The Weekend On One With Brendan O'Connor

Cole

They make the Ingles seem authentic

littlevillage

Obviously the Murphy's are a last minute replacement for a guest(s) who didn't turn up....or who's phone signal died

Peter Dragon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123072697#Comment_123072697

Or dancing around the kitchen table if they play any song……

Sounds like my decision to turn off the radio and take the dog for a walk was a good one.

yosser hughes

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123072496#Comment_123072496

I'd have absolutely no problem if Brenda Power was on every week. She's a relatively lone voice in a sea of middle class left wing commentators that dominate our media.

She's absolutely right about Higgins. He's got a brass neck and he's a hypocrite. He's the equivalent of Jeremy Corbyn and unfortunately too many people don't realise how poisonously left wing he is.

Peter Dragon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123072862#Comment_123072862

On your first point she practically is on every week, this has often been discussed here.

I’d disagree with your view on her being absolutely right on Higgins though. She may be partially right on some aspects of his presidency, but she most certainly isn’t right on everything. She was firmly on Israel’s side this morning, even talking about the hate speech laws being used to combat anti-Semitism if someone “felt” they were the target of hateful words - let’s just ignore evidence or proof of course. The should-he or shouldn’t-he debate is yet another distraction by the Israeli ambassador to deflect from Israeli war crimes and genocide. For the record, what happened on Oct. 7th was horrific, but one can also criticize Israel’s response without it being anti-Semitic. Being Jewish doesn’t give you a right to act with impunity.

As a regular listener to this show though she does come out with some amount of verbal diarrhoea. For example, she’s a qualified barrister and after the Hutch acquittal last year she claimed he (and I’m paraphrasing here) should have been jailed because everyone knew he was guilty. Let’s just ignore procedure and evidence then Brenda…..an absolutely astonishing thing for a barrister to think let alone say out loud.

Bellbottoms

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123072537#Comment_123072537

Really? What did she have to say about Tubs?

Peter Dragon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123072945#Comment_123072945

Something about Ryan Tubridy’s column being about the Healy-Raes today. It offered nothing to the discussion other than a chance to mention Tubridy.

Tubridy’s column is written in a primary school prose style and more resembles a “what I did on my summer holidays” type essay rather than offering anything of relevance….complete with lots of humble-bragging. It’s a humorous read, but not intentionally so.

Bellbottoms

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123073561#Comment_123073561

Is this a column untended for an English or Irish audience?

dxhound2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123072892#Comment_123072892

The discussion about how often she is on concluded that it is far fewer occasions than practically every week. The last time she appeared before today, was 03 November 2024. A post on 06 November 2024 gave the correct information. Her appearance today makes a total of four occasions since August 25 2024 inclusive. The post was made by @Dulpit, and part of it is shown below.

"The Brendan O'Connor podcast feed helpfully lists the guests against each episode. The podcast feed on RTÉ website has episodes going back to August 25th, so it's not a very detailed list. But just to note - Brenda Power has been on twice since August 25th (8th September & 3rd November, Newspaper panel for both). Others I spotted on twice in same period: Alison O'Connor, Scott Lucas, Pat Leahy, Louise Burne, Gerard Howlin."

Peter Dragon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123073864#Comment_123073864

As far as I’m aware it only appears in the Irish edition of The Sunday Mail and numerous Irish online sites - but thanks to the power of the internet his millions of British fans can read it too.

It’s a weekly puff piece designed to showcase how amazing Ryan’s life is in London, tell us how much of political nerd he is (including breaking the news that Joe Biden was twice the President of the US - who knew?), promote his wares and side gigs, list all of the famous people who had the pleasure and thrill of meeting him that week, as well as tell us about the happy accidents that seem to so frequently occur in his life (almost all involving celebrities of some sort or other), all told in his one deliciously themed “I’m really not missing Ireland in any way all” primary school prose style. Imagine if The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole were written by a teenage David Brent, but with less self-awareness.

Peter Dragon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123074273#Comment_123074273

I was exaggerating to highlight a point.

This has been discussed more than once. When challenged on this previously I produced a tabulated spreadsheet from some periodical or other which showed how often she was on and it was (from memory) more than once a month for a year.

Was it not your good self who admitted to being unable to access excel when this was produced? Are you feigning innocence on this? It’s funny how you highlight the post from November 6th but yet chose a different date set to make your point. Hmmm.

If it wasn’t you it was another poster - apologies if I am incorrectly attributing this to you.

edit: I can withdraw my premature apology now..

Peter Dragon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122807538#Comment_122807538

Oh look at that……🙄

Hippodrome Song Owl

It was a pretty poor show this weekend apart from the interview with Gisèle Pelicot's daughter - that was very well done. The panel discussions were poor, and the Clelia/Clarabelle interview today was completely pointless.

Brenda Power is just a contrarian who rarely offers very much of value - she gets away with an incredible amount of drivel that bears little resemblance to reality. She's a very poor representative of those with more conservative views imo.

Peter Dragon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122808083#Comment_122808083

Indeed.

plodder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123072678#Comment_123072678

That was awful, at least until the point I switched over. Can't comment after that.

On the previous discussion, BOC was annoying with all his usual caveats but he redeemed himself by reciting the part of Higgins' speech from the same event last year. That was a good piece of research.

Bellbottoms

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123074304#Comment_123074304

Right so it is just fluff to keep him the public eye.

Papers pay shag all aswell now.

dulpit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123074273#Comment_123074273

I think the thing with Brenda Power is that while she might only be on BOC every now and then, she's also on Anton Savage's show on newstalk and she pops up on other rte shows too. She's on radio a lot, but is spread across a chunk of shows

Peter Dragon

https://www.msn.com/en-ie/entertainment/tv/why-rt%C3%A9-refuses-to-buckle-in-seatbelt-row-on-the-full-irish/ar-BB1rcTiL?apiversion=v2&noservercache=1&domshim=1&renderwebcomponents=1&wcseo=1&batchservertelemetry=1&noservertelemetry=1

I’ll give her credit for that article at least - nice summation of the show and of Garrihy’s comedy in particular.

Noel still has some power in RTÉ getting those 3 a second series of that tv show not to mention somehow convincing Dee Forbes (who he never even had a cup of tea with apparently - one of the great quotes of 2023) to go against the almost universal norm of a double act on a morning radio show and hire 3 of his amazing superstar talent to host 2fm’s breakfast show after former host Eoghan McDermott resigned (ahem) in the first place. 3 for the price of 4 probably knowing Ms. Forbes. I do feel sorry for her being sick going on 20 months now and not a cure in sight.

dxhound2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123075027#Comment_123075027

People like her and Brendan O'Connor make a living by getting money from different media sources. Also Joe Duffy, Ryan Tubridy and more. Keeping to the subject of how many times she is on the programme which this thread is about, it is 4 times since August 2024.

Peter Dragon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123075109#Comment_123075109

Why bring up the November 6th discussion then? Completely disingenuous of you to mention this then pull from a different data set……but you know this.

dxhound2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123075401#Comment_123075401

Why state that "she practically is on every week", when the discussion in November proved that is incorrect? You referred to previous discussions to back up your false claim. An appearance on 03 November, followed by one on 19 January is not practically every week. You say you were exaggerating to make a point. What point is that?

Peter Dragon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123075648#Comment_123075648

The hilarity of it is you bring up November 6th when I was the one who furnished the information that day - information you were unable to access because you don’t (or was it can’t?) use excel (in 2024 at the time no less).

She was on more than once a month for the period tabulated - a period significantly greater than your rather selective (and short) 25th August 2024 to 19th January 2025.

Regarding the use of the word “practically” - I stated its use was to exaggerate to highlight the point. This is a not uncommon technique used in the English language. For example when someone says “I’m so hungry I could eat a horse”, they do not mean this literally. Do you only interpret language literally? It appears not……as there appears to be evidence to the contrary. It’s rather amusing how someone like yourself who argued with posters, accommodated and defended Ryan Tubridy’s use of the word “delicious”, yet seem to want to argue with a layperson when they use a similar technique. Mr. Tubridy can it seems use the word delicious to describe anything, for example “a delicious fire” - which you have defended. It seems there is one rule for Mr. Tubridy’s use of the language, and one rule for others. There appears to me something of a double standard there and I find it a bit bonkers. Deliciously bonkers.

My claim is not false. She is a deliciously frequent guest on the show, indeed was the I believe 2nd most deliciously frequent guest on the show for a significantly extended and delicious period of more than the shortened (and not delicious) timeframe you highlighted. Her more than once a month frequency - in the context and framing of discussing guests on the show - is practically every week.

I hope that clarifies. Have a delicious day.

Brian Scan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123075958#Comment_123075958

From the Merriam - Webster Dictionary:

delicious

1 of 2

adjective

de·​li·​cious di-ˈli-shəs Synonyms of delicious

1: affording great pleasure : delightful a delicious bit of gossip

2: appealing to one of the bodily senses especially of taste or smell a delicious meal delicious aromas

From The Cambridge Dictionary:

deliciousadjective uk  /dɪˈlɪʃ.əs/ us  /dɪˈlɪʃ.əs/having a very pleasant taste or smell: a delicious cake The delicious smell of freshly made coffee came from the kitchen. This wine is delicious. 

used to describe a situation or activity that gives you great pleasure: I have some delicious gossip to tell you.

It would appear that Tubridy's use of the word is supported by these dictionary entries, though I must admit that I would only use it in a food related context.

Peter Dragon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123076059#Comment_123076059

Only a completely pretentious snob would describe a fire as delicious, or indeed use it outside of describing food - a position you seem on the surface at least to agree with.

dxhound2005

Your table posted 06 November shows she had 14 appearance up to 03 November inclusive. You posted it partly in response to my question back then. "Can you tell me how many times Brenda Power was on, and over what time period?"

In the pursuit of clarity, please give the time period. Back then there were 2 with 15 appearance on that table. 3 including Power with 14, and 2 with 13. She is now up to 15, with 11 Sundays between her last 2 outings. She is not exceptional, but is being singled out for attention for some reason. 

Peter Dragon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123076132#Comment_123076132

Just ignore large sections of my detailed reply then why don’t you? 🙄

Singled out? That’s some leap you’ve made there - well done. My initial comment on her appearance yesterday on yesterday’s show had nothing to do with the frequency of same, it was about her siding with the position of the Israeli ambassador, her comments on anti-Semitism in Ireland, and her comments on hate speech.

I and others have commented on more than one occasion on the frequency of many guests on the newspaper panel - I can only comment for myself but I wasn’t concentrating solely on Power. I commented on her appearance when another poster brought it up.

The time period you require is included in the link in my post of November 6th if you wish to retrieve it.

Perhaps you’d be so kind to explain now why you defend Mr. Tubridy’s use of non-literal language choices, whilst feel the need to criticise mine and explain this rather selective double-standard?

dxhound2005

Follow me, I'm Delicious.

Peter Dragon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123076438#Comment_123076438

Asks questions and asks for clarification; then refuses to answer questions themselves in return after answers and clarification is provided. Says a lot tbh.

Being polite, one might say you’re just an agitator.

Cole

Here we go again. The vacuous guest slot. The Ingles, then Clelia and Clarabelle and now this…

Peter Dragon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123097683#Comment_123097683

All that’s missing from that line-up is The Happy Pear boys.