Dee Forbes banging the RTE TV licence drum again 60m uncollected fee *poll not working - pl ignore*

I don't know, we never got cable. We were getting patchy but free UK channels with a really tall aerial, it was the 80s, money tight so that was as good as it got.

The station with the clearest reception was the Welsh s4c. That's about as much as I remember.

But why are you asking if I knew that Ireland was in the EEC or was I aware of the divorce referendum? Of course I was aware of them. Is it because I merely didn't mention them? The reason I didn't is because there was no real need to as far as I am concerned because the other aspects were self evident.The hypothesis here is that RTE were a force for liberalization. Same thing with regard to the newspapers. I didn't mention them directly but I did say that there were other sources of information available for decades such as literature, cinema and cinema news reels. And of course radio. But now that you mention newspapers. The British Redtops or Irish editions of them were widely available, where you could see in black and white British journalism hunting down and exposing gay celebrities like Kenny Everett or George Michael. This type of crass journalism was largely balked at in Ireland and the Irish newspapers knew better then to emulate it. Emmet Stagg died this week. When he was caught cruising in the Phoenix park there was a backlash by the Irish public against the way he was treated. Compare this to George Michael who only came out as gay because of the salacious exposure of the US and British media. The fact is that a lot of what is passed of as Irish conservatism is sometimes just civility.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVJPY3dpA38

I was on holidays, camping with my parents in Rosbeigh when the divorce referendum was held. We used to go into Glenbeigh every morning for fresh milk, bread and the newspapers. I remember well, the shopkeeper who would have been only in his thirties celebrating the results of the referendum like it was a football final. Ironically this was one of they areas of the country afaik who did not have access to the BBC directly only RTE television.

There is an Irish delusion that we're terminally unique. We're this remote outpost of Western Europe clinging on to religion and all of those silly old things. I really saw it in the Netherlands when I moved there, where I would and still do hear Irish young people talking to Dutch people as if they grew up with John Charles McQuaid looking over their shoulder. And yet when I walked home from work every day you would see a crucifix on a prominent place in a ton of houses. This is in Eindhoven which is the tech hub of the country. The largest public broadcaster here is an amalgamation of different christian broadcasting channels. While the schools contrary to what is believed are pillarized and many state funded schools have a christian ethos. Ireland is a small country with a third of the population that obviously can't pillarize in the same way. Yet we still have idiotic hand wringing over the angelus or if a newspaper reports on what bishop says on an issue.

Sorry, couldn't resist posting this. You'll have to go to YouTube, I'm afraid (follow the link after you've pressed Play)

Because of you example of others suggesting that they did not know that divorce was not available in Ireland, I was concluding that they (though I assumed you were talking about yourself) were clearly unaware of any news or current affairs in Ireland such as Referendum on Europe and other changes to the constitution.

I gather from what you saying many weren't watching RTÉ in urban areas. I know one of my Mam's friends say she only started watching RTÉ when her children left home as they had control of the remote!

I think they had new episodes of CSI. (I like that you mention Our House, I was think about that show a few months ago, its very random, it only ran for 2 seasons. It is like Human Target which only had 7 episodes but loads of people remember). And I'd say neither of those shows made it to UK TV, but I could be wrong, it's nearly like I'll Fly Away, random 90s programmes that RTÉ aired.

IMO if in 1978 a commercial broadcasters had been the choice to operate both Radio 2 and RTÉ 2, we'd be saying the same.

If in 1960 Teilifse Éireann was set up as a separate organisation to Raidio Éireann we'd be saying the same thing about TÉ.

IMO it didn't really matter who got to broadcast, something new or different would be beamed into our home.

I think RTÉ is praised because that was what was there, and because we believe their argument that it was the best they could offer on the money they had. I no longer believe this, I think RTÉ did the least they could and got away with it.

ray d'arcy?yer man that used be on with zig and zag? thought he retired years ago...

Maybe he did; he certainly threw the towel in some years ago. In any commercial organisation he'd be gone, gone, gone.

KB is not dealing with the "talent" at all. Talk about over promising and under delivery.

8 weeks of The Full Irish Hidden Camera Show!

Did you even get a court order? :)

Good for her, I assume she's paying before the summons, I think that is where I would. What part of the country are you in? Did you see an inspector around?

It’s **** incredible. Almost unbelievable. Pick a number. It’s disgusting.

i really hope the Irish people vote in droves next time.

Not sure who Ronan Coveney is or if he is any relation to the Coveney's he was writting for the UCD paper in 2014, but not much online about him, with the quick search I did.

Abie Philbin Bowman has been with RTÉ for years. He's John Bowman's Son.

Interesting to hear the name of the guest Agnes Bouchier-Hayes but she spells the unusual name differently to Philip Boucher-Hayes!

I'd say a lot of people go way back in this country.

Sure who cares if somebody else is paying..