Your favourite Irish journalist.

JohnnyFlash

There was a thread here a week or so back asking the good people of Boards who they thought was the worst journalist operating in Ireland.

Harsh enough I felt, considering it's a poorly paid profession with no job security.

So to counteract - who is your favourite Irish journalist?

Miriam Lord in the Irish Times is my favourite as she manages to be extraordinarily funny and perceptive on a near daily basis. A national treasure.

Eilis O'Hanlon in the Sunday Independent is the other. I don't always agree with what she writes, but I do so most of the time. Witty as well.

Your Face

Gordan Darcy. He has the right balance of emotion and analysis.
More importantly, for me anyway, he actually played the game at a high level.

I'll always have a soft spot for Vincent Browne, cut through the PR spin machine with disdainful precision leaving a trail of wreckage in his wake. Enda Kenny was terrified of him, never had to balls to debate Vincent on his show as script doctors were banished from the studio. We need more crusaders of his type in the media who take absolutely no guff. This trademark dressing down of Donnelly's lack of integrity is one to treasure:

ShatterAlan

Finian Cunningham.

Arghus

Vincent Browne
Mick Clifford
Mariam Lord - her daily Dail reports are brilliant.

Shoelaces

Pub Spy

Liebling

Vincent was entertaining alright:

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

Irishphotodesk

Your Face wrote: »

Gordan Darcy. He has the right balance of emotion and analysis.
More importantly, for me anyway, he actually played the game at a high level.

I don't mean to be flippant, but is Darcy a journalist or is he a pundit, giving his opinion?

zerosugarbuzz

Chris donohoe........... oh wait

Quantum Erasure

Ian O'Doherty

Omackeral

Either Tom Humphries or Dear Deirdre

Gervais08

Omackeral wrote: »

Either Tom Humphries or Dear Deirdre

Jaysus you wouldn’t want to get your letters to them mixed up so!!!!

jimgoose

Aside from The Cranky Man in the sadly now defunct Bishopstown News, I've always liked Fintan O'Toole and Fionnan Sheehan before he became a bit of a dick.

Frank McNally An Irishman's Diary. I love obscure bits of history or musing about the usage of words.

This is a good example.

https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/how-an-irish-antiques-dealer-upstaged-locals-to-open-australia-s-greatest-bridge-1.3681773

Your Face

Irishphotodesk wrote: »

I don't mean to be flippant, but is Darcy a journalist or is he a pundit, giving his opinion?

He is both.

Loafing Oaf

Ken Early
Pat Leahy

Something about that three-letter Christian name, five-letter surname ending in a y that does it for me...

Hulk Hands

JohnnyFlash wrote: »

There was a thread here a week or so back asking the good people of Boards who they thought was the worst journalist operating in Ireland.

Harsh enough I felt, considering it's a poorly paid profession with no job security.

Yet you contributed two names to page 1 of it

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2058127027

Mad_maxx

we are not exactly spoilt for choice when it comes to journalists in this country

kevin myers is the only standout for me , mick clifford of those still working

chicorytip

Miriam Lord, Eilis O'Hanlon and Fintan O'Toole are not journalists in the real sense of the word. They are opinion columnists or in Lord's case, a colour writer.
Conor O'Clery of the Irish Times was an outstanding journalist.
Colm Keena has done the state some service.

Cosmo Kramer

Tony Connolly has been outstanding throughout the whole Brexit saga. An incredible depth of knowledge of that topic while continuing to stay on top of other European matters.

In terms of sports journalism Mark Tighe and Paul Rowan have done fantastic work exposing John Delaney and the FAI.

While there are far too many poor journalists out there the best ones are excellent and deserve praise for the exceptional work they do.

Cosmo Kramer

Loafing Oaf wrote: »

Ken Early
Pat Leahy

Something about that three-letter Christian name, five-letter surname ending in a y that does it for me...

I wouldn't necessarily agree with anything Ken Early has to say about football. :pac:

I do think Early is a good writer and an entertaining broadcaster but I do also think his actual knowledge of the game of football is a bit suspect as he hasn't played at any kind of competitive level and this lets him down at times.

Loafing Oaf

Cosmo Kramer wrote: »

I wouldn't necessarily agree with anything Ken Early has to say about football. :pac:

I do think Early is a good writer and an entertaining broadcaster but I do also think his actual knowledge of the game of football is a bit suspect as he hasn't played at any kind of competitive level and this lets him down at times.

What about his Marseilles years?:P

McGinniesta

Cosmo Kramer wrote: »

I wouldn't necessarily agree with anything Ken Early has to say about football. :pac:

I do think Early is a good writer and an entertaining broadcaster but I do also think his actual knowledge of the game of football is a bit suspect as he hasn't played at any kind of competitive level and this lets him down at times.

To be fair to the two lads they have done good work.

However, I don't know if this is harsh or not but I'll throw it out there, they only started this after a cheque literally landed on their desk. I wonder would this story have been broken had someone else not set the ball rolling.

McGinniesta

Cosmo Kramer wrote: »

I wouldn't necessarily agree with anything Ken Early has to say about football. :pac:

I do think Early is a good writer and an entertaining broadcaster but I do also think his actual knowledge of the game of football is a bit suspect as he hasn't played at any kind of competitive level and this lets him down at times.

Being a good journalist, like coaching, is not necessarily reliant on having played the game at the highest level. You don't need to have played at a high level to have an understanding or knowledge of the game.

dxhound2005

chicorytip wrote: »

Miriam Lord, Eilis O'Hanlon and Fintan O'Toole are not journalists in the real sense of the word. They are opinion columnists or in Lord's case, a colour writer.
Conor O'Clery of the Irish Times was an outstanding journalist.
Colm Keena has done the state some service.

That just leaves Dear Deirdre as the only woman left on the thread. Unless Pub Spy is a woman?

The Tetrarch

Vincent Browne
When he was on TV3 he had a politician on, a real expert in waffle, talking plenty and saying nothing, a double for Cllr. Willie Power, the Local Councillor representing the Local Electoral Area of Killinaskully (TV series).
Vincent was bored with the evasions.
Coming up to the ad break Vincent asked viewers for text or e-mail questions.

I sent him an e-mail with one word "Killinaskully".
Vincent was reading his messages, looked up, and smirked.

Church on Tuesday

The late great Con Houlihan.

Cosmo Kramer

McGinniesta wrote: »

Being a good journalist, like coaching, is not necessarily reliant on having played the game at the highest level. You don't need to have played at a high level to have an understanding or knowledge of the game.

In general I agree, but I find with Ken there are fairly significant gaps in his understanding of football and I just wonder if it comes down to him not really having played the game, even at amateur level. There's something a bit barstool about his football knowledge. He's very entertaining but if I wanted high quality analysis of a football game he wouldn't be someone I'd look to for it.

Edgware

The Tetrarch wrote: »

Vincent Browne
When he was on TV3 he had a politician on, a real expert in waffle, talking plenty and saying nothing, a double for Cllr. Willie Power, the Local Councillor representing the Local Electoral Area of Killinaskully (TV series).
Vincent was bored with the evasions.
Coming up to the ad break Vincent asked viewers for text or e-mail questions.

I sent him an e-mail with one word "Killinaskully".
Vincent was reading his messages, looked up, and smirked.

A journalist is not supposed to be the main attraction in an interview. Browne was too fond of answering his own questions instead of letting whoever was being interviewed answer

dxhound2005

Vincent Browne was the main man in Young Fine Gael in UCD. Well matched, with him coming from a fee paying private school. And later on he had a mansion in Dalkey.

But when Fine Gael rejected him when he wanted them to select him as a candidate for the European Parliament elections he turned against them. That prompted him to put on the act of being a Man of the People up against the establishment.

Hibernia93

Ewan Mackenna

Dancewithme

Hibernia93 wrote: »

Ewan Mackenna

Hi Ewan

bodhrandude

Deleted User wrote: »

I'll always have a soft spot for Vincent Browne, cut through the PR spin machine with disdainful precision leaving a trail of wreckage in his wake. Enda Kenny was terrified of him, never had to balls to debate Vincent on his show as script doctors were banished from the studio. We need more crusaders of his type in the media who take absolutely no guff. This trademark dressing down of Donnelly's lack of integrity is one to treasure:

I remember when Vincent had his radio show on RTE radio 1 in 1997 when he had Michael Noonan (Health Minister at the time) on the hot seat about the Hepatitis Scandal, Jesus he fecking slayed him on air. I have great admiration for Vincent.

https://www.thejournal.ie/michael-noonan-vincent-browne-2516547-Dec2015/

Tommie Gorman. I think he has a great understanding of the NI political situation and is very informative in his reporting, setting the context and the tensions behind the news.

Oops, I guess he’s not a journalist, actually

Trimm Trabb

McGinniesta wrote: »

To be fair to the two lads they have done good work.

However, I don't know if this is harsh or not but I'll throw it out there, they only started this after a cheque literally landed on their desk. I wonder would this story have been broken had someone else not set the ball rolling.

What story are you talking about here?

.anon.

dxhound2005 wrote: »

Vincent Browne was the main man in Young Fine Gael in UCD. Well matched, with him coming from a fee paying private school. And later on he had a mansion in Dalkey.

But when Fine Gael rejected him when he wanted them to select him as a candidate for the European Parliament elections he turned against them. That prompted him to put on the act of being a Man of the People up against the establishment.

Fine Gael had a decent socially just wing, once upon a time - powerful enough to get a leader (FitzGerald) elected. Vincent Browne would have been very much on that side of the party. Fine Gael rejected him some time in the '90s, after the party had lurched back to the right. Read the stuff he was writing in the late 1960s - his interest in social justice and his championing of marginalised groups like Travellers and people living in poverty isn't an act. Or if it is, it's one he's been putting on for over half a century.

One of our best journalists. Kitty Holland is another one. As is her father, Eamon McCann. Has Gene Kerrigan been mentioned yet? Columnists are journalists too.

sydthebeat

Hibernia93 wrote: »

Ewan Mackenna

As$hat

razorblunt

Hibernia93 wrote: »

Ewan Mackenna

You'll address him by his proper title, "Ewan Former Journalist of the Year now shouter at stray Portugueuse cats MacKenna".

E mac

Robert Fisk. Excellent writer/reporter regarding the Middle East. I was lucky enough to be at a talk he gave many years ago it could have lasted a day it was so good. He had Irish citizenship along with been British.

Dempo1

Tommie Gorman retiring, Thank god, an epic pain in the A***

fryup

Eamon Dunphy

He was public enemy no.1 during italia 90, but fair fuks to him for having the backbone to speak his mind about the godawful style of football Ireland played under Jack Charlton.

Everlong1

I like Pat Leahy, his books on Fianna Fail's boomtown years and the FG/Labour coalition after the crash were good reads. Always find his IT column insightful.

doublejobbing 2

.anon. wrote: »

One of our best journalists. Kitty Holland is another one. As is her father, Eamon McCann..

:pac::pac::pac::pac:

Ah yes. Kitty and her PBP dad. Heroes of highlighting the unfairness of the housing crisis and social inequality.

Apart from when she interviewed a Kurdish lad who lived in a 700K one bed council acquired flat after having been in the country 10 minutes, and the only unfair thing she could see was that he wasn't allowed into the on site gym.

An activist masquerading as a journalist. Same as Sorcha Pollix. Examples of everything that is wrong with this country.

doublejobbing 2

Most RTE journalists are fairly coherent and handle their brief well and without bias, despite what absolute loons from Sinn Fein and the Gemma O'Doherty/ Gilroy fringe may believe.

Galwayguy35

.anon. wrote: »

Fine Gael had a decent socially just wing, once upon a time - powerful enough to get a leader (FitzGerald) elected. Vincent Browne would have been very much on that side of the party. Fine Gael rejected him some time in the '90s, after the party had lurched back to the right. Read the stuff he was writing in the late 1960s - his interest in social justice and his championing of marginalised groups like Travellers and people living in poverty isn't an act. Or if it is, it's one he's been putting on for over half a century.

One of our best journalists. Kitty Holland is another one. As is her father, Eamon McCann. Has Gene Kerrigan been mentioned yet? Columnists are journalists too.

Kitty Holland one of our best journalists?
Don't know what you are smoking if you think that.

Fitzgerald was nothing more than Maggies bitch afraid of his life of her.

Personally I think Ian O Doherty is the man I look for when I want to know whats happening in the country, no bs just facts.

Hangdogroad

Galwayguy35 wrote: »

Kitty Holland one of our best journalists?
Don't know what you are smoking if you think that.

Fitzgerald was nothing more than Maggies bitch afraid of his life of her.

Personally I think Ian O Doherty is the man I look for when I want to know whats happening in the country, no bs just facts.

Ian O Doherty is an edge lord who wouldnt know a fact if it bought him.a lifetimes supply of coke, booze and snack boxes.

Barry Egan is very good at what he does. Pure bull****tery to raise the PR profile of self declared celebs.

The brass neck on him is impressive at some of the brown nosing **** he writes.

Galwayguy35

Hangdogroad wrote: »

Ian O Doherty is an edge lord who wouldnt know a fact if it bought him.a lifetimes supply of coke, booze and snack boxes.

Listen to him sometime you might learn something.

Omackeral

Just saw the OP of this thread.

RIP Johnny Flash

meeeeh

Miriam Lord is brilliant, Pat Leahy is good.

I liked Vincent Browne but his combative style meant that only fringe politicians and young politicians who wanted to climb the party ladder in bigger parties had any interest appearing on his show. Appearance on his show would only damage reputation of those on top. That's fine but it did limit his show to a bit of a side panto and main discussion was happening elsewhere.

Yamanoto

Not much time for RTE, but I think Tony Connelly's Brexit analysis has been top notch.

On the sports side, I was bereft when the Second Captains lads left Newstalk, but I think Joe Molloy has surpassed them as an interviewer.

Fan of the curmudgeons too - Hook, Browne and Dunphy