What do you think of urgent personal messages for people holidaying in Ireland?

Brian Capture

Like this.

wrote:

Gardaí have issued a personal message for a UK man believed to be holidaying in the Wicklow area.

Stephen Yates from Lancashire, is asked to contact his niece, Gillian, for an urgent personal message.

Mr Yates believed to be holidaying in a black Honda CRV.

These used to be a lot more common in the 1980s when I was growing up. You would hear them relayed on RTE news bulletins - mostly radio but sometimes on television. The announcers tone would be solemn and I remember thinking 'this cannot be good news for that poor b*stard'.

Any opinions?

Nightwish

Mobile phones have rendered this practise almost obsolete.

qz

Never knew such carry-on existed! But yeah I can't see the point of it happening anymore due to mobiles.

Terry

is he sleeping in the car?

Dudess

Thank God for mobiles. Imagine how scary it would be to hear an "urgent" message addressed to you on the national airwaves. Not a great way to do it really but I suppose there's no other.

homah_7ft

Anytime I ever heard it I did wonder what it was all about. Surely bad news but then again you never know.

billy the squid

The fact that the relative has had to resort to contacting the broadcaster indicates that the mobile, if the person they are trying to contact has one, has allready been tried. There are people out there who do take breaks from everything that stresses them out, including mobile phones.

I see no harm in it, Im sure the person receiving the message would appreciate it if it is indeed urgent.

InFront

I find them very interesting. I always wonder what was wrong, its very dramatic, a bit like an advertisement for a tv series that you never actually get to see. If I heard my name called out on one I wouldnt half get the heeby jeebies.

its usually bad news, so I cant say its exactly a good thing.

Ruu_Old

qz wrote:

Never knew such carry-on existed! But yeah I can't see the point of it happening anymore due to mobiles.

Me and all, indeed mobiles ftw.

Brian Capture

It would be a good idea for a book.

Maybe I will do this.

Get access to a list of these urgent messages that were aired by RTE over the last, say 30 years, and try and find out the stories behind them. Maybe I could ascertain the details of the various messages and do interviews with those involved.

Although the people concerned might find my advances somewhat intrusive.

i.e.

Hi, my name is Brian Capture. You were holidaying in Ireland in 1982 and there was an announcement on RTE radio that you were to contact your family in England immediately. Can you let me know what it was about?

[line goes dead]

RandomOne

Not everyone has a mobile and IME it's never good news and you'd really rather not hear it. It's not like someone goes to all that trouble to tell you your cousin's passed their driving test is it.

homah_7ft

Well it could be that the kidney transplant you were waiting on is going to happen.

EDIT: and their beeper exploded.

RandomOne

I thought they had beepers!

Dancing_Priest

Yeah, I'd forgotten all about those messages until you mentioned it. They were fairly common back in the day (early 90's, late 80's)

Brian Capture

so has anyone heard any more of these recently?

Adam

This hardly warranted a bump did it? I thought it was established that they had all but died out due to mobile phones etc.?

Brian Capture

I'm not having any luck with my research.

Can't persuade anyone to give me a list of messages / people's names etc.

Kingsize

well that is my name but my honda Crv is more of a dark navy.....

Adam

Tbh I dont think its the best idea for a book... real life(tm) is never as exciting as our minds make it. I'd say the majority would have been related to a death in the family, and as such I doubt anyone would care for your enquiries, I'm sure I wouldn't.

Adam

Kingsize wrote:

well that is my name but my honda Crv is more of a dark navy.....

Que??

Dyr

Mirror wrote:

Tbh I dont think its the best idea for a book... real life(tm) is never as exciting as our minds make it. I'd say the majority would have been related to a death in the family, and as such I doubt anyone would care for your enquiries, I'm sure I wouldn't.

Just make it up so, no-one has any real way of checking the veracity of this stuff and they wouldnt be arsed in the first place anyway

Adam

Bambi wrote:

Just make it up so, no-one has any real way of checking the veracity of this stuff and they wouldnt be arsed in the first place anyway

Yes but that was my point, about fiction being more interesting and exciting. But if you're making it up there's no point using real names.

The Sweeper

On that note, I really, truly hate the mobile phone. Think about it - this whole thread has come to the conclusion "nobody needs an urgent personal message through the media any more, because you're always contactable even when you're on holidays."

Rabies

They probably just left the cooker on

Peteee

They left the immersion on!