Lahvlann: Up the reek without a coddle - 26/07 two 18 so to speak

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Will Joe be getting the Pope gig for the RTE live broadcast from the park, he's well able for it an dat with his past experiences so to speak, pure gold jokes straight out o'funny friday on tap..

ButtersSuki wrote: »

Duffy defends Phoenix Park team homecoming

JEROME REILLY
June 23 2002 12:11 AM

RTE Liveline presenter Joe Duffy, who was drafted (Kicking and screaming) in to compere the controversial homecoming for the Irish soccer team, has defended the event though he admits neither the team nor the crowd of 100,000 wanted to be in the Phoenix Park.

"The players had just gotten off a flight and they simply did not want to be there. Nobody knew when the broadcast started whether the players would talk or not. Nobody had spoken to them," said Joe ruefully.
Meanwhile it has emerged from sources close to the players that they did not want to attend because the spectre of Roy Keane still haunts the squad. Keane's comments that he did not want another "glorious losers" event similar to USA 1994 was remembered by the players.
The team had also just learned that South Korea had beaten Italy earlier that day. "The full realisation of how close they had come to immortality had really sunk in then," a senior FAI source said.
The Government and a shamefaced Garda Siochana have admitted the decision to hold the homecoming party in the Phoenix Park was taken in the interests of "security" or "public safety".
The admission by the gardai that they cannot properly police a large crowd in the city centre, and had effectively abdicated their responsibility, has angered senior Government figures.
This robbed fans of the 1990-style colourful open-top bus parade in the heart of the nation's capital, which would have paid proper tribute to the team. Instead fans and the team endured a gimcrack event, corralled like sheep into a corner of the park.
"They didn't know what it was about, unfortunately. I was given a list of things to do. The first was to call them out one by one and that was vetoed at the last minute by Mick McCarthy," Duffy said.
"The players did not want to be brought out and named one by one, which would have been the main part of the show so they could get the applause they deserved."
Joe Duffy said he had had two choices when the manager decided not to allow the players to be introduced individually.
"I had a choice. Either they could have come out all at once, taken a bow and then If I had done that I would have been hung, drawn and quartered. The alternative was to try and get some of them to talk, which I did.

"Whether it worked or not is another thing but I did my best. My job was to try and get them to talk, to try and get the crowd to acknowledge them and the team to acknowledge the crowd," he said.
"I had said it on Liveline the previous day. It should have gone down O'Connell Street. The players were in a very difficult position. They did not want to be there. After all, they're paid to be footballers not entertainers. It would have been better on an open-top bus."

ButtersSuki wrote: »

Lahv Lahn Thread favourite and RTE luvvie Terry Prone in de news again and dat:
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/foi-files-department-of-justice-said-did-not-exist-are-located-1.3600849?mode=amp


A lovely woman.

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

Pardon my ignorance, but where does the fragrant Ms Prone come into that story???