Tommie Gorman was good craic during the election and even better since it. He is having some difficulty dealing with the result. It has taken him out of his comfort zone. I see he received fulsome praise from none other than that anti-democrat from Cork, Eoghan Harris, in a Sunday paper, for his reportage of the election on RTE. Now that is a dubious compliment if ever I saw one. Of course the reason that he was praised by the blueshirt from Cork was because this blueshirt reporter for RTE never missed an opportunity to get a dig at Sinn Fein. One of his recent quips: “Of course Arlene said some terrible things but she never shot anybody or planted any bombs!” How pathetic is that. Gorman is good at the quips in the course of his reporting. They are of course revealing. They reveal his own political prejudice as well as his deep ignorance of northern politics.
Tommie is out of touch with the realities of life in the north and has no grasp of the history of nationalist oppression. He is a victim of the RTE propaganda. He has not learned anything during his time here. He keeps repeating the same old tired clichés about the two tribes. For that he is admired by Eoghan Harris and his ilk.
There are quite a few other silly people reporting and broadcasting in RTE – people who think they know it all when it comes to the north. These people cannot hide their dislike of Sinn Fein and often show the utmost disrespect when interviewing Sinn Fein spokespeople. Apart from Tommie there is Cathal MacCoille(Woods), on Morning Ireland, Aine Lawlor, Mary Wilson, Marian Finucane, Sean O’Rourke, Ryan Tubridy, Claire Byrne to name a few . I wonder what kind of a test or exam they have to do before getting the job in the RTE newsroom or in current affairs.
When Martin McGuinness resigned they were apoplectic -not knowing quite what to say but looking for a way to blame SF for the breakdown. They refused to put the blame where it belonged with Arlene and the DUP and of course with Theresa May and the British government. Tommie led the charge.
Poor Tommie Gorman doesn’t know what has hit him since the fall of the Executive and the recent election. Doesn’t know ‘whether he’s coming or going’ –as they say in Fermanagh.
Poor Tommie – to be put on the same level as Eoghan Harris ???
One might add in Ruth Grubly Edwards into that Grouping of The Worlds Worst Journalists too ???
No difference between Tommie/Brokenshire and most of the Tory government, they are clueless about the people of N.Ireland, their history and what makes them tick.
Loath as one is to be pedantic, Joe, a chara, about your guest blog which effortlessly passes every stress test, but there is one minor detail which requires a wee pernickety e-mail.
To wit, to-hoo;
-Cathal Mac Coille (Woods) of Morning Ireland.
Woods ought to read ‘Woodman’.
The father of this Hollywood-style star of RTE Broadcasting was born Brendan Woodman in Hollywood, County Down.
When he came down to Dublin he became Breandán Mac Giolla Choille where he distinguished himself as the Keeper of State Papers.
His son, Cathal started his stellar career in hackedemia as Cathal Mac Giolla Choille. But, for reasons unknown, later opted to abbreviate it to Cahal Mac Choille. Giolla was, in a manner of speaking, lopped off.
What part of Giolla did Cathal take exception to? One may be,.erm, barking up the wrong tree if one looks at Dineen’s Dictionary. This word hoard tells us us that giolla means everything from an apprentice to a man-servant, a caddy, a page, an agent and a horseboy itself. Not to menion, erm, gillie.
Take your Pickionary.
Cathal Mac Giolla Choille-watchers watched and waited to see when he might morph from being Cathal Mac Coille to being Cathal Woodman on his way to being (gulp) Chuck Woodman. So far, no sign.
But, stay. Perhaps there is no need to over egg that particular padding. Acts speak louder than woods.
For on Morning Ireland the unique verbal style of the crack-interrogator of the Shinners reminds us on a daily basis that he is the original Hollywoodman. Even as he goes on the whack-attack in a manner which suggests his question-asking might even have an axe to grind:
-Whack ! Whack ! Whack !
And here’s me thinking I was the only one with the same viewpoint. How silly can I get?
As Perkin exercises his right to be pedantic, he might note that the Co Down town in question is Holywood and not Hollywood.
If you want to be really pedantic, it is Ard Mhic Nasca
Too true, Kevin: one l of a place, entirelly.
Mary Wison is robust with all her interviewees, not just SF. That is her job. Gorman is awful. For example recently reporting on the Kingsmill massacre (an appalling murder) he made no attempt to put it in context,that is to mention that it was retaliation for a campaign of state sponsored loyalist killings in the S.Armagh area – the Donelly’s bar bombing the three Reavy Brothers, the O’Dowd brothers inter alia. I wish I could say he was Tommy Gormless but far from it. One cute hoor who knows which side his bread is buttered on and with whom his sympathies lie.
I remember Tommy reporting one time during a crisis in the North, saying “Sinn Féin are in Freefall’, well Tommy, who’s in freefall now?
His sneers smirk after his SF comments would raise the dead.