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The Black Eye - Ewan McKenna

  • 13-05-2020 4:11pm
    #1
    Registered Users Posts: 1,356 ✭✭✭


    I haven't seen a thread for this podcast so thought I would start one.

    I realise McKenna isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I think his podcast is quite good so far. I don't agree with everything he says but he's kept me listening to every episode and has had some good guests. Has some teething issues to sort out, particularly McKenna's sound is atrocious. I'm sure it's relatively inexpensive to sort this out, most of his guests have perfect studio like sound but all of them are interviewing from home like himself.


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Comments

  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    will have a listen for a few minutes anyways to see what this sh1t-stirrer is up to now.

    he has proven himself to be an absolute gobshyte over the years tho - most especially when he completely flip-flops on a subject just to get a few page views.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,356 ✭✭✭Higgins5473


    glasso wrote: »
    will have a listen for a few minutes anyways to see what this sh1t-stirrer is up to now.

    he has proven himself to be an absolute gobshyte over the years tho - most especially when he completely flip-flops on a subject just to get a few page views.

    yeah, he has his moments. He's trying to move into discussing politics and sport. Dunphy-esque last stand effort. Has a good go at RTE, Ryan Tubridy and the Late Late Show which I agreed entirely with him on and found some of it amusing. If you are listening to the latest one, skip the Eddie Hobbs bit, no need to say why.


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,388 ✭✭✭CorkRed93


    Im really surprised he has had Hobbs on . The exact kind of celtic tiger figure he'd deride on twitter.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,356 ✭✭✭Higgins5473


    CorkRed93 wrote: »
    Im really surprised he has had Hobbs on . The exact kind of celtic tiger figure he'd deride on twitter.

    He spent a half hour rambling on how much of a mess the dept. of finance, govt and the banks are making of things now, which they may well be, but didn't offer a single solution or alternative.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,415 ✭✭✭generalgerry


    CorkRed93 wrote: »
    Im really surprised he has had Hobbs on . The exact kind of celtic tiger figure he'd deride on twitter.

    Hobbs was on with Mick Clifford last week as well. Was an interesting interview. Seems like he is trying to make a comeback.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 667 ✭✭✭WindmillWarrior


    Good podcast. I'm enjoying it. Never really knew much about ewan mckenna before this, apart from some second captains listeners disliking him, and disliking him for feck all as far as I could tell.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,356 ✭✭✭Higgins5473


    he's been blacklisted by OTB since that. Raises a lot of valid points. The ginger Bert/Ernie sounding gimp is a clown. Trying his hand at comedy stuff on Twitter the last while, its horrendous.


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 18,109 Mod ✭✭✭✭CatFromHue


    Strange way to be black listed



    That's MacKenna's own book he's on promoting too.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,356 ✭✭✭Higgins5473


    CatFromHue wrote: »
    Strange way to be black listed



    That's MacKenna's own book he's on promoting too.

    Jesus, ye got me!!!!

    If you think that he was invited on to that willingly by Gilroy to discuss sport and rugby in particular you may want to look up McKenna's tweet posting history.

    You realise book publishing and vested interests within Newstalk goes far beyond the author and Ger Gilroy?

    *Don't suppose you noticed the Ireland Rugby Shirt in a bust taking over the background...not on any other of their live broadcasts. Gilroy is a serious petty arsehole.


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 18,109 Mod ✭✭✭✭CatFromHue


    Not sure what your problem is here. You said he was black listed when he obviously wasn't.

    As for the rugby shirt, I don't know how they set up the background stuff but they do change it around or have a second studio.

    From February



    From December



    As for people being petty, I agree with you. People should look up MacKenna's twitter and also the account with all the stuff he deletes.

    https://twitter.com/deletedmackenna


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  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    yes he's dreadfully flawed but occasionally makes a valid point but usually ruins it by completely over-egging it and managing to look like a dick.


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 18,109 Mod ✭✭✭✭CatFromHue


    glasso wrote: »
    he was completely right on the rugby circa November 2018 hype I will give him that.

    the off-the-ball ginger gimp encapsulates the sort of 'tards you get on the rugby forum on boards. (where McKenna cannot be mentioned lol!)


    I watched 45 mins of that, I didn't watch the last few mins.

    He starts off with a quote from Alan Quinlan :rolleyes:

    He's loose with the facts 2006 France won the 6N, not Ireland.

    He's loose with the use of the word friendly too. When NZ played Ireland after we beat them in Chicago it was a friendly. One of the criticisms after that game was that NZ took it too seriously and went out to physically hurt the Irish players. Comparing friendlies in football with rugby is just daft. He does acknowledge that a bit at the start but then ignores it latter.

    No one laughed at NZ saying they were the best team in the world before they won the 2011 RWC. Saying they choked is backing that up as they should have won more RWCs as they were the best in the world.

    He said Brian O'Driscoll was in tears after we beat Australia in 2011, that's the first I've heard of that.

    Madigan crying after he played in the France game in 2015 is easily explained too but only if you put it in context. Which Ewan has no interest in. He's also using the result of the game the week after him crying as a reason that he shouldn't have cried.

    He said the rugby team was soft and his reason are the rape trial, the 3 year residency rule, and the players personal lives not being tabloid news. So he didn't back his point up that the team was soft at all. The rape trial and the residency rule were and are extensively covered too. The personal lives of players I don't think should be.

    He says the game is over covered for advertising reasons. Out of the top 3 TV shows watched in 2018 two of them were rugby games. There were 3 in top 10, so for a sport that's over covered it seems to be getting people watching it.

    top%2010.JPG

    Rugby games are regularly in the top 10 watched shows every year. Yet these numbers don't count as there's a low participation rate in the game. It being a very physically intense game to play here doesn't seem to register here for some reason.

    He was ultimately proved right in that Ireland didn't win the QF but not for any of the reasons he made.

    That clip also highlighted one of the reasons they don't have him on. He didn't back his points up, made stuff up, and then starts windmilling using anything he can against the game.

    It was poor stuff from him.


  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    the main / big point is that, as epitomised by the ginger OTB gimp, many people in Ireland were drinking the kool aid / completely over-hyping the team and the significance of an end-of-season friendly and in fact Ireland were exposed as a 1-plan pony (and past sell-by date in several cases coupled with a stale coach) and claiming that nobody on the English team would get into the Irish team etc - he got that right and that's fair enough.


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 18,109 Mod ✭✭✭✭CatFromHue


    His reason for the team being over hyped had nothing to do with how the team was playing, it was all to do with how past teams had performed.

    If he'd come out and said the team is playing well but I'm worried about it's evolution of playing style, the tactics of the coach, and we're not evolving or for the reasons you mention then that's something.

    His reasons for the team being over hyped because the players are soft due to Rory Best going to the rape trial and Munster go looking for project players is nonsense.

    Even when he used past teams as a reference point none of them had been playing as well as that Irish team had been. In the 2017-18 the team beat South Africa in November, won the Grand Slam, won a tour in Australia, and then beat NZ in November of 2018. An Irish team had never done that before, that's why people were thinking we could finally do well at the RWC. Not just the one off game. So when he said we've been here before we hadn't.

    Even when he was going on about no Irish team had won a RWC QF game he is forgetting where the Irish team used to be. In the 90's our highest 5N finish was 4th with 4 last placed finishes, three of which were in a row!


  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    well did have a point that since 1987 in 9 world cups (8 at the time) Ireland has never managed to win any elimination game, not just the QF's

    https://www.espn.com/rugby/report?gameId=23693&league=164205


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 18,109 Mod ✭✭✭✭CatFromHue


    I'm not disputing that.

    Pretty much up until 2000 Ireland were a very bad rugby team. They would have been ranked 8th or lower in the world if the rankings existed.

    It's one of the few things he says that's completely true.


  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    CatFromHue wrote: »
    I'm not disputing that.

    Pretty much up until 2000 Ireland were a very bad rugby team. They would have been ranked 8th or lower in the world if the rankings existed.

    It's one of the few things he says that's completely true.

    well as I said he usually makes one good point and then negates it by means of aresholery.


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,841 ✭✭✭Morrison J


    Have to say I agree with pretty much everything MacKenna says about Irish rugby and he's being proven right time and time again.



  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 18,109 Mod ✭✭✭✭CatFromHue


    Just watched some of that Joe.ie clip, I didn't watch it all.

    Two teams don't use the 6 Nations as a training ground for the RWC. There might be that argument in a RWC year but even that's pushing it. He's manipulating the narrative that the only thing of importance is the RWC, which just isn't true, so he can ignore other international success. It's very dishonest.

    He mentions that we go to RWCs as number 1 and with the intention of winning it. Again that's not true. It was mentioned before the 2007 RWC that some of the players were thinking we could win it. It hasn't been true of any other tournament. We have been going expecting to do better than what we have for a number of them but expecting to win it.

    Ronan O'Gara was nearly crying after the 2011 win over Australia as he was announcing his retirement, it was literally one sentence in a 2 min interview that he wobbled a bit on too. He also said that win had to be a starting point for the team in that competition and not an ending one.


  • Posts: 7,712 ✭✭✭[Deleted User]


    Didn’t know he had a podcast.
    I don’t agree with him on very much (though I love his rugby stuff) but he’s always entertaining. Will definitely listen.

    Edit - actually how do you get it? Doesn’t show up in a search, is it a subscription one?


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  • Registered Users Posts: 3,744 ✭✭✭Brock Turnpike


    I'd rather **** in my hands and clap than listen to McKenna. However, anyone denying that the rugby team were over hyped is wearing blinkers, and likely was fully on the hype train.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,356 ✭✭✭Higgins5473


    Didn’t know he had a podcast.
    I don’t agree with him on very much (though I love his rugby stuff) but he’s always entertaining. Will definitely listen.

    Edit - actually how do you get it? Doesn’t show up in a search, is it a subscription one?

    https://open.spotify.com/episode/5Q6eJceEdmfMPeoDmVNqG8?si=tNLYKeCNTayauPqQAeUtng

    Spotify link there but I’d imagine it’s available through any of podcast platforms “the black eye”

    Few teething issues with sound take away from it, think he needs to get rid of that dub pal of his at the start. Pure sh*t barstool talk and yer man seems to be talking through his hoop.

    His monologues are good craic, no holds barred stuff and a lot of it going against the grain of Irish sacred cow untouchable stuff, Ryan Tubridy and RTÉ particularly amusing.

    His guests so far have been very good. Better than Dunphys on the Stand regulars in my opinion.

    So far, if Ewan can sort his audio out and get rid of that lad at the start, it’s very entertaining.


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 18,109 Mod ✭✭✭✭CatFromHue


    Tubridy and RTE are untouchable?

    That's news to me. They're both one of the most criticised items in Ireland.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,356 ✭✭✭Higgins5473


    CatFromHue wrote: »
    Tubridy and RTE are untouchable?

    That's news to me. They're both one of the most criticised items in Ireland.

    They are both highly over funded and for the most part useless. They will both remain solidly in place, just as useless and over funded until they decide not to. That makes them untouchable in my eyes.


  • Registered Users Posts: 13,089 ✭✭✭✭cj maxx


    he's been blacklisted by OTB since that. Raises a lot of valid points. The ginger Bert/Ernie sounding gimp is a clown. Trying his hand at comedy stuff on Twitter the last while, its horrendous.
    Nothing untoward about what he said about Ireland rugby being in a bubble.
    Best team in the world ,bs
    Consistently in the top 8 nothing more


  • Posts: 7,712 ✭✭✭[Deleted User]


    Gave it a try but anyone who said about the sound was right which was a pity. Couldn’t listen.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,356 ✭✭✭Higgins5473


    Floyd Landis segment of the latest episode was very good. Better if you've seen the latest Lance documentary.


  • Registered Users Posts: 7,055 ✭✭✭JohnnyFlash


    Ewan McKenna is a talking head. Trying to pass himself off as the Dunphy of his era, only he doesn't have the wit, guile, and liver of Dunphy.

    Won't be listening to this.


  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    Odious troll who lives off schadenfreude. When Ireland lost to NZ in the RWC and England in the last two six nations, he's literally celebrating it on twitter. He changed his cover photo to Owen Farrell fist pumping. He celebrates when the Irish rugby team lose yet somehow claims he's a rugby fan. I'm not into football but you'd never find me cheering against the Irish national team, or in any sport for that matter, less actively celebrating in their loss. Honestly boggles my mind.


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  • Posts: 7,712 ✭✭✭[Deleted User]


    Most of what he says about rugby is bang on though. He just tends to have a really bad way of going about things.


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