Tag Archives: Broadsheet

Nick Kelly

Nobody told me there’d be days like this.

Strange days indeed.

It has been an honour and a privilege to have been so warmly welcomed into the weird and wonderful world of Broadsheet. It represents the best of Ireland. I have enjoyed working alongside John Ryan more than I can say. There are few in Irish media who possess an ounce of his heart, guts or punning ability.

Since Covid, I have looked upon my profession and despaired at what it has become. Seeing former journalistic colleagues calling for a witch hunt of the unvaccinated on national television is something I never thought I would ever see in my lifetime. Yet here we are.

When I began posting on this site in 2018 the world was a lot different: I loved promoting new Irish music in my daily You May Like This music posts. And the weekly Friday music quiz caught the imagination of the faithful Broadsheet commentariat in a way that gladdened my heart.

I want to thank our sponsors Golden Discs and Currys for their invaluable support which allowed the competition to become a much loved staple of the site.

I also want to thank our readers for encouraging me to continue with the format even after the vouchers ran out; that was a truly heart-warming show of solidarity that I won’t forget any time soon.

I also want to thank the various press officers who sent me so many great videos over the past 4 years (including Pete Murphy, Emma Harney, Ciaran Savage, Sheena Madden, Kevin Murray, Colm Slattery and Michelle Whitehead: I write their names out in a list).

And I want to thank the artists themselves for managing to create such powerful music even when circumstances locked down their dreams. I know this much is true: the Irish music scene has never been in such robust health.

Then Covid happened and everything changed. Although I continued with the music, popular culture and social history posts, I found that I could not stay silent on a subject which affected me so profoundly.

As a vaccine-damaged person who knows first hand the devastation that a pharmaceutical needle can inflict on a person’s health, I felt compelled to warn of the dangers of the jab.

The response to our posts on this subject proved to be polarising in a way that was as regrettable as it was unavoidable. Keeping silent on this issue was simply not an option. If you have a problem with the concept of freedom of speech, then maybe Western Civilisation is not for you.

Broadsheet, to its eternal credit, was the very embodiment of this sacred pillar. Alas, in Ireland it was essentially alone in a cultural landscape that has become gripped by an hysterical conformity to pre-approved narratives handed down by globalist bureaucrats who I suspect may not actually have our best interests at heart. A crazy idea, right?!

Alas, the zeitgeist has moved so far from a commitment to core democratic principles that Broadsheet came under a ferocious and sustained attack in the comments section by both honest and dishonest actors. I want to thank those commenters who rallied to our cause day in and day out. We could not have endured as long as we did without you.

To the honest commenters who virulently disagreed with us, I say this: we are just regular people who sincerely felt that our friends, families and the general public were in great danger. And we used this platform to sound the alarm. That’s it in a nutshell: we were never paid a penny to push any opinion. We pursued our editorial line because it felt like the right thing to do.

For the reasons mentioned by Bodger in his Closing Time post, eventually the excruciating war of attrition, on top of our normal financial and legal woes, took its toll. We had nothing left in the tank.

It’s a bittersweet moment for me. I am immensely proud that this website kept its head – and heart – when all around were losing theirs.

It was a rollercoaster ride for sure, but I loved every minute.

See you hopefully further on down the road.

Previously: Closing Time

The Old Boy‘s comment avatar, Alec Guinness as George Smiley in ‘Smiley’s People’

This afternoon.

Veteran Broadsheet commenter The Old Boy writes:

‘There is little left to say beyond what others have put better than I ever could, but then it was ever thus. I admit that I was surprised by the jolt of emotion I felt when I learned that Broadsheet would soon cease to be. It has been some time since I made regular contributions to the comment sections of this parish but I have kept a regular, if occasionally weary, eye on proceedings.

‘To all the other denizens I have had exchanges with over the past decade or so, farewell. I hold fond memories of so many, although I have never to my knowledge met any of you. I have conjured in my mind’s eye so many lives being well-lived, merely through what I can glean from a few lines of commentary. It is a sobering thought that once the link of Broadsheet has been severed, I shall hear of you no more.

‘To Bodger and former colleagues, comrades and contributors, I extend my thanks and gratitude. For many years and precious little thanks, you ran a site that was for me nothing less than essential reading. How distant are those lazy, hazy days the days when “century” threads were most usually provoked by the tricky topic of cycling, or referenda that have since passed once-monumental provisions into and out of the Constitution? Nuggets of seriously thorough investigative journalism sat jovially alongside things that look like Ireland. I enjoyed every minute of it, even if I often kept my head below the parapet.

Farewell to you all.’

Pic: BBC

Hello.

As you may have noticed, we are experiencing some ‘difficulties’ with the frequency of our posts.

We’re very sorry.

Thank you so much for your patience.

The simple fact is we have barely anyone left on the site to ‘help out’.

Those remaining are shells of their former selves.

Their deeply unfashionable take on recent world events alienated everyone on Broadsheet but a few and proved to be ‘box office poison’.

With no income of any kind, we are unable to replenish the workforce, pay the hosting fee in a timely fashion or defend ourselves in legal actions taken against the site in any meaningful way.

This has been the situation for some time. The responsible thing for all concerned would be to call it a day.

We hope to finish up this weekend and will keep posting until Sunday.

Thank you for staying with us this long.

Any excuse.

This afternoon.

From the ‘sheet postbag.

Dear Sir/Madame,

I used to read Broadsheet regularly and was very fond of witnessing the rag bag of civil servants, paid shills, government operatives and psychotic maladjusted freaks that make up the comment section tearing strips off each other and frothing at the mouth at the latest smug pile-on. I was a particular fan of Nigel’s 500 daily posts and Daisy’s Wildean wit.

But today I dropped in to check on the site and all I saw was awe-inspiring pics of sunsets, nostalgic adverts and promotion of creative musicians.

Needless to say, I won’t be coming back any time soon. How do you like that, Bodger?

KN, Dublin

Harrumph.

Rollingnews

Blessings of the season to you ALL.

After a difficult year, our severely depleted crew are starting to wind down for Christmas.

Some of us are heading to the Broadsheet Christmas party (in the snug of the Dawson Lounge – bring nibbles), others are going back to their bitterly-divided families while others still are taking this opportunity to enter specilaist rehabilitation facilities.

Here’s to conquering demons.

We all wish you all a very Happy Christmas.

Expect daily, if less frequent, posting, through December 27.