..... but the insistence of RTE decamping en masse to broadcast from the ploughing drives me NUTS. SO'R, News at One, Drivetime, and for all I know the rest of the day's schedule is from there.

I don't know because I've turned RTE off until it's over. :mad:

ThisRegard

Anton Savage was also there, with bloody Hector.

Expunge

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

This could go in quite a few threads..... but the insistence of RTE decamping en masse to broadcast from the ploughing drives me NUTS. SO'R, News at One, Drivetime, and for all I know the rest of the day's schedule is from there.

I don't know because I've turned RTE off until it's over. :mad:

And 2FM, Lyric and RnaG!

Corporate RTE really does have the horn for the ploughing. That and the Country Music Awards run by RTE are supposed to make up for a year's worth of South Dublin dinner party chatter on the Marion Finucane Show.

Radio5

Good to hear Clive James on this morning.

padd b1975

Radio5 wrote: »

Good to hear Clive James on this morning.

Indeed, he's a hell of a fighter.

constitutionus

hillary love in number 365

constitutionus

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

This could go in quite a few threads..... but the insistence of RTE decamping en masse to broadcast from the ploughing drives me NUTS. SO'R, News at One, Drivetime, and for all I know the rest of the day's schedule is from there.

I don't know because I've turned RTE off until it's over. :mad:

i wouldnt mind so much if it was done in a more professional manner.

i couldnt make out WTF the weather girl was talking about last night as she was pointing to a telly !

took the end card that comes up for 5sec or so to get half an idea what was meant to be the forecast.

PeterTheNinth

This lad is a bit hard to listen to.

Lady Chatterton

I thought Sean's interview with Donal Lenihan was very enjoyable.

neris

was driving earlier listening to paddys court report, the lad testing the hackney market who was going to go straight if he knew it would work sounds like a right schister who never had any intention of going straight. It did get me thinking listening to a few other "contributors" though, there seems to a breed of people in rural ireland who are either just too stupid to understand the law or are so far away from reality and modern times that their mother and father may have come out of the same womb. (I know dublin and the urban areas have their fair share of thicks aswell)

constitutionus

some bitchfest going on right now on the bus strike issue.

mainly between brenda power and some ex gov lad.

padd b1975

neris wrote: »

was driving earlier listening to paddys court report, the lad testing the hackney market who was going to go straight if he knew it would work sounds like a right schister who never had any intention of going straight. It did get me thinking listening to a few other "contributors" though, there seems to a breed of people in rural ireland who are either just too stupid to understand the law or are so far away from reality and modern times that their mother and father may have come out of the same womb. (I know dublin and the urban areas have their fair share of thicks aswell)

Gombeens.

Ursus Horribilis

neris wrote: »

was driving earlier listening to paddys court report, the lad testing the hackney market who was going to go straight if he knew it would work sounds like a right schister who never had any intention of going straight. It did get me thinking listening to a few other "contributors" though, there seems to a breed of people in rural ireland who are either just too stupid to understand the law or are so far away from reality and modern times that their mother and father may have come out of the same womb. (I know dublin and the urban areas have their fair share of thicks aswell)

These rural folk you speak of are simply gombeens in a different way to the urban ones. Paddy has an unerring ability to find the types who shouldn't be allowed to breed. Years ago he did a TV show in my home town. It was like an inventory of the local village idiots and scumbags. How I laughed as he swallowed without question the sob story told to him by a man nobody would trust as far as they'd throw.

Brendan Bendar

constitutionus wrote: »

some bitchfest going on right now on the bus strike issue.

mainly between brenda power and some ex gov lad.

Brenda said it as it was, gave the Union guy and the know-all ex Govt.guy a good taste of reality.

Bout time someone took the gloves off on this one.

Well done Brenda

It's been said here before, and in the media, but Seán really has lost his edge, hasn't he?

I almost never tune-in, only the radio was set to Radio 1 on in the office earlier. It was painful to hear the debate between former det. Garda Richie Culhane and Niall Collins. O'Rourke could hardly control the exchange and kept having to shout over the two boyos, eventually allowing a long history debate on the recruitment moratorium from 8 years ago!

Is this the same man who previously effected such concentrated control over his panel on The Week in Politics, forcing them to deal precisely and concisely with the matters at hand?

His interviewing technique seems mostly to be characterised by chortling, golf chat, and badly refereeing the chaotic political scrummaging that seems to take place on his show any time I tune in.

Maybe I'm catching him on his off-days, but I honestly think he gives Marian a run for her money

Come back Pat Kenny to Montrose, all is forgiven.

serfboard

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

It's been said here before, and in the media, but Seán really has lost his edge, hasn't he?

I almost never tune-in, only the radio was set to Radio 1 on in the office earlier. It was painful to hear the debate between former det. Garda Richie Culhane and Niall Collins. O'Rourke could hardly control the exchange and kept having to shout over the two boyos, eventually allowing a long history debate on the recruitment moratorium from 8 years ago!

Is this the same man who previously effected such concentrated control over his panel on The Week in Politics, forcing them to deal precisely and concisely with the matters at hand?

His interviewing technique seems mostly to be characterised by chortling, golf chat, and badly refereeing the chaotic political scrummaging that seems to take place on his show any time I tune in.

Maybe I'm catching him on his off-days, but I honestly think he gives Marian a run for her money

Sometimes you can have too much time to debate a topic, and I think this is what's happened to the quality of debate on Sean's show at times. When he was doing the lunchtime news, there wouldn't have been time for all the rambling guff, and they would have been cut off straight away.

Come back Pat Kenny to Montrose, all is forgiven.

Emm no. You mustn't be listening to Pat on Newstalk who's even worse.

If you mean Pat back in the not recent past (7+ years ago) on RTE, then I'd agree.

padd b1975

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

It's been said here before, and in the media, but Seán really has lost his edge, hasn't he?

I almost never tune-in, only the radio was set to Radio 1 on in the office earlier. It was painful to hear the debate between former det. Garda Richie Culhane and Niall Collins. O'Rourke could hardly control the exchange and kept having to shout over the two boyos, eventually allowing a long history debate on the recruitment moratorium from 8 years ago!

Is this the same man who previously effected such concentrated control over his panel on The Week in Politics, forcing them to deal precisely and concisely with the matters at hand?

His interviewing technique seems mostly to be characterised by chortling, golf chat, and badly refereeing the chaotic political scrummaging that seems to take place on his show any time I tune in.

Maybe I'm catching him on his off-days, but I honestly think he gives Marian a run for her money

Come back Pat Kenny to Montrose, all is forgiven.

Probably a bit on the harsh side there but you do have a point to a certain extent.

When you find yourself being corrected by a Healy-Rae on the publishing of speed camera locations as he was last week then it's definitely time to tighten things up.

Right2Write

Solution for Health Services is easy!! Take all private health insurance off the likes of the HSE managers and their families, no private health insurance for government ministers and their families. Let them rely on the public health system as a part of their contracts and conditions. The public health system would be sorted in a few months if this was done!!!!!!!!!!!

Callan57

Right2Write wrote: »

Solution for Health Services is easy!! Take all private health insurance off the likes of the HSE managers and their families, no private health insurance for government ministers and their families. Let them rely on the public health system as a part of their contracts and conditions. The public health system would be sorted in a few months if this was done!!!!!!!!!!!

Agree ... And if free parking was removed from Govt Depts public transport in Dublin would have been sorted years ago too.
The big problem is that those making the decisions are insulated from the consequences of those decisions .... And I don't mean politicians but the senior public servants, the so-called permanent government.

serfboard

Right2Write wrote: »

Solution for Health Services is easy!! Take all private health insurance off the likes of the HSE managers and their families, no private health insurance for government ministers and their families. Let them rely on the public health system as a part of their contracts and conditions. The public health system would be sorted in a few months if this was done!!!!!!!!!!!

A simpler solution along the same lines - just ban all health insurance, and nationalise the private hospitals.

Then watch the traffic jams at the airports as Consultants queue to leave.

That, or pay them each a million quid a year, and watch the health budget rise from about 15 billion to over 50! (Back-of-a-fag-packet calculations).

After all, some consultants simply can't decide whether they should be driving a Ferrari or a McLaren ... :rolleyes:

Callan57

serfboard wrote: »

A simpler solution along the same lines - just ban all health insurance, and nationalise the private hospitals.

Then watch the traffic jams at the airports as Consultants queue to leave.

That, or pay them each a million quid a year, and watch the health budget rise from about 15 billion to over 50! (Back-of-a-fag-packet calculations).

After all, some consultants simply can't decide whether they should be driving a Ferrari or a McLaren ... :rolleyes:

Or you could try doing away with the medieval "closed shop" that still exists in the so called professions

Callan57

Callan57 wrote: »

Agree ... And if free parking was removed from Govt Depts public transport in Dublin would have been sorted years ago too.
The big problem is that those making the decisions are insulated from the consequences of those decisions .... And I don't mean politicians but the senior public servants, the so-called permanent government.

I have a family member working in U.C.D. They tried to remove staff parking privileges a couple of years ago, and there was mutiny. They threatened to go on strike, because free parking was an established perk of the job.

I've no doubt if they tried to take free parking from any workers in the public service, where parking is provided, there'd be a strike threatened.

Brendan Bendar

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

I have a family member working in U.C.D. They tried to remove staff parking privileges a couple of years ago, and there was mutiny. They threatened to go on strike, because free parking was an established perk of the job.

I've no doubt if they tried to take free parking from any workers in the public service, where parking is provided, there'd be a strike threatened.

Of course, you would have the likes of Breandān Ferriteár slipping over the few metres to RTE to pump out the usual guff.

Callan57

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

I have a family member working in U.C.D. They tried to remove staff parking privileges a couple of years ago, and there was mutiny. They threatened to go on strike, because free parking was an established perk of the job.

I've no doubt if they tried to take free parking from any workers in the public service, where parking is provided, there'd be a strike threatened.

That is my point exactly, they accept free car parking as an entitlement .... how could anyone expect these mandarins to rub shoulders with Joe & Jospehine on public transport?
These are the people making decisions about public transport - without any first hand knowledge of it, likewise with the Dept of Health mandarins who all have private health insurance. Do as I say not as I do :rolleyes: