If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Irish celebrities who suddenly vanished out of the spotlight
Oh God yeah- Eurovision/ Eurosong is coming up, so expect a 'Eurovision Medley' that will be so goddamn awful, it will make Glen Hansard and Imelda May's duet look like Sonny and Cher.
Featuring all of the acts who got Nul points, or didn't make it beyond the Semifinals.
Defo .. all them Eurovision singers ... I'd add all them talent show wnners/contestants and the Louis Walsh bands besides Boyzone and Westlife ... anyone remember Six? So much here today .. gone tomorrow acts as well as presenters on that You're s Star ... funny thing is the runners up did better ... sometimes MUCH better ... 21 Demands became Kodaline for example ...
Further to the ex Eurovision and talent show ... You're a Star, the Voice of Ireland, whatever else it has been called ... as well as the UK ones ... 'stars' ...
Some of them pop up now and again trying to revive their careers .... Eoghan Quigg, Lee Matthews Mulhern, Jim Devine ... some of them do gigs and participate in events but ultimately get nowhere ... personally I am not into that type of music but people who are do not rate them highly or do not even know who I am talking about should I mention them!!
Chris Doran seems to have disappeared completely ... used to be playing pub, etc. gigs around the South Tipperary region ... but then got into some row and was in court about 10 years back ...
I know George Murphy has joined the High Kings. I know Doran was angry at how the papers found out pretty much everything about him, including his leukemia battle. And kind of 'outed' him as a traveller.
That said, getting into a fight with multiple people sort of buys into the stereotype of Travellers, unfortunately.
A family member of mine works in the agricultural industry, and was using my laptop to read agricultural news, and saw an an article about some elected board member, and I just instantly went 'I think I recognise that guy'.
Turns out it was Sean O'Brien, the second winner of Treasure Island. Aka that show that was rigged by RTE, and eventually lead to a lawsuit by a contestant in the first series. Interestingly, Mr O'Brien met his wife on that show. And now they have six kids.
Regarding Chris Doran when I was in Primary school one day we we're discussing Your A Star, etc and Chris Doran was mentioned. The traveller kid comes out with I know Chris from hanging out at scrap yard. I think that's when all our class and teacher knew Chris was a travlller and it was in the papers a few weeks later.
George Murphy is proof that someone who came 2nd or 3rd in these competitions often did way better than the winners ... I remember some of the winners of things like You're a Star were wildcards picked by Louis Walsh ... I think that may have been Chris Doran ... George Murphy was more a Luke Kelly style singer ... and thus not suited to Louis' boyband pop style songs ...
I remember when the papers went on and on about Chris Doran being a traveller ... many like you mentioned had it figured well before though ...
I have heard that in recent years Chris did not like to be reminded of the Eurovision ... and how his career went ... that incident in Carrick on Suir in the middle of 2013 did him no favours ... now what Chris Doran and the like sing is not m taste in music but he and others are no worse than many of the other acts that RTE get behind more enthusiastically make 'stars' of ... for example Westlife, Boyzone, Dermot Kennedy, Gavin James, Delcan O'Rourke, etc. .... and what Imelda May does now ... no wonder Chris and others got disillusioned ...
AFAIK she was in the stage production. I think she was in some major stage productions in Dublin with Fionnula Flanagan, but her only screen credit is the BBC version of How Many Miles to Babylon.
Treasure Island, a Survivor type show that was popular in the early 2000s, before we had access to many other-things.
(Apologies, this is gonna be a long post. Skip it if you wish).
Anyway, first series of the show, the woman who won it was not too well liked. Well, many of them weren't liked. Typically, people who go on TV are a certain type. But she was one of the last people you'd want to win. The runner up was a Taxi Driver (Tom Barton) from Dublin
Second season, new batch of people (including Sean O'Brien, and Senator Mark Daly, before he was a Senator). There was also this 'bodybuilder' or fitness coach, can't remember. One scene on that show somehow caught him (fitness coach) paying an islander or local for some food-somehow he brought money with him, and somehow the cameras happened to be there at the exact time he got the food-filmed it and all. Folks called it a fix, and then, whilst the show was still airing, Taxi driver contestant from Season one called out the producers of the show, and said they'd fixed it for the woman who won. He even cited scenes where it's clear that she was digging in one place (to get the treasure chest, containing the prize money) and that the hole she was digging was far bigger between scenes, and possibly was in a different location too. He also cited scenes where the producers 'told him' to stand back and let someone else kill a pig, which he had initially volunteered to do. (The 'tribe' had decided to kill the animal for food).
It was kind of common place that RTE 'rigged' their shows around this time. Remember Talkabout? It was a quizshow with Ian Dempsey first hosting, and then Alan Hughes hosting thereafter.
I knew someone who was on the show (an aunt of a classmate) and she spoke about how they were told the answers based on how well the audience responded to them. Years later, Dara O'Briain said the same thing about that quiz show he hosted, 'Family Affair', I think it was. But this was when he'd gone to the UK and made a name for himself. Said they rigged it for the family the audience liked.
He was one of nine credited screenwriters of the 2021 Razzie nominated film Twist. The film was a modern day reimagining of Oliver Twist. It's pretty bad by all accounts.
Funny you should mention Talkabout, I knew a guy who was a contestant on it when Alan Hughes hosted it, he was adamant that it was fixed and that the couple who won that particular edition were RTE employees. He possibly might have said they wernt a real couple but can't be sure. This was back in the mid 90s and we were watching a video recording of the show he was on when I was visiting his house.
Should add he is something of a Walter Mitty character. An actor but not a very successful one.
It was crazy they were still doing it well into the new millennium. Between the early internet, word of mouth, and other crud, I'd say the audience caught on, and everyone's neighbor knew there was stuff going on.
Gerry Ryan's "Secrets" was another TV show that was rigged,you were supposed to control a computer cursor at the end to win a prize by hitting a target but somebody from the show would control it (behind the scenes) and whoever they wanted to win would hit the target.
Seen on the RTE News BoyZlife [Bryan McFadden and Keith Duffy] were doing a charity gig, and they must have had Mickey Joe in support, I heard a few bars of his Eurovision tune at the end of the report
Hadn't realised they got three series out of it. It was still rubbish. I might have been getting it mixed up in my head with Ryantown which was even worse and lasted one series.
The addon with key VanillaStats could not be found and will not be started.
#0 [internal function]: Vanilla\Logging\ErrorLogger::handleError(1024, 'The addon with ...', '/var/www/fronte...', 1123)
#1 /var/www/frontend-742df116009db3/library/Vanilla/AddonManager.php(1123): trigger_error('The addon with ...', 1024)
#2 /var/www/frontend-742df116009db3/bootstrap.php(546): Vanilla\AddonManager->startAddonsByKey(Array, 'addon')
#3 [internal function]: {closure}(Object(Vanilla\Utility\TracedContainer), Object(Vanilla\AddonManager), Object(Gdn_Request))
#4 /var/www/frontend-742df116009db3/vendor/vanilla/garden-container/src/Container.php(353): call_user_func_array(Object(Closure), Array)
#5 /var/www/frontend-742df116009db3/bootstrap.php(602): Garden\Container\Container->call(Object(Closure))
#6 /var/www/frontend-742df116009db3/index.php(28): require_once('/var/www/fronte...')
#7 {main}
notice
The addon with key translationsapi could not be found and will not be started.
#0 [internal function]: Vanilla\Logging\ErrorLogger::handleError(1024, 'The addon with ...', '/var/www/fronte...', 1123)
#1 /var/www/frontend-742df116009db3/library/Vanilla/AddonManager.php(1123): trigger_error('The addon with ...', 1024)
#2 /var/www/frontend-742df116009db3/bootstrap.php(546): Vanilla\AddonManager->startAddonsByKey(Array, 'addon')
#3 [internal function]: {closure}(Object(Vanilla\Utility\TracedContainer), Object(Vanilla\AddonManager), Object(Gdn_Request))
#4 /var/www/frontend-742df116009db3/vendor/vanilla/garden-container/src/Container.php(353): call_user_func_array(Object(Closure), Array)
#5 /var/www/frontend-742df116009db3/bootstrap.php(602): Garden\Container\Container->call(Object(Closure))
#6 /var/www/frontend-742df116009db3/index.php(28): require_once('/var/www/fronte...')
#7 {main}
info
Could not find file 'custom_default.css' in folder ''.
![[Deleted User]](/applications/dashboard/design/images/defaulticon.png)