Fleadh 2026 Belfast

[RedHand88]

+1 to what MR2 said. I havent the time to see/listen to him. Haven't heard anything other than snippets in years. I'm in work at 9am and my free time late at night after the children are finally down is absolutely not going to be spent watching that.
I did laugh at the bar chart though. Wish I had that much free time lol.

[imtommygunn]

Exactly this. Life's too short to spend it listening to the likes of Bryson and Nolan. It's just shit stirring for ratings.

I watched one Nolan the time Brolly was on (when he was half normal) years ago and the toxicity I saw in that I decided I wouldn't look near it again.

Find something to shit stir on. Repeat. Works every time for him.

[Snapchap]

Only way to redress the balance is to actually go on the show when asked!
What nationalist commentators would yous want on if SF and SDLP aren't going on? Chris Donnelly is a busy man I'm sure.

Go on and what? Give him a target to start slabbering about Bobby Storey's funeral again? When the two big nationalist parties are boycotting the BBC's headline radio show in the north, and have been for years, then maybe the BBC ought to consider why that is, rather than the onus being on the nationalist parties (who can see what the problem is), being told to suck it up.

[Snapchap]

I know very few people that watch it, I also know very few people that concern themselves with what he says or who he has on, most people I know work, have families, have outside things that for them are more important than what a teletubbie agitator says on tv, is generally in bed before he comes on and in work when his radio show is on also..

People go out of their way to get annoyed or ashamed or whatever, politicians are clean useless, they are not, any of them that matter pulling their weight or trying to improve any of the basics improvements that ordinary working people want

Maybe that's the circle I run in, what I do see on social media though is a division that is getting bigger by the year, some of the posts that are put up are sad

I haven't watched or listen to Nolan since I endured the pain of totting up Jim Allisters appeareances (referred to above) in 2018. His voice is like nails across a chalk board to me. I also don't claim to be "offended" by him, but I do believe it's unacceptable that the BBC's headline presenter here is permitted to have such a clearly toxic impact on an already divided society. It's often been said that were his show on the radio in 1998, the GFA would not have been signed. I've no doubt that's true, given the way he single handedly whipped unionism into a frenzy and sabotaged the DUP's agreement with SF to restore the assembly in Feb 2018.

[RedHand88]

Only way to redress the balance is to actually go on the show when asked!
What nationalist commentators would yous want on if SF and SDLP aren't going on? Chris Donnelly is a busy man I'm sure.

Go on and what? Give him a target to start slabbering about Bobby Storey's funeral again? When the two big nationalist parties are boycotting the BBC's headline radio show in the north, and have been for years, then maybe the BBC ought to consider why that is, rather than the onus being on the nationalist parties (who can see what the problem is), being told to suck it up.

Imagine for a second if unionism had boycotted over the head of the RHI coverage (which went on for months and included a Nolan documentary, a book by Sam McBride and countless radio shows Im sure).
The funeral was a colossal misjudgement by SF. Of course the media would be over it, especially since the initial reaction was "I will not apologise for attending the funeral of my friend". People were raging. I know she has since apologised but at the time the optics were terrible.

[Mario]

I always thought part of the reason there are more unionist commentators is that there are simply more issues and controversies surrounding unionism. Every year there seem to be multiple scandals around the Twelfth, whether it's Carla Lockhart and her masked men, the Moygashel bonfire, houses being damaged by bonfires, people dying after falling from them, or the latest DUP sex or fraud scandal, burning immigrants out of their homes in Ballymena. The list goes on.

Nolan can be divisive, but I'd say he's impartial. He tends to play devil's advocate on whatever issue he's discussing.

[Milltown Row2]

Only way to redress the balance is to actually go on the show when asked!
What nationalist commentators would yous want on if SF and SDLP aren't going on? Chris Donnelly is a busy man I'm sure.

Go on and what? Give him a target to start slabbering about Bobby Storey's funeral again? When the two big nationalist parties are boycotting the BBC's headline radio show in the north, and have been for years, then maybe the BBC ought to consider why that is, rather than the onus being on the nationalist parties (who can see what the problem is), being told to suck it up.

Imagine for a second if unionism had boycotted over the head of the RHI coverage (which went on for months and included a Nolan documentary, a book by Sam McBride and countless radio shows Im sure).
The funeral was a colossal misjudgement by SF. Of course the media would be over it, especially since the initial reaction was "I will not apologise for attending the funeral of my friend". People were raging. I know she has since apologised but at the time the optics were terrible.

There are own goals by both sides and through the middle in politics here, that shows pure incompetence and in normal working days jobs up and down the country (in the private sector    ) they'd lose their jobs  or be demoted into cleaning the bogs

The only optics politicians are concerned with is is how their pack think of them, whipping up division has a proven track record of keeping the place as is

[Snapchap]

Only way to redress the balance is to actually go on the show when asked!
What nationalist commentators would yous want on if SF and SDLP aren't going on? Chris Donnelly is a busy man I'm sure.

Go on and what? Give him a target to start slabbering about Bobby Storey's funeral again? When the two big nationalist parties are boycotting the BBC's headline radio show in the north, and have been for years, then maybe the BBC ought to consider why that is, rather than the onus being on the nationalist parties (who can see what the problem is), being told to suck it up.

Imagine for a second if unionism had boycotted over the head of the RHI coverage (which went on for months and included a Nolan documentary, a book by Sam McBride and countless radio shows Im sure).
The funeral was a colossal misjudgement by SF. Of course the media would be over it, especially since the initial reaction was "I will not apologise for attending the funeral of my friend". People were raging. I know she has since apologised but at the time the optics were terrible.

Of course the optics were terrible, but are you suggesting that the only issue nationalist parties have with his show is how he covered the Storey funeral? Looked into why the SDLP boycotted him and the allegations of bias they put to BBC bosses in a meeting? Consiered why, after that meeting, the BBC agreed to carry out an analysis of the breakdown of guests over a one month period then subsequently refused to release or comment on their findings? Have you anything to say about his platforming of an unelected and barely literate UVF mouthpiece multiple days a week? Or him doing for Jim Allister what the BBC in England did for Nigel Farage, and provided him with a platform waaaay disproportionate to his or his party's political reality? Are you going to ignore how he scuttled the restoration of the assembly in 2018? Naomi Long too has spoken about how the anti-protocol campaign was fairly small minority of unionism in the early days, until Nolan provided almost daily platforms to Allister, Bryson and Moore Holmes, in order to stoke the fires. She noted how Alister appeared on four shows in a row at a time when his entire party had a first preference vote total of just 6,000 votes. Never mind your belief that nationalist parties should be taking part... not even moderate unionist voices are given the coverage afforded to Alister/Bryson et al.

[Armagh18]

Only way to redress the balance is to actually go on the show when asked!
What nationalist commentators would yous want on if SF and SDLP aren't going on? Chris Donnelly is a busy man I'm sure.

Safer ignored

[RedHand88]

Winning an election is not a pre requisite to being a guest on a phone in radio show, otherwise Allison Morris etc wouldn't be on it.
Bryson is a dose, but he is all some people talk about for some reason. He gets listeners, reactions etc, and that's the game Nolan is in. More listeners, more money.

[Snapchap]

Winning an election is not a pre requisite to being a guest on a phone in radio show, otherwise Allison Morris etc wouldn't be on it.

Who said winning an election was a pre-requisite to appearing on a radio show? Maybe forget about straw men arguments here if you can? The point is that a public service broadcaster is supposed to be balanced. Giving certain very specific political minnows a level of coverage that goes WAY over and above what ANY other politician gets, is not balanced. Nigel Farge owes his political growth to the BBC. Jim Allister the same. When the public broadcaster is doing it's best to boost the profiles of certain right wing politicians, then it's fair to question it.

Bryson is a dose, but he is all some people talk about for some reason. He gets listeners, reactions etc, and that's the game Nolan is in. More listeners, more money.

Incredible. You seem to be of the view that Nolan has Bryson as a regular guest because of his profile, rather than seeing that Bryson had no profile until Nolan gave him an one. He stood for election before Nolan's time and got 167 votes. You think Nolan saw those 167 votes and said, "wow the public seem to love this guy, we have to get him on"? If he's so good for ratings/listerners/raking the money in, then why do no other presenters/broadcasters give him the time of day?

[Milltown Row2]

So is there evidence that they haven't been asked to come on (to create balance) and can there be any complaints that they don't come on because they self exile?

Like people complaining who's in government and don't vote

[RedHand88]

Winning an election is not a pre requisite to being a guest on a phone in radio show, otherwise Allison Morris etc wouldn't be on it.

Who said winning an election was a pre-requisite to appearing on a radio show? Maybe forget about straw men arguments here if you can? The point is that a public service broadcaster is supposed to be balanced. Giving certain very specific political minnows a level of coverage that goes WAY over and above what ANY other politician gets, is not balanced. Nigel Farge owes his political growth to the BBC. Jim Allister the same. When the public broadcaster is doing it's best to boost the profiles of certain right wing politicians, then it's fair to question it.

Bryson is a dose, but he is all some people talk about for some reason. He gets listeners, reactions etc, and that's the game Nolan is in. More listeners, more money.

Incredible. You seem to be of the view that Nolan has Bryson as a regular guest because of his profile, rather than seeing that Bryson had no profile until Nolan gave him an one. He stood for election before Nolan's time and got 167 votes. You think Nolan saw those 167 votes and said, "wow the public seem to love this guy, we have to get him on"? If he's so good for ratings/listerners/raking the money in, then why do no other presenters/broadcasters give him the time of day?

You implied it when you complained about how much airtime Bryson gets despite being unelected

[Snapchap]

Winning an election is not a pre requisite to being a guest on a phone in radio show, otherwise Allison Morris etc wouldn't be on it.

Who said winning an election was a pre-requisite to appearing on a radio show? Maybe forget about straw men arguments here if you can? The point is that a public service broadcaster is supposed to be balanced. Giving certain very specific political minnows a level of coverage that goes WAY over and above what ANY other politician gets, is not balanced. Nigel Farge owes his political growth to the BBC. Jim Allister the same. When the public broadcaster is doing it's best to boost the profiles of certain right wing politicians, then it's fair to question it.

Bryson is a dose, but he is all some people talk about for some reason. He gets listeners, reactions etc, and that's the game Nolan is in. More listeners, more money.

Incredible. You seem to be of the view that Nolan has Bryson as a regular guest because of his profile, rather than seeing that Bryson had no profile until Nolan gave him an one. He stood for election before Nolan's time and got 167 votes. You think Nolan saw those 167 votes and said, "wow the public seem to love this guy, we have to get him on"? If he's so good for ratings/listerners/raking the money in, then why do no other presenters/broadcasters give him the time of day?

You implied it when you complained about how much airtime Bryson gets despite being unelected

I was referencing his complete lack of a profile to justify his level of platforming. I also referenced Jim Allister, who is elected. The point I was making is laid in my post above.

[DaleCooper]

Thought this was a thread about the Fleadh.

Is there a stats breakdown anywhere?

Total sessions
Locations

Hard to get a grasp on its scope and scale not being able to attend. Hopefully next year...some incentive to brush up on the music.