Late Late Show - GAA Special

[Jinxy]

Lads someone told me Gerry McEntee wrote to one of the papers about the horror that was this programme.
Anyone know which paper (my source was very vague!).

[Minder]

Lads someone told me Gerry McEntee wrote to one of the papers about the horror that was this programme.
Anyone know which paper (my source was very vague!).

From page 28 of this thread, courtesy of Shamrock Shore.........

I see former Meath great and now respected surgeon Gerry McEntee has vented his anger in today's Irish Times' letters page.

Never one to hold back.

'Late Late' tribute to the GAA

Madam, – I sincerely hope that the Late Late Show 's tribute last Friday to 125 years of the GAA is not a reflection of the forthcoming RTÉ series commemorating the anniversary. Firstly, on what basis were Bertie Ahern and Eamon Dunphy the principal guests? Surely it would have been more appropriate to have the current GAA president or the current or former ard striuratheoir open the show.

Secondly, no recognition at all was given to the enormous contribution of women to the association apart from a brief conversation with Deirdre Shefflin, who just happened to be sitting beside her husband Henry and also happened to have played camogie. Thirdly, the mimic "comedian" clearly was not vetted beforehand. He was not funny and he was downright offensive to the current Taoiseach, a true GAA supporter who did not deserve to be treated in such an insulting manner.

Finally one can only assume Des Cahill was sent on at the end to rescue Pat Kenny and a show that was dying on its feet. He duly did his best by pointing out some prominent GAA people in the audience whom Pat Kenny clearly did not recognise. This was a shambles of a "celebration", an embarrassment to RTÉ and Pat Kenny and an insult to the GAA at large. – Yours, etc,

GERRY McENTEE,
Eccles Street,
Dublin 7.

[RedandGreenSniper]

I see former Meath great and now respected surgeon Gerry McEntee has vented his anger in today's Irish Times' letters page.

Never one to hold back.

'Late Late' tribute to the GAA

Madam, – I sincerely hope that the Late Late Show 's tribute last Friday to 125 years of the GAA is not a reflection of the forthcoming RTÉ series commemorating the anniversary. Firstly, on what basis were Bertie Ahern and Eamon Dunphy the principal guests? Surely it would have been more appropriate to have the current GAA president or the current or former ard striuratheoir open the show.

Secondly, no recognition at all was given to the enormous contribution of women to the association apart from a brief conversation with Deirdre Shefflin, who just happened to be sitting beside her husband Henry and also happened to have played camogie. Thirdly, the mimic "comedian" clearly was not vetted beforehand. He was not funny and he was downright offensive to the current Taoiseach, a true GAA supporter who did not deserve to be treated in such an insulting manner.

Finally one can only assume Des Cahill was sent on at the end to rescue Pat Kenny and a show that was dying on its feet. He duly did his best by pointing out some prominent GAA people in the audience whom Pat Kenny clearly did not recognise. This was a shambles of a "celebration", an embarrassment to RTÉ and Pat Kenny and an insult to the GAA at large. – Yours, etc,

GERRY McENTEE,
Eccles Street,
Dublin 7.

Laziness, did I ever offend thee?

[thebandit]

Brolly and Burns gave it a an awful doing in Gaelic life today.... Brolly compared Kenny to Roy Walker and the pre rehearsed anicdotes

[Shamrock Shore]

link?

I am interested to see what the Chair of the 125 Committee had to say.

[INDIANA]

By Joe Brolly

Remember Roy Walker? 'Say what you see, if you see it, say it'? Remember the cringeworthy rehearsed chats with the members of the public on his Gameshow? 'John, you've got a funny story. Tell us what happened on your honeymoon night when you locked your keys in the car...'

- 'Well, Roy, what happened was, on my honeymoon night... I locked my keys in the car.... and the police had to come and open it the next morning.' Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha, Roy would chortle.

Pat Kenny managed to create the same sort of atmosphere on the Late Late last Friday night. Pat is obviously a lot more at home with his neighbours in the High Court in Dublin, than hosting a GAA chat show. He didn't seem to be that sure who most of the people in the audience were, and even less sure of what they might have achieved. Peter Canavan had to work hard to conceal a smile when Pat seemed to think he had won his third All-Ireland in September past.

At one stage, when Des Cahill went off script and pointed out that Jerome and Conor O'Shea were sitting behind Jacko, his face went completely blank. This, along with the format (picking people out in the audience and inviting them to entertain the viewers with a sixty second
anecdote) was the main problem with the show.

Eamonn Dunphy, who never stood under a dropping ball on the edge of the square, but can bullshit entertainingly about anything under the sun, was the evening's star turn, which says something about the standard.
Bertie - that legendary GAA Oirishman - was trundled out to tell us how friendly he was with Paidi O'Se and Jacko. I was half expecting his daughter Cecilia, the 22 year old reincarnation of Maeve Binchey (not the one married to the Westlife chap), to be wheeled out as well to announce that her next potboiler, following on from 'PS I Love You' and 'Where Rainbows End' was going to be about a GAA man from Valencia Island falling in love with the wife of a Dublin footballer, and the two of them making love for the first time under the stand at the first round of the Leinster championship in Dalymount Park. 'PS I'm two timing you'?

Next up could have been Barry McGuigan singing Danny Boy in a green tuxedo, the camera panning across the sing-along audience.

Pat's interview with Babs Keating was pure Roy. 'So Babs', said Pat, 'tell us how you got your name?'

- 'Well Pat, there were three of us with the same name in school, so me being the youngest, they called me Babs.' Brilliant! Pat wasn't finished. 'You've got a funny story Babs, about the time a nail came through your boot in Croke Park and you had to finish the game in bare feet.'

- 'Well, Pat, I took the boot off because a nail came through it, and I played in the bare feet.' Hilarious! A bare-footed GAA man from the wilds of Tipperary fits the D4 view of the GAA as an organisation full of Kilburn Paddies perfectly.

The main theme of the program was how in the seventies, Dublin and Kerry saved the GAA. This was a new one on me, and my mind wandered to the story about the Dubs when their first All-Ireland of the decade in 1974.
One adult Dublin fan was interviewed on the pitch afterwards by RTE, and said he couldn't wait to see who they got in the first round in Europe.
Saved the GAA my arse!

Des Cahill had the decency to look embarrassed, and in fairness he did his best to give the thing some substance, but the odds were stacked against him, and he finally lost the battle when Pat Kenny proudly announced that we were to be treated to a song from a GAA icon, that was sung on the terraces in GAA grounds throughout the country. What, I wondered, might this gombeen anthem be, and who might be the performer?
Phil Coulter playing 'The Town I Loved So Well' on a crystal grand piano? Foster and Allen in green waistcoats singing 'The Rare Oul Times'?

Alas, it soon became clear it was going to be nothing as highbrow as that. A ravaged looking Brush Shiels - with his electric guitar - roared his way through a distinctly out of tune version of 'The Fields of Athenry', a famine song sung only on the terraces of Anfield and Parkhead. This was my cue, for the fifth time, to change channels for a few minutes, to get a breather from the unabated paddywhackery.

The highlight of the evening was undoubtedly Pat Spillane's face when they broadcast the Apres Match skit. Pat, who was warming to his role as an amateur GAA historian, was suddenly stopped in his tracks. A second camera closed in on the Kerryman's face, frozen in a deathly grin, like the loser in the Oscars smiling through gritted teeth, as though he were delighted that the stranger in the next row has beaten him to the award.
Priceless!

I suppose, at least, it was better than watching Fermanagh the following day in the McKenna Cup...

[pintsofguinness]

Any link to Jarlath's article?

[longrunsthefox]

well I think this is fairly unanimous... maybe we need to get over it ... zzz

[Maguire01]

Any link to Jarlath's article?

I don't have it in sofy copy, but this was only part of Jarlath's column. He basically said that he told the LLS what topics they should be trying to cover for the show, and that they basically ignored him.

[pintsofguinness]

Any link to Jarlath's article?

I don't have it in sofy copy, but this was only part of Jarlath's column. He basically said that he told the LLS what topics they should be trying to cover for the show, and that they basically ignored him.

cheers, heard he wasn't too pleased at the lack of attention on the scor.
But sure the late late knew better...

[Maguire01]

He really should have been invited onto the show himself to give everyone an idea of the programme of events for the year. At least then some of these fundamental aspects of the Association would have got a mention.

[pintsofguinness]

He really should have been invited onto the show himselfto give everyone an idea of the programme of events for the year. At least then some of these fundamental aspects of the Association would have got a mention.

Heard he was, but that mighten be right.

[Maguire01]

He really should have been invited onto the show himselfto give everyone an idea of the programme of events for the year. At least then some of these fundamental aspects of the Association would have got a mention.

Heard he was, but that mighten be right.

I can't see him having turned down an invitation at the same time - and as coordinator of the programme of events, surely he'd be obliged to go on if he was invited.

[Redhandfan]

I was shocked to read in this week's OTF in the Irish News that representatives from the Omagh Scor team (All-Ireland Champions) had been invited to take part in the show but were then more or less told where to go when The Saw Doctors took preference. 
What a bloody disgrace.  Give me the Omagh Scor team any day ahead of The Saw Doctors or that puke Brush Shields. 

I don't know what RTE pay the Saw Doctors or Brush Shields but, having seen the Omagh Scor participants perform, I do know who would have provided the greater entertainment for this show.   

[pintsofguinness]

He really should have been invited onto the show himselfto give everyone an idea of the programme of events for the year. At least then some of these fundamental aspects of the Association would have got a mention.

Heard he was, but that mighten be right.

I can't see him having turned down an invitation at the same time - and as coordinator of the programme of events, surely he'd be obliged to go on if he was invited.

I dont think anyone would be obliged to take part in that shite, not unless it's some sort of punishment.