“RTÉ Is A Place That Lives In Fear Of Keyboard Warriors”

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From top: terror stalks computer screens at RTÉ, says Eamon Dunphy. Top picture posed by model.

Eamon Dunphy yesterday announced he had quit RTÉ to focus on his podcast The Stand.

He had worked with the national broadcaster for 40 years.

In his column in today’s Irish Daily Star (not online), Mr Dunphy said:

“For most of the four decades, I had the time of my life, but things haven’t been right for a while.

“I saw the way John Giles was treated, pushed out the door after the European Championships in 2016 even though he was – and still is – one of the best pundits around.

RTE is a different place now. It’s a place that lives in fear of keyboard warriors on Facebook and Twitter.

“I’ll never forget the words of a senior executive in RTE to us on the eve of [Euro 2016]. ‘Go easy on Martin [O’Neill, Ireland’s football manager]’ was his message. That was the brave new world of RTE sport, even though there was nothing brave about it.”

Eamon Dunphy blasts RTE following retirement claiming national broadcaster now live in fear of Twitter and Facebook keyboard warriors (The Irish Sun)

Yesterday: Après Match

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25 thoughts on ““RTÉ Is A Place That Lives In Fear Of Keyboard Warriors”

    1. Jesús, María, and Josépha

      And *you’re* on the comments section of a social media site because…

      … it’s a slow day eavesdropping in the RTÉ canteen, is it, lower case steve?

  1. curmudgeon

    Oh Eamon; how nice it must feel to rubbish your former employer publicly now that you’ll never have to work again. Due of course to the money and celebrity that they burdened you with.

    1. Dhod

      As the plebs that pay their salaries we’re due a little insight.

      I disagree that Giles is one of the best in his field. He was, but no longer is. He still does his bit on off the ball and I find some of it uncomfortable listening. Knows very few of the players names and repeats himself a lot. He still compares players to Charlton, Law, Bremner etc. This is grand for the over 60’s but not for the majority of the audience

  2. b

    it must have been horrible for Dunphy in this era of social media where people could bring up clips time and again of him being wrong or contradicting himself

    he was entertaining as a pundit but his analysis was like a stopped clock

    1. The Old Boy

      As someone who thinks that most television sports punditry is, as Dunphy might put it, “a cod”, I much prefer to listen to the entertaining, confident nonsense that he could be relied on to spout rather than the well-informed but often over-earnest and crashingly dull stuff that his colleagues on ITV produce during a Champions League game of a Wednesday evening.

      1. scottser

        indeed old boy. the fact of dunphy being so on the air so long says more about us as viewers than it does about him as a pundit.

      2. rotide

        Nail on the head there Old Boy. Much rather watch Dunphy come out with acerbic quips and stuff you could imagine him saying in Renards than Carragher waffle me to sleep.

  3. Capitan Alatriste

    the stand can be entertaining but dunphy actually isn’t a good interviewer. he has a poor command of English and usually spends half of it praising the interviewee.

  4. Gerard Piqued

    If there is anyone that epitomises the rotten state of this country it is Dunphy.He has been very handsomely paid by tax payers money for decades to “analyse” what we have all just seen i.e. a football match, giving vent not only to his bitterness but his bias against certain players,managers and teams, not to mention the numerous and often reported errors in his judgement.

    He has made being wrong into an art form and on one infamous occasion, wasted our taxes by having the crew in the sports department compile a list of clips to show that Messi was “passed it”, prepared to be shown at half time and in the process prove what a good judge of a player he was, only for Messi to destroy Bayern Munich single handedly in the first half alone.

    This was seen as a joke pass off with aplomb by his buddy Darragh.I for one am delighted to see the back of him.As for Giles, this man was propped up for years by both his buddies Dunphy and Brady, telling him who the players were, whilst he also got paid handsomely for sitting on the fence or in other words, say nothing of consequence.In a role that requires little or no intelligence of knowledge, this was some achievement.

    Dunphy wanted the gravy train to keep going for them all and was upset when his buddy was shown the door as he should have been had the donkeys in RTE had a backbone.He’s right though, things have changed and it is because that change that he was in a job for so long.

  5. Otis Blue

    Eamon having his cake and eating it. It was ever thus.

    I like him but consistency isn’t his forte.

    1. Gabby

      Somehow I prefer Eamo and the guys discussing things apres match to the frustrations of the 90-minute match itself. Many moons ago sports commentator on radio, Michael O’Hehir, had such a vibrant running voice that he could make a boring game of Gaelic football sound exciting.

  6. lolly

    I’m glad he’s gone. Too many crabby old men on that panel over the world cup in general. Hope Solo was a breath of fresh air the couple of times I saw her, more of her and her ilk please.

    1. rotide

      Oh please, Hope Solo was a brilliant player but she gave very little in the way of insightful analysis. The only people who enjoyed her were the type of people who look at a group of people and wonder why there isn’t more women…

  7. Wellness

    “RTÉ Is A Place That Lives In Fear Of Keyboard Warriors”

    … so too is Broadsheet as they delete comments for no apparent reason…

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