The Stand With Eamon Dunphy

Maybe declining ad revenues were a factor in not getting certain guests but I think Liam didn't want to do any more football analysis anywhere and John was visibly in decline. It's sad to think we may never hear John and Eamon publicly discussing football again.

Although repetitive sometimes and unable to remember some specific details or players about matches, I found he was still able to go & Eamon helped him along the way.

In the earlier years, it was special, he covered a lot of different issues & had a strong football orientated side to his podcast along with a wide variety of guests.

In recent years, it became a bit too much about American politics & their foreign affairs, european issues & politics too etc.

It almost became too political at the expense of everything else.

I stopped paying a sub because of this

Interesting article I came across on the journal.ie, both him and his wife Jane were earning a salary each of approx 73k per year on the show, the show had post tax profits of 109k in 2023.

Thats not big money by any means for Eamon, he was earning I'd say four times that in his hey day & he's been putting out a serious amount of work over the last few months on this podcast.

Probably said, **** it, ill make alot more money & have alot more free time in finishing my book. I dont blame him

The News Agents is one I listen to a lot. And I enjoy the US version of The Rest is Politics a lot.

During one of Eamon's last episodes with Niall Stanage, he mentioned how much in demand Niall now is. He hinted that Niall might not always be available to him. Perhaps Trump's re-election and the possibility of losing his best contributor helped Eamon make a decision. Trump isn't in the White House yet but the chaos and manic news cycles have come back with a vengeance. The rest of the world seems to be something of a dumpster fire at the moment too. If Eamon doesn't have the time or head space to present a current affairs podcast, walking away now is a good idea.

Eamon isn't getting any younger, and he has emphysema. That is a progressive condition, and we can only hope that he doesn't deteriorate too much. There were times last year when he didn't sound great.

The Stand was pretty repetitive with the guests it had on but I still enjoyed dipping in and out occasionally. I'll miss Eamo fawning and grovelling over his contributors.

What's the best similar Irish pod to it? A bit of current affairs from home and abroad.

His podcasts were only about 25mins long and had he approx 2 a week.73k each not bad money for this work.As above if anyone has any recommendations with similar topics please let me know.

No someone else mentioned above himself and his partner made 73k each from Podcast in one year.Not bad for few hours a week.

In fairness it's a bit more than just making human like sounds for 25 mins a few hours a week. Really disappointed to hear the news tbh. The Stand has been a regular part of my almost daily routine. It was both very serious and lighthearted if not laugh out loud at times (with Stanage, Sheehan and we'll always have John Walters!). Big loss not having a Stanage update each week now. Yes this week's update was very similar to last week's but I actually had no issues with that tbh. An end of an era for a broadcast icon. Thanks baby!

Yeah likewise. I always felt that Stanage was particular good at cutting through the noise and not pretending that certain issues were bigger than what they were. Sheehan was the same on Irish politics, and likewise Naoimi O'Leary and Suzanne Lynch were very good on the EU. I liked hearing Diarmuid Ferriter as well to give a historical context.

I've tried the News Agents pod and it's nearly too slick for me - theres a sense that "these are the buzz topics, and we're going to make them into the most important topics" so I feel it misses that sense of being honest with the listener about what really matters.

2024 was a big year of elections with a lot happening and it wouldn't have been easy to cover all of that. On the flip side, the challenge with 2025 will be to provide similar coverage without the elections, and maybe he wasn't as motivated by it.

Eamon is 79 years of age.

He's been making decent money for a man of that age for a number of years.

I'd feel very sure he's stepping back is just because of the ongoing marching of time that everyone experiences.

George Hook, Vincent Browne are similar ages and have gone before him, Pat Kenny is a few years younger and thankfully still going. Ivan is 15 years younger so the thoughts of travel and hotel rooms probably doesnt put him off.

I'll echo comments about The Stand. Be sad to see it go.

I thoroughly enjoy any form of Dunphy's journalism. He does get eye rolls for the "Eamon Dunphy" moments but I have no doubt he is hugely respected across all facets of the media and further afield.

I genuinely think he is one the most intelligent commentators Ireland has had in the last 50 years. He has also shown great empathy and integrity on countless occasions.

Eamon had a great sense of humour as well and was often very self deprecating. He enjoyed telling the story of driving out of Dublin Airport after coming back from the 1990 world cup. Someone approached his car and asked him for his autograph. He said he put on his "Gay Byrne smile" and signed his name. When he handed back the pen and paper the person said "now f××k off". I think he enjoyed being the rogue amongst the fawning media of the time.