non existent ethnic diversity in Irish media

School Socks

Isn't it strange after all these years, that there aren't any TV/Radio presenters, weather presenters, talking heads etc on the Irish media from other ethnic backgrounds Fair city only has one token black woman afaik.

johnnyskeleton

We have dathai o se, isnt that diverse enough?

We had Jonathan Rachel Clynch on RTE radio. He/she is gender fluid. That's more diverse than anything I can think of, unless you want her/him to show up top work in a wheel chair with an eyepatch on. Is that what you want OP, is it?

Nabber

Ray shah?
Ray D'Arcy is from another planet.

Turtyturd

Martin Collins gets trotted out as a talking head every time attention needs to be deflected away from travellers' actions.

For Forks Sake

johnnyskeleton wrote: »

We have dathai o se, isnt that diverse enough?

He's barely human.

For Forks Sake

You have that perpetually-offended Dil person on Newstalk, along with a cast of equally offended nodding dogs.

silverharp

certainly a shortage of hot South American weather girls

Mrs OBumble

No more surprising than the lack of ethnic diversity among bus-drivers outside of Dublin. It's all about supply and demand, and the locals keeping a tight grip on the best jobs.

hatrickpatrick

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

No more surprising than the lack of ethnic diversity among bus-drivers outside of Dublin

Do culchies not count as an ethnic group? :pac:

Gatling

It's really terrible sitting watching the walking dead and they have no good looking Zombies cast , like there all bleeding ugly ,
Totally discrimination against beautiful people

I dont really care to be honest, do you really want to force people to hire people of different ethnicities just to have 'diverstiy'. Irish people Irish TV in Ireland :O

Jim Bob Scratcher

School Socks wrote: »

Isn't it strange after all these years, that there aren't any TV/Radio presenters, weather presenters, talking heads etc on the Irish media from other ethnic backgrounds Fair city only has one token black woman afaik.

Considering 96% of this country is white, what the hell do you expect ?

hatrickpatrick

Gatling wrote: »

It's really terrible sitting watching the walking dead and they have no good looking Zombies cast , like there all bleeding ugly ,
Totally discrimination against beautiful people

Maybe they should go for a casting cruise around Abbey Street on Tuesday afternoons

pickarooney

There was Kevin Sharkey for a while. Where is he now?

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

There are several weather forecast presenters on RTE radio from Eastern Europe.

Annasopra

Deleted User wrote: »

I dont really care to be honest, do you really want to force people to hire people of different ethnicities just to have 'diverstiy'. Irish people Irish TV in Ireland :O

I didnt know only Irish people watch RTE.

tomwaterford

Tinley Uneven Guillotine wrote: »

There are several weather forecast presenters on RTE radio from Eastern Europe.

Are they hot though?

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

tomwaterford wrote: »

Are they hot though?

Only in good weather.

LadyMacBeth_

tomwaterford wrote: »

Are they hot though?

Nah, that's why they are on the radio :P

Billy86

We're a few years off still I reckon. I went to primary school in the 90s and the two black kids in my class were the only two in the school, bar both of their younger brothers. It's still catches me off guard on occasion even though it's common now, to see black, brown, Asian etc looking kids walking out of school with full Dublin accents. Give it a decade or so, for all the criticisms some may have of Ireland we're definitely not a nation who would have issue to someone who looked different on our TVs.

Capt'n Midnight

pickarooney wrote: »

There was Kevin Sharkey for a while. Where is he now?

Painting.

GerryDerpy

Omackeral wrote: »

We had Jonathan Rachel Clynch on RTE radio. He/she is gender fluid. That's more diverse than anything I can think of, unless you want her/him to show up top work in a wheel chair with an eyepatch on. Is that what you want OP, is it?

Just when you thought the world was crazy enough...

Badly Drunk Boy

If you look at the beloved institution that is The Angelus, that has loads of ethnic diversity. I know that's not like being a presenter, but it's faces on the screen....

pickarooney wrote: »

There was Kevin Sharkey for a while. Where is he now?

He's been an artist for years now. He used to present Megamix in the 80's. (What? A black presenter on Irish television is the backward 1980s?)

Robsweezie

teachers too...never had a black/foreign teacher or saw one in any school i was at.

Noveight

Nepotism runs RTE and RTE run Irish media.*
When it's just one big circle-jerk it's hardly a surprise that the whole situation lacks diversity.

bodhrandude

Seen an Oriental Gardai at the Beatyard festival in Dublin last weekend.

Ralf and Florian

pickarooney wrote: »

There was Kevin Sharkey for a while. Where is he now?

There was also a mixed race Garda on Garda Patrol back in the day. A Vietnamese lady on Anything goes (or the show that replaced it, not sure). RTE in the 80's was more ethnicly diverse than it is now.

JupiterKid

Ireland has only begun to become ethnically/racially diverse in the past 20 years and this will take time to filter through to the media, politics and other professions. It will happen, given time.

In the UK the first immigrants from the former colonies arrived in significant numbers in the 1950s. It took until the late 1970s/early 1980s for the first non-white TV presenters to appear.

And despite what some on boards would have us imagine, Ireland is still overwhelmingly white.

The_Valeyard

There's a really annoying and female version of Ray D'Arcy on Newstalk. Think she is Indian or something. Does that count?

PistolsAtDawn

JupiterKid wrote: »

And despite what some on boards would have us imagine, Ireland is still overwhelmingly white.

Ireland is still overwhelmingly white though!

Just like the Congo is overwhelmingly black.

Whats the problem?

JupiterKid

PistolsAtDawn wrote: »

Ireland is still overwhelmingly white though!

Just like the Congo is overwhelmingly black.

Whats the problem?

No problem whatsoever. Just an observation on my part.

seenitall

Probably talking sihte here and mixing it up with the BBC (I don't watch much TV these days, let alone listening to the radio), but... Kaneswaren sisters, Baz what's his name, Amanda Byram..?

PistolsAtDawn

JupiterKid wrote: »

No problem whatsoever. Just an observation on my part.

I always keep an eye open for racial diversity too

kilns

PistolsAtDawn wrote: »

JupiterKid wrote: »

No problem whatsoever. Just an observation on my part.

I always keep an eye open for racial diversity too

Rachel Diversity isnt she the one who does countdown?
Get a grip, the OP said it all when the mentioned that Fair city has a "token" black person.  Thats all they would be, the BBC has gone crazy now and its a surprise if a white male gets a gig there now

KungPao

Father Ted had a black priest from Donegal, and a Cuban. What more do you want?

Cee-Jay-Cee

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

No more surprising than the lack of ethnic diversity among bus-drivers outside of Dublin. It's all about supply and demand, and the locals keeping a tight grip on the best jobs.

What a crock of sh!

First and foremost, 99% of the rest of the country has to make do with a token bus service provided by Bus Eireann and you'll find that the vast majority of those drivers (which aren't very many in the grand scheme of things) were in those jobs long before most of the non nationals arrived here.

Secondly, private bus companies have been operating in those areas which aren't serviced by BE and have had their own drivers, again for many years.

And lastly, your remark about locals keeping the best jobs, why wouldn't they??? They're local people living in the area for years, why shouldn't they get local jobs? No one is going to give a job to an unqualified person, so if a local person has the necessary qualifications then they are quite entitled to the job or in your silly little world should jobs be given to non nationals just to balance the books regardless of what local talent is available?

suicide_circus

Shame! Shame!

Ireland can never be truly enlightened until a woman looking like Wesley Snipes is presenting the Six one news

silverharp

give it a few years and you might be able to just choose the skin and features for your newsreader and your tv software does the rest?

seamus

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

No more surprising than the lack of ethnic diversity among bus-drivers outside of Dublin. It's all about supply and demand, and the locals keeping a tight grip on the best jobs.

Surprisingly enough, this is basically it. Most of the jobs in RTE go to people who are connected to small gene pool based in South County Dublin, whether that's because they're friends of someone or related to someone.

It's well known that RTE is basically a closed shop for Irish talent, hence why the best generally steer clear of it.

topper75

Call us again OP if you can actually cite a case where two equally-qualified people apply for a media role and one of them gets knocked back solely on the basis of their ethnicity.
Other than that we really don't have a problem here.

I'm so long in the tooth now that I can actually remember when the Left used be about better pay and conditions for workers.

Richard Hillman

suicide_circus wrote: »

Shame! Shame!

Ireland can never be truly enlightened until a woman looking like Wesley Snipes is presenting the Six one news

Grace Jones?

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

Yamanoto

seenitall wrote: »

Probably talking sihte here and mixing it up with the BBC (I don't watch much TV these days, let alone listening to the radio), but... Kaneswaren sisters, Baz what's his name, Amanda Byram..?

Amanda Byram?

Bambi985

Omackeral wrote: »

We had Jonathan Rachel Clynch on RTE radio. He/she is gender fluid. That's more diverse than anything I can think of, unless you want her/him to show up top work in a wheel chair with an eyepatch on. Is that what you want OP, is it?

Whatever happened to this lad/lass? No sign of him/her since that gender fluid reveal more than two years ago.

keeponhurling

Permabear wrote: »

This post had been deleted.

There are Polish language TV stations and programmes in Poland, which can be accessed over the internet I believe. 
If Irish prgrammes were not produced in Ireland, they would not be produced at all I guess.

VinLieger

Theres an australian bird who does the weekend news reports on Nova...... accent is super annoying

Strazdas

The absence is certainly noticeable in the news media. The UK have people like Faisal Islam and Krishnan Guru-Murthy in prominent news roles.

whisky_galore

Strazdas wrote: »

The absence is certainly noticeable in the news media. The UK have people like Faisal Islam and Krishnan Guru-Murthy in prominent news roles.

TBF they have had over a half century of inward immigration instead of 15/20 years.

JCX BXC

In the UK I think it's gone too far, nearly every interview is with Mr Khan Khalidi Khan Jihad

El Weirdo

Billy86 wrote: »

I went to primary school in the 90s and the two black kids in my class were the only two in the school...

... except for the other two?

Billy86 wrote: »

...bar both of their younger brothers.