The Stand With Eamon Dunphy

It's not meant to be derogatory. I have met quite a few consultants down the years and there are definitely some who are good at their jobs but not so good at connecting with humans. Tomas Ryan comes across as somebody like that. I'm sure he is outstanding in his field but I don't think he quite understands that humans behave differently to organisms under a microscope or numbers in a computer model. I think we'll leave it at that because we're in danger of derailing the thread. It's about a podcast, not Tomás Ryan or Covid.

He's been wrong about things for sure.

But he's also been right about some other things. He warned about a second wave on it's way during Summer 2020 and a inevitable second lock down - he was one of the few that consistently did - and he was dismissed as a crank.

He warned about another massive surge after Christmas and another lockdown, once again he was dismissed as "fear monger" - he was right about that too.

The last time I listened to him on The Stand was during August, where he was warning that we still had a way to go and that vaccines were not going to be the silver bullet and that Covid was going to spread handily through school going aged children: Autumn and Winter wasn't going to be a cake walk. And that all felt like a message very much at odds with what government, NPHET and other talking heads were saying and I even thought surely there's a chance we can avoid it this time again. But once again, he was right.

Okay, you can point at predictions he has made that haven't come to pass. But show me one person who hasn't got it wrong at one stage during all this?

He's not infallible, but, fck me, his ratio of calling the prevailing big picture a month or two before it happens is as good as anyone's during this time.

I think you give Ryan absolutely zero credit there. Fair enough it may appear that the thrust of what he was saying was often in hindsight blindingly obvious, but, let's be frank here, people often thought he was a loon for saying it at the time, repeatedly.

And you can't just handwave away his ability to actually call a spade a spade in this regard; there's talking heads out there in the media that haven't been right even once throughout this whole thing.

It's also true to say that he focuses heavily on the restrictions side of things and often his proposals can lack coherence or even plausibility, but, in terms of being able to forecast, in general terms, where things are heading over the short to medium term is often surprisingly accurate. That's his big plus IMO.

Called the second lockdown correctly. Called the third correctly. Called the Autumn wave correctly - especially in regards to how the spread in schools is playing a part. Oh, but that was all obvious you say... Hmmm, a bit of revisionism going on there to be honest. He got flack from all sides for pointing out those "obvious" turns of events. At what point do people start to think that, for all his faults, maybe he actually has some foresight?

He is repetitive, he is one note, but I think he's still worth listening to because he's better than most at calling it before it happens. And the news is often negative - so that's why people hate his guts.

In terms of other Covid guests, he has Paul Moynagh on quite frequently - more than Thomas Ryan as of late - and he's very calm and measured.

He also had an absolute car crash of an interview with John McGurk back at the start of the year, where McGurk got basic facts and figures wrong - the population of Ireland for example - provided no workable coherent solutions and all and all showed himself to know precisely nothing about what he was talking about.

I guess in a perfect world Éamonn would have on all these guests telling us that we should do this and that in order to live with it, but the truth is nobody really knows. We're trying our best at the moment and we haven't a notion how that's going to turn out, so pardon me if I'm a bit sceptical of any guest that may appear with all the answers in that respect. I'd like nothing more for a guest to appear that would credibly say everything is going to be plain sailing from here on out - but it's not much good to me if it isn't the truth.

Listened to the football pod earlier with Brady and Giles. In fairness to the three of them, they gave Kenny credit for the style of play and bringing in new faces.

I thought Brady was quite careful in his comments - repeating that he wants to see Ireland beat the type of opponents we'll play in the Nations League, which I think is a fair point. Giles was of the view that holding back the contract would keep a bit of pressure on Kenny.

Very cringey ad readings from Dunphy.

Does that work? So when you download podcasts there's no ads?

Edit: unless they are part of the podcast itself, obviously...

I wonder did Tesco not renew the sponsorship or did NowTV make a better offer

Fair dues to Eamo, he's made a success of it. I'm not a fan of some of the guests but I listen most days and generally enjoy it.

Sounds like he has a gun to his head reading out "I love the rugby" 😁

Eamo sounds like he's reading that at gunpoint.

Used it twice in the first 5 mins even after John's has asked him not too in a previous pod!

Makes me laugh at this stage so I don't mind it.

T Ryan singing the same old tune (cancel Xmas, long Covid, WHY IS NOONE LISTENING TO ME,..). His awkwardly robotic thanking at the end of Eamo and the ensuing roll call of journalists that he endorses was another bizarre moment. Caused me a quick google which led straight to his vanity TCD website. Now I’m not suggesting Tomas is autistic but he’s certainly high up on one of the spectrums. Can.you.only. imagine being married to that ;-)

Not acceptable. What is wrong with boards these days? It used be moderated well...

At least Blindboy announces the adds with his occarina pause, maybe Eamon will adopt a similar trick to trigger when the ads are played.