Late Late Show - GAA Special

[bingobus]

The show was so poor and if thats the best they put together to lauch the 125th year than the €500,000 worth of fireworks should be attached to Pat the plank and Brush Shields and that horrible leather "Ireland" jacket that he has worn to death.

The only genuine GAA person in the actual interview chair was Pat Spillane. How RTE thought it useful to have Eamon Dunphy, Eileen Dunne and Brush Shields interviewed is beyond me. 

All Pat wanted to talk about was the negatives eg Ban on Soccer players

[Drumanee 1]

The show was so poor and if thats the best they put together to lauch the 125th year than the €500,000 worth of fireworks should be attached to Pat the plank and Brush Shields and that horrible leather "Ireland" jacket that he has worn to death.

The only genuine GAA person in the actual interview chair was Pat Spillane. How RTE thought it useful to have Eamon Dunphy, Eileen Dunne and Brush Shields interviewed is beyond me. 

All Pat wanted to talk about was the negatives eg Ban on Soccer players

in all fairness bertie would be a genuine gael

[ziggysego]

The show was so poor and if thats the best they put together to lauch the 125th year than the €500,000 worth of fireworks should be attached to Pat the plank and Brush Shields and that horrible leather "Ireland" jacket that he has worn to death.

The only genuine GAA person in the actual interview chair was Pat Spillane. How RTE thought it useful to have Eamon Dunphy, Eileen Dunne and Brush Shields interviewed is beyond me. 

All Pat wanted to talk about was the negatives eg Ban on Soccer players

in all fairness bertie would be a genuine gael

Er... Des Cahill.

[bingobus]

Des Cahill & Bertie - Media whores, if the programme was about 125 years of the FAI or Man United both would have been on it as well. I know that these "guests" are fans and would have a great deal of knowledge but they the bedrock of the association that should be wheeled out to mark 125 years? Sure Bertie rang in to Today FM on they day they marked 10 years of Premiership coverage.

Should they warrant a soft seat while Micko gets a few words from the audience or a number of presidents sit looking on?

[Blue and Navy]

Its a bit sad that the powers that be in R(eally)T(errible)E(ffort) ruined what culd have been an exceptional and possibly seminal show. The Brush Shields fiasco was just an example of the huge gap between what the producers think makes good television and what people really want.
I wonder whose call it was not to have two of the most important and interesting figures of the last 15 years, Liam Griffith and Joe Kernan not even in the audience? Surely celebrating the GAA is more important than the fact that the two lads commentate for their rival station. No Eugene McGee either? Same reason?
Sean Og O C was not even asked about the changes in the 76 (!!!!!)years he has been broadcasting FFS.
Now i know people are saying that the Plank hasn't a clue but this is no excuse. If the debate was on a different social issue could you imagine him not knowing his stuff. Why did he cut off Conor O'Shea.Why did he not know who Conor O Shea was?
Mad, bad and sad stuff.

[Farrandeelin]

certainly it was a Kerry-Dublin love in. The west barely got a mention either nor the Rebels and all their great hurlers down the years  nor Crossmaglen.....   

Too true about the West anyway. No Connacht man was interviewed in the audience. It was an absolute disgrace the way 'The West's Awake' wasn't sung on it and I lost interest after that. Also, could you imagine if the BBC did a programme highlighting the next big anniversary of the FA, could you imagine Tony Blair on it? What right had Bertie to be there or Dunphy??? Jesus Christ it beggars belief. I know these points have probably been well made before and fair play to ye for making them, but it was all about Dublin (and Kerry cos they happened to be great when Dublin had their period at the top in the late 70s.)

PS, why are Dublin getting the 'glamour tie' against Tyrone on the 31st of January???

[Blue and Navy]

I suppose the reason Dublin v Tyrone is on is obviously because the GAA want to use Croke Park to kick start the celebrations, jewel in the crown and all that. But considering that it is the entire association's celebrations why not throw in Dublin's first hurling league game? Every club in the country is been given two tickets..... do all the hurling clubs want to go and watch a football game NOT involving their own county. Many will no doubt but, its still a bit daft.

[muppet]

Precisely. I thought I'd share with you the Brush paragraph of my email to RTÉ.

But sweet leppin Christ Almighty, what do you people have against Brush Shields? Why do you insist on dragging him from his richly-merited obscurity for a ritual public humiliation at every opportunity? It's not right and it has to stop. Elder abuse is against the law, you know. It's not  funny any more and my kids are getting fed up listening to me asking, as I watch drop-jawed through my fingers at poor Brush making a fool of himself for his RTÉ ringmasters once again, what exactly does RTÉ think Brush is for? I'm intrigued to find out, because the rest of us have no idea. Can you help?

Hilarious. You really bristled at RTE's handling of Brush.

[SidelineKick]

They should have shafted him in my opinion.

[Aaron Boone]

The repeat is on tonight at 12.55am.

[anglocelt39]

For those of you totally disappointed/outraged at the quality of the show I reckon a bit of advance thinking would have helped. I saw the RTE website in the afternoon of Friday and thought RTE/Pat Kenny/GAA, this is going to be a pile of shite, wasn't disappointed but wasn't shocked at the same time, what some of the giants of the GAA in the audience must have thought of the "experts" in the chair you must wonder. Brush Shiels and that comedian were both fairly cringe inducing. Still, could have rolled out Turbidy, Brendan O Connor and Dustin the turkey so small mercies and all that.

[Rossfan]

Where was the worst RTE insider of them all ...Twink

[The GAA]

I see karl o'kane lifted his third man tackle column entirely from this thread today.

nice that we can keep fellas in a job

[furboot]

don't know who's to blame for the late late fiasco - RTE for putting such a brainless production together or the gaa for going along with it. Surely the gaa had some idea in advance of what the show content was and who the guests were. Had they no say in the style or content of the show? GAA wasted a great opportunity to showcase the 125th anniversary and RTE looked like they had free reign and managed to mees it up even further.

So what was missing that one might have genuinly expected?
Here's a few obvious ones....
1- The man at the helm and official chairman of the 125 GAA Committee - Jarlath Burns - to enlighten us about all the 125 events in 2009
2- The main trophies (SAM & LIAM) that have been the icons of the gaa for all these years weren't even on display (as far as i know).
3 - Then and Now - How the game has been modernised from the days of 'caps and sandwiches' to the modern game (nothing wrong with caps and sandwiches just an expression !). The game as a player and spectator sport has changed enormously over the years so a bit of discussion on the bigger changes.
4 - A panel maybe of Micheal O'Muiracheartiagh, Sean Og O'C, Mick O'Dwyer and the likes to have a proper reminisce of past gaa glories and suitable anecdotes - there was GAA before the 1970's that RTE production seemed happy to ignore.
5 - The GAA Club - More on the grassroots that is GAA - the local club. Some real representation and not just the cliched curtesy mention that it got. In fairness Des Cahill did try to highlight it using his own club as an example but it could have been a whole section.
6 -  Football v Hurling - hurling hardly got a mention on the show at all but a bit of debate and banter on one verses the other might have been an idea - even as to why most clubs and counties (but not all) excel at one or the other.

[T Fearon]

It seems to me that people are being a tad unfair. The Late Late Show is a Friday Night Light Entertainment Show first and foremost, and its targeted audience extends way beyond the GAA community, and in the space of two and a quarter hours there was a limit to the content. In otherwords there wasn't time for an in depth analysis of 125 years (isn't TG 4 doing a 9 part series for this purpose), and like them or loathe them, the likes of Bertie, Dunphy and Brush Shiels will always attract viewers from outside the GAA's hinterland.

I certainly found it entertaining enough (the show's purpose), I thought the real gobshite was that Knob from Nob Nation, although you could argue any Monaghan Man is out of place in any GAA related event.