The Black Eye - Ewan McKenna

Higgins5473

I haven't seen a thread for this podcast so thought I would start one.

I realise McKenna isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I think his podcast is quite good so far. I don't agree with everything he says but he's kept me listening to every episode and has had some good guests. Has some teething issues to sort out, particularly McKenna's sound is atrocious. I'm sure it's relatively inexpensive to sort this out, most of his guests have perfect studio like sound but all of them are interviewing from home like himself.

will have a listen for a few minutes anyways to see what this sh1t-stirrer is up to now.

he has proven himself to be an absolute gobshyte over the years tho - most especially when he completely flip-flops on a subject just to get a few page views.

Higgins5473

glasso wrote: »

will have a listen for a few minutes anyways to see what this sh1t-stirrer is up to now.

he has proven himself to be an absolute gobshyte over the years tho - most especially when he completely flip-flops on a subject just to get a few page views.

yeah, he has his moments. He's trying to move into discussing politics and sport. Dunphy-esque last stand effort. Has a good go at RTE, Ryan Tubridy and the Late Late Show which I agreed entirely with him on and found some of it amusing. If you are listening to the latest one, skip the Eddie Hobbs bit, no need to say why.

Higgins5473

Janelle Attractive Checkbook wrote: »

Im really surprised he has had Hobbs on . The exact kind of celtic tiger figure he'd deride on twitter.

He spent a half hour rambling on how much of a mess the dept. of finance, govt and the banks are making of things now, which they may well be, but didn't offer a single solution or alternative.

generalgerry

Janelle Attractive Checkbook wrote: »

Im really surprised he has had Hobbs on . The exact kind of celtic tiger figure he'd deride on twitter.

Hobbs was on with Mick Clifford last week as well. Was an interesting interview. Seems like he is trying to make a comeback.

WindmillWarrior

Good podcast. I'm enjoying it. Never really knew much about ewan mckenna before this, apart from some second captains listeners disliking him, and disliking him for feck all as far as I could tell.

Higgins5473

he's been blacklisted by OTB since that. Raises a lot of valid points. The ginger Bert/Ernie sounding gimp is a clown. Trying his hand at comedy stuff on Twitter the last while, its horrendous.

CatFromHue

Strange way to be black listed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neYlU-gP4vk

That's MacKenna's own book he's on promoting too.

Higgins5473

CatFromHue wrote: »

Strange way to be black listed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neYlU-gP4vk

That's MacKenna's own book he's on promoting too.

Jesus, ye got me!!!!

If you think that he was invited on to that willingly by Gilroy to discuss sport and rugby in particular you may want to look up McKenna's tweet posting history.

You realise book publishing and vested interests within Newstalk goes far beyond the author and Ger Gilroy?

*Don't suppose you noticed the Ireland Rugby Shirt in a bust taking over the background...not on any other of their live broadcasts. Gilroy is a serious petty arsehole.

CatFromHue

Not sure what your problem is here. You said he was black listed when he obviously wasn't.

As for the rugby shirt, I don't know how they set up the background stuff but they do change it around or have a second studio.

From February

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4Jy4oDM5mw

From December

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Xij0wFuqxk

As for people being petty, I agree with you. People should look up MacKenna's twitter and also the account with all the stuff he deletes.

https://twitter.com/deletedmackenna

yes he's dreadfully flawed but occasionally makes a valid point but usually ruins it by completely over-egging it and managing to look like a dick.

CatFromHue

glasso wrote: »

he was completely right on the rugby circa November 2018 hype I will give him that.

the off-the-ball ginger gimp encapsulates the sort of 'tards you get on the rugby forum on boards. (where McKenna cannot be mentioned lol!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeVWCkis_ak

I watched 45 mins of that, I didn't watch the last few mins.

He starts off with a quote from Alan Quinlan :rolleyes:

He's loose with the facts 2006 France won the 6N, not Ireland.

He's loose with the use of the word friendly too. When NZ played Ireland after we beat them in Chicago it was a friendly. One of the criticisms after that game was that NZ took it too seriously and went out to physically hurt the Irish players. Comparing friendlies in football with rugby is just daft. He does acknowledge that a bit at the start but then ignores it latter.

No one laughed at NZ saying they were the best team in the world before they won the 2011 RWC. Saying they choked is backing that up as they should have won more RWCs as they were the best in the world.

He said Brian O'Driscoll was in tears after we beat Australia in 2011, that's the first I've heard of that.

Madigan crying after he played in the France game in 2015 is easily explained too but only if you put it in context. Which Ewan has no interest in. He's also using the result of the game the week after him crying as a reason that he shouldn't have cried.

He said the rugby team was soft and his reason are the rape trial, the 3 year residency rule, and the players personal lives not being tabloid news. So he didn't back his point up that the team was soft at all. The rape trial and the residency rule were and are extensively covered too. The personal lives of players I don't think should be.

He says the game is over covered for advertising reasons. Out of the top 3 TV shows watched in 2018 two of them were rugby games. There were 3 in top 10, so for a sport that's over covered it seems to be getting people watching it.



Rugby games are regularly in the top 10 watched shows every year. Yet these numbers don't count as there's a low participation rate in the game. It being a very physically intense game to play here doesn't seem to register here for some reason.

He was ultimately proved right in that Ireland didn't win the QF but not for any of the reasons he made.

That clip also highlighted one of the reasons they don't have him on. He didn't back his points up, made stuff up, and then starts windmilling using anything he can against the game.

It was poor stuff from him.

the main / big point is that, as epitomised by the ginger OTB gimp, many people in Ireland were drinking the kool aid / completely over-hyping the team and the significance of an end-of-season friendly and in fact Ireland were exposed as a 1-plan pony (and past sell-by date in several cases coupled with a stale coach) and claiming that nobody on the English team would get into the Irish team etc - he got that right and that's fair enough.

CatFromHue

His reason for the team being over hyped had nothing to do with how the team was playing, it was all to do with how past teams had performed.

If he'd come out and said the team is playing well but I'm worried about it's evolution of playing style, the tactics of the coach, and we're not evolving or for the reasons you mention then that's something.

His reasons for the team being over hyped because the players are soft due to Rory Best going to the rape trial and Munster go looking for project players is nonsense.

Even when he used past teams as a reference point none of them had been playing as well as that Irish team had been. In the 2017-18 the team beat South Africa in November, won the Grand Slam, won a tour in Australia, and then beat NZ in November of 2018. An Irish team had never done that before, that's why people were thinking we could finally do well at the RWC. Not just the one off game. So when he said we've been here before we hadn't.

Even when he was going on about no Irish team had won a RWC QF game he is forgetting where the Irish team used to be. In the 90's our highest 5N finish was 4th with 4 last placed finishes, three of which were in a row!

well did have a point that since 1987 in 9 world cups (8 at the time) Ireland has never managed to win any elimination game, not just the QF's

https://www.espn.com/rugby/report?gameId=23693&league=164205

CatFromHue

I'm not disputing that.

Pretty much up until 2000 Ireland were a very bad rugby team. They would have been ranked 8th or lower in the world if the rankings existed.

It's one of the few things he says that's completely true.

CatFromHue

CatFromHue wrote: »

I'm not disputing that.

Pretty much up until 2000 Ireland were a very bad rugby team. They would have been ranked 8th or lower in the world if the rankings existed.

It's one of the few things he says that's completely true.

well as I said he usually makes one good point and then negates it by means of aresholery.

Morrison J

Have to say I agree with pretty much everything MacKenna says about Irish rugby and he's being proven right time and time again.

CatFromHue

Just watched some of that Joe.ie clip, I didn't watch it all.

Two teams don't use the 6 Nations as a training ground for the RWC. There might be that argument in a RWC year but even that's pushing it. He's manipulating the narrative that the only thing of importance is the RWC, which just isn't true, so he can ignore other international success. It's very dishonest.

He mentions that we go to RWCs as number 1 and with the intention of winning it. Again that's not true. It was mentioned before the 2007 RWC that some of the players were thinking we could win it. It hasn't been true of any other tournament. We have been going expecting to do better than what we have for a number of them but expecting to win it.

Ronan O'Gara was nearly crying after the 2011 win over Australia as he was announcing his retirement, it was literally one sentence in a 2 min interview that he wobbled a bit on too. He also said that win had to be a starting point for the team in that competition and not an ending one.

Didn’t know he had a podcast.
I don’t agree with him on very much (though I love his rugby stuff) but he’s always entertaining. Will definitely listen.

Edit - actually how do you get it? Doesn’t show up in a search, is it a subscription one?

Brock Turnpike

I'd rather **** in my hands and clap than listen to McKenna. However, anyone denying that the rugby team were over hyped is wearing blinkers, and likely was fully on the hype train.

Higgins5473

ReginaldSmythV wrote: »

Didn’t know he had a podcast.
I don’t agree with him on very much (though I love his rugby stuff) but he’s always entertaining. Will definitely listen.

Edit - actually how do you get it? Doesn’t show up in a search, is it a subscription one?

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5Q6eJceEdmfMPeoDmVNqG8?si=tNLYKeCNTayauPqQAeUtng

Spotify link there but I’d imagine it’s available through any of podcast platforms “the black eye”

Few teething issues with sound take away from it, think he needs to get rid of that dub pal of his at the start. Pure sh*t barstool talk and yer man seems to be talking through his hoop.

His monologues are good craic, no holds barred stuff and a lot of it going against the grain of Irish sacred cow untouchable stuff, Ryan Tubridy and RTÉ particularly amusing.

His guests so far have been very good. Better than Dunphys on the Stand regulars in my opinion.

So far, if Ewan can sort his audio out and get rid of that lad at the start, it’s very entertaining.

CatFromHue

Tubridy and RTE are untouchable?

That's news to me. They're both one of the most criticised items in Ireland.

Higgins5473

CatFromHue wrote: »

Tubridy and RTE are untouchable?

That's news to me. They're both one of the most criticised items in Ireland.

They are both highly over funded and for the most part useless. They will both remain solidly in place, just as useless and over funded until they decide not to. That makes them untouchable in my eyes.

cj maxx

Higgins5473 wrote: »

he's been blacklisted by OTB since that. Raises a lot of valid points. The ginger Bert/Ernie sounding gimp is a clown. Trying his hand at comedy stuff on Twitter the last while, its horrendous.

Nothing untoward about what he said about Ireland rugby being in a bubble.
Best team in the world ,bs
Consistently in the top 8 nothing more

Gave it a try but anyone who said about the sound was right which was a pity. Couldn’t listen.

Higgins5473

Floyd Landis segment of the latest episode was very good. Better if you've seen the latest Lance documentary.

JohnnyFlash

Ewan McKenna is a talking head. Trying to pass himself off as the Dunphy of his era, only he doesn't have the wit, guile, and liver of Dunphy.

Won't be listening to this.

Odious troll who lives off schadenfreude. When Ireland lost to NZ in the RWC and England in the last two six nations, he's literally celebrating it on twitter. He changed his cover photo to Owen Farrell fist pumping. He celebrates when the Irish rugby team lose yet somehow claims he's a rugby fan. I'm not into football but you'd never find me cheering against the Irish national team, or in any sport for that matter, less actively celebrating in their loss. Honestly boggles my mind.

Most of what he says about rugby is bang on though. He just tends to have a really bad way of going about things.

Yeah I don't agree with that at all. His points have been refuted already in this thread.

Higgins5473

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Yeah I don't agree with that at all. His points have been refuted already in this thread.

They haven’t really though, they’ve just been disputed by a rugby fanboy like yourself as opposed ‘refuted’. He’s an arsehole, granted but he does highlight an awful lot of issues within the sport of rugby but more importantly the sacred cow that is Irish rugby.

Anyway, I’m sick to death of seeing discussion on Irish rugby in general let alone the pro versus anti camps so back to the podcast, the last few have been utter garbage. His producer Tony is a thoroughly unlikeable fella, annoying might be a better description and is most definitely not made for radio, a bit like Ewan. Both of them very hard on the ears. The begging for cash at the beginning and end is painful, it’s not even a simple nudge or reminder but more like a door to door salesman that won’t piss off and is bordering on threats. He mentioned they are getting 20 thousand plus downloads per show which are good numbers so he should potentially look for a new sponsor and work things out business wise from his end instead of badgering listeners for cash to the point of embarrassing himself.

His interview technique is dire, guests are given free reign and go completely unchallenged. I also can’t understand his logic in producing a 2 and half hour show as opposed to 4 or 5 half hour segments similar to Dunphys the stand. The best interview was with a clearly very high Floyd Landis but you have trawl through other pieces, in this instance a totally unhinged Palestinian activist, which have no connection to the topic you might be interested in so why have a very lengthy single show instead of a few? Anyway, all round, fairly sh*te stuff of late, can’t see myself rushing to listen to any new shows.

A rugby fan boy, aka someone who actually knows what's their talking about. Anyway I agree, I've done this debate to death. Best to nip it in the bud.

Everyone here always nips things in the bud once they've had the last word

Salvation Tambourine

Higgins5473 wrote: »

His producer Tony is a thoroughly unlikeable fella, annoying might be a better description and is most definitely not made for radio, a bit like Ewan. Both of them very hard on the ears. The begging for cash at the beginning and end is painful, it’s not even a simple nudge or reminder but more like a door to door salesman that won’t piss off and is bordering on threats. He mentioned they are getting 20 thousand plus downloads per show which are good numbers so he should potentially look for a new sponsor and work things out business wise from his end instead of badgering listeners for cash to the point of embarrassing himself.

I'm not a fan of McKenna so I'm already biased, I won't listen to the podcast but wanted to hear how bad the begging was. Wow. I listen to a lot of podcasts and have never heard it being put forward like that. As you said, it sounded almost threatening.

Going from the sound quality they aren't spending much on equipment so would the money just be used for guest appearance fees?

CatFromHue

Higgins5473 wrote: »

They haven’t really though, they’ve just been disputed by a rugby fanboy like yourself as opposed ‘refuted’.

I'd like to think that the very least you could take from my posts is that MacKenna regularly says things that aren't true, or isn't what he says they are.

Cienciano

Morrison J wrote: »

Have to say I agree with pretty much everything MacKenna says about Irish rugby and he's being proven right time and time again.

That was actually quite good. Skip to 4 minutes in if you're watching, lots of bollocks before the debate starts.
I like rugby, I've gone to loads of matches, but I'd agree with a lot of Ewan MacKenna has to say. Basically, there's a lot of bollocks talked about rugby.

Arghus

I agree with a chunk of what he says, but I can't warm to him. It's fair enough to sacrifice sacred cows, but he seems like such a joyless character.

An honest question, people who are more expert than me can answer here, does he spend much time ever giving things praise or mentioning something that makes him happy to endorse in sport? Anytime I ever hear him he's always coming at things with a negative spin. There's a lot of hypocrisy and bollocks in sport and it's absolutely fine to call that out, but, jesus, you have to take some joy in something - otherwise what's the point?

Salvation Tambourine

Arghus wrote: »

An honest question, people who are more expert than me can answer here, does he spend much time ever giving things praise or mentioning something that makes him happy to endorse in sport? Anytime I ever hear him he's always coming at things with a negative spin. There's a lot of hypocrisy and bollocks in sport and it's absolutely fine to call that out, but, jesus, you have to take some joy in something - otherwise what's the point?

Pretty much hit the nail on the head from what I've heard from him. Must be so tiring.

Say Your Number

His moral code doesn't prevent him supporting an NFL team who have players with questions of domestic abuse against them.

This response to his bizarre criticism of Shane Lowry last year gave me a laugh

https://twitter.com/PepperellEddie/status/1153412400709820416

Higgins5473

Arghus wrote: »

I agree with a chunk of what he says, but I can't warm to him. It's fair enough to sacrifice sacred cows, but he seems like such a joyless character.

An honest question, people who are more expert than me can answer here, does he spend much time ever giving things praise or mentioning something that makes him happy to endorse in sport? Anytime I ever hear him he's always coming at things with a negative spin. There's a lot of hypocrisy and bollocks in sport and it's absolutely fine to call that out, but, jesus, you have to take some joy in something - otherwise what's the point?

No, never. Just criticism, speculation and negativity. As far as sports hacks go he wouldn’t be alone on this though, look no further than Paul Kimmage and to a lesser extent Eamonn Dunphy for example. I can’t recall Kimmage ever saying anything good about anything but he is still a very good journalist in my opinion so I don’t think the absence of giving praise or writing fluff pieces about sport is a requirement for good journalism.

But his podcast is more current affairs and for the most part ranting so that won’t leave any room for improvement on the positivity front.

PodcastReview

As soon as I heard Ewan had a podcast out I knew it would annoy a few people, this thread reads perfectly.

People who don't like Ewan or what he says, writing essays trying to refute his arguments and failing.

Don't get me wrong, he is a moron. In an era where the journalism profession had an ounce of integrity he wouldn't have a hope. Yet in little old Ireland he managed to make a career out of criticising two things - Irish Rugby and Dublin GAA. Two teams who are so cosy with the media it takes a lad living in Brazil to give a voice to the many who can see through all the hype and media coffee mornings.

This podcast is hilarious. As someone else said over 2 hours long at times, and featuring a monologue that is surely tongue in cheek? I sure hope so. When Mr. Hawala turned up I had to turn off despite my curiousity as what he could possibly have to say. I haven't listened since but may pop back in if an interesting name appears.

The sidekick needs to be kicked to the curb. He is not suited to podcast presenting and I'll leave it there instead of being rude. Almost certainly a former McGregor fan, I assume he does all the leg work and Ewan just shows up.

Unlike most of the posters here I thought the episode with Floyd Landis was poor. He spent the whole episode talking about Lance Armstrong, despite at the outset saying he didn't want to. I don't we can blame all that on Ewan either.

I would propose Ewans main positive here is letting interviewees talk and not constantly interrupting with questions that are really statements about how much he knows (i.e Gilroy and McDevitt). I didn't know someone could be that left wing? Surely it's all an act given the current climate and he's just following the money. Speaking of which I must go and buy myself a cup of coffee.

Oh and I never noticed anything wrong with the sound, if I ever listen again I'll keep my ears peeled.

Tell me how

Higgins5473 wrote: »

No, never. Just criticism, speculation and negativity. As far as sports hacks go he wouldn’t be alone on this though, look no further than Paul Kimmage and to a lesser extent Eamonn Dunphy for example. I can’t recall Kimmage ever saying anything good about anything but he is still a very good journalist in my opinion so I don’t think the absence of giving praise or writing fluff pieces about sport is a requirement for good journalism.

But his podcast is more current affairs and for the most part ranting so that won’t leave any room for improvement on the positivity front.

Kimmage frequently writes about the joy he gets from golf and some of his interviews with the personalities in the game are very positive.

Higgins5473

Tell me how wrote: »

Kimmage frequently writes about the joy he gets from golf and some of his interviews with the personalities in the game are very positive.

no he doesn't and no they are not. g'won, link his faldo caddying moment. he even manages to bring doping into that one.

Higgins5473

PodcastReview wrote: »

Oh and I never noticed anything wrong with the sound, if I ever listen again I'll keep my ears peeled.

I realise it is not sound engineering and acoustic related, but have a listen to the latest contribution. The Brazilian commentary segment has a child deliberately chirping for 30 minutes plus and whatever hippy gob****e contributor damn proud to let her do this. It’s excruciating listening to it.

This podcast is not bad, it’s a disaster. The ‘it’s only for the price of a coffee’ stuff only makes sense if when you pay for a cup of coffee you aren’t handed a cup of steaming excrement which this podcast is.

Higgins5473

Higgins5473 wrote: »

I realise it is not sound engineering and acoustic related, but have a listen to the latest contribution. The Brazilian commentary segment has a child deliberately chirping for 30 minutes plus and whatever hippy gob****e contributor damn proud to let her do this. It’s excruciating listening to it.

This podcast is not bad, it’s a disaster. The ‘it’s only for the price of a coffee’ stuff only makes sense if when you pay for a cup of coffee you aren’t handed a cup of steaming excrement which this podcast is.

that's the only one that I listened to.

the child / children in the background was terrible - comically annoying and poor.

couldn't the guy have gone into the bathroom or something to do the call?

Aidric

Tell me how wrote: »

Kimmage frequently writes about the joy he gets from golf and some of his interviews with the personalities in the game are very positive.

Absolutely, while Kimmage often comes across as negative he never fails to acknowledge the positive where it's warranted. It's also important to note that he's commenting from a lived in experience as a professional athlete.

Contrast him to McKenna who is nothing more than a joyless contrarian troll. It must be tiring being so relentlessly negative.

Higgins5473

Aidric wrote: »

Absolutely, while Kimmage often comes across as negative he never fails to acknowledge the positive where it's warranted.

Give us a few examples there please, seeing as he never fails to acknowledge the positive where it’s warranted this should be very easy.

MacKenna embarrasses himself for the hundredth time on twitter today and yesterday. Slags off Tony Holahon as he steps down and goes on to play the victim. Utterly insufferable.

Arghus

Had a look at some of his twitter interactions from yesterday. He is a bit of a prat.

Clearly he was looking for a reaction from people, a bit pathetic tbh - and quick to look for sympathy when he got blowback. He also got some basic facts totally wrong to try to bolster his argument, claiming that, for instance, pubs were left open for Paddy's Day. Feels like his true colours were on display yesterday.

Higgins5473

[Deleted User] wrote: »

MacKenna embarrasses himself for the hundredth time on twitter today and yesterday. Slags off Tony Holahon as he steps down and goes on to play the victim. Utterly insufferable.

You’ve two extremes, the nauseating narrative that Tony Holohan is our superman saviour and god show spin machine (at this stage I don’t know how you could spell his name wrong or McKenna pronouncing it ‘Hoolahan’ as he’s in our faces every day for months now). And then you have McKenna, being a nasty attention seeking prick. Both benefit very well from both of these scenarios and both are totally idiotic irrational methods of spin/ gaining attention with different agendas. Best ignored.