We’re all hypocrites mate. It’s part and parcel of the human condition… Your problem is you don’t expect this of your heroes.
He’s a hypocrite from Cork.
A very special kind of hypocrite.
Him saying Ken early tried to undermine people who can use their eyes and ears is iconic
He’s stopping the stand
Pity
Used to enjoy when Niall Stanage was on
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Worrying. Was a good listen
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I thought he was slowing noticeably. I hope he is ok. A chancer but great craic.
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Pretty much sums him up.
`Did he say why?
Not really. Shame. Was a good podcast if a bit repetitive
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Must be about to croak.
RIP
Used to enjoy it.
He had some amount of headbangers on around Brexit. Stannich over in the states was always excellent.
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Awful news
RIP 
Still one of the greatest anecdotes of all time.
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He used to kick the shit out of Brendan O’Neill every week.
Not half enough in my opinion.
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Ian Kehoe
Executive Editor
](Ian Kehoe, Author at The Currency :The Currency)
After 2,000 episodes of The Stand, Eamon Dunphy opted to push the pause button on the current affairs podcast that has consumed him for much of the past decade and which, by his own admission, allowed him to help sate his own internal curiosities.
Dunphy has long been a master of reinvention and the podcast, recorded in the basement of his fine three-story Georgian house in Co Dublin, was the most recent pivot in his singular journey that has straddled mediums, platforms and genres.
He launched the podcast partly in response to the initial rise of Trump back in 2016, and partly to remain relevant. His longstanding relationship with RTÉ had ended, but Dunphy was not ready to end his relationship with broadcasting.
Even now, he is stepping back reluctantly.
It is not that Dunphy has run out of things to say or people to talk to. Far from it. Sitting at his small desk in the middle of his front room (book-strewn and warmed by a flickering gas fire), Dunphy remains as articulate and engaging as ever, setting out his thoughts on everything from the escalating threat of authoritarianism to the diminished nature of public discourse.
In another world, Dunphy says he would continue to edit and present the podcast and focus on issues such as the future of the European project in a Trumpian world.
But there is the second part of his autobiography to write (the first part came out back in 2013, and its follow-up is, well, late). Plus, his wife, the former RTÉ executive Jane Gogan, has a film to make. Gogan has been central to the success of The Stand, acting as its executive producer and technical tzar.
However, Dunphy explains she is now shifting her attention to The Witness, a film project that has secured funding from Screen Ireland. Stuart Carolan, the creator of Love/Hate, has written the script and Gogan is the executive producer.
“Jane is a huge part of what we do. I just couldn’t do it on my own,” he says.
Dunphy is noncommittal about whether he will reactivate the podcast. But, after nine years and 2,000 episodes, he is leaving behind a sizable archive.
The platform was, in a sense, a lineal successor to The Last Word, the hugely successful radio show that he edited and presented from 1997 to 2022. On the show, Dunphy championed long-form interviews with his guests, where they teased through serious issues.
“There’s a huge appetite here for that. People at the time asked, ‘Who wants Anthony Cronin talking about politics?’ It turned out lots of people did,” he says. “As an editor, I think I’m quite innovative because I’m a big consumer of news.”
He has pushed a similar model with The Stand, although the podcast has put more emphasis on international affairs and geopolitics. Niall Stanage, the US-based Irish journalist and political commentator, was his voice in Washington. Chris Johns reported back from London as Brexit upended British politics.
Dunphy tried to find articulate and challenging voices and then let them articulate that challenging position.
“The point of The Stand was to do something small, something niche. That is what we did and we made it work,” he says, adding that a long-term sponsorship deal from Tesco made it viable.
The number of listeners was strong, but Dunphy accepts that it was not quite at the level of the Two Johnnies.
“That is where RTÉ’s head is at these days,” he says. “They would not be interested in doing what we do. They can point to the numbers, to volume, and say, ‘Give them Tommie Tiernan’. It is a numbers game for them. I don’t want to do it. I have done numbers.
“I did it with The Sunday Independent and with the football. We did amazing numbers. And it is great when it is genuine. But it is not so great when you have to manufacture shite or ignore topics that need to be covered.”
Culture wars
The first episode of The Stand was released in 2016 as Donald Trump was jousting with Hillary Clinton for the presidency of the US. In the years that followed, even during the Biden presidency, Dunphy’s podcast sought to unravel the various threads of Trumpism, and what his political and cultural ascent means for the world, and for Ireland.
He is departing as Trump prepares for his second term, something he is increasingly fearful about. “It is darker, it’s more explicit this time around,” Dunphy says.
“Trump owns the United States of America along with Musk and these other guys, these tech bros. The Meta guy bent the knee during the week, Zuckerberg. So they own America, and America owns the West,” he says.
Eamon Dunphy: “It is a rejection of the system.” Photo: Bryan Meade
Dunphy believes it will not be long before this set of US oligarchs start targeting Ireland, partly in response to Ireland’s support of Palestine and partly due to the vast sums from US multinationals being flushed through Dublin.
“Ireland is vulnerable. People talk about the shock. Trump could be that shock,” Dunphy says. “He is a crook. He is a sexual delinquent. But he is not a freak any more. He has won two elections – eight years apart. He has a support system around him. He has his tech bros. They can do devastating things. They want to take over Greenland. Who’s gonna fucking stop them?”
Dunphy points to a book on a nearby shelf, The Death of the Liberal Class by Chris Hedges. “And the liberal class is dead,” he says. “That is the story of America. It is the blue-collar voter that got Trump elected, it was young black men that got him elected. Latinos, Peurto Ricans. Why are these people, who are natural fits for the progressives, saying, ’fuck you’?”
Dunphy answers his own question: “Because of the culture wars and the stuff that the left is into now. It is a rejection of the system. They don’t care about trans or many of the things that their politicians are banging on about.”
Likewise, the immigration has had an impact on politics and society all over the world, Ireland included, he says, adding that many people have firmly rejected the so-called promise of the third-way politics espoused by the likes of Clinton.
“The Third Way has really failed. There is not a third way. Trump is not interested in the third way or the second way. He is interested in his own way. Where does that lead?” Dunphy asks.
Dunphy says the rise of Trump raises issues and concerns about authoritarianism. “After Trump, who is, in many ways, a clown, the serious guys get involved. I mean, JD Vance. Then you have, if America stays on the road it’s on, it’s going to be isolationist, authoritarian. Or maybe worse,” he says.
“America is not going to be the leader of the free world because it doesn’t recognise the values that make the free world the free world, the rule of law, freedom of speech, stuff like that.”
Looking forward, Dunphy warns of significant geopolitical shifts. “What happens if China goes into Taiwan? Trump will broker a deal that effectively gives Putin the territory he has in Ukraine. And what if he decides Poland might be a nice place to have? Poland says, ‘Fuck you.’ And then Orban says, ‘Fuck you to Poland.’ Europe has a big problem here,” he says.
“The drift to the right? It is the rush to the right now.”
He accepts that the move to the right has not happened in Ireland. “I think we’ve kept Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael and the present arrangement in place for another five years and maybe killed off Sinn Féin in terms of its core values, as it were,” he says.
However, he says there is a growing disenfranchisement in Irish society, driven largely by the housing crisis and a failing health system. The real trouble he foresees for Ireland is how it can navigate the growing international turbulence.
“We are part of Europe and Europe has a problem. So many countries are going right. I think we could be on the wrong side of history,” he says, adding that Ireland made a bad mistake by jettisoning Phil Hogan from his EU trade brief. “That was something stupid. We need all the influence we can get.”
Media, Europe and debate
Eamon Dunphy has been many things. A professional footballer and an Ireland international. Back page provocateur for The Sunday Independent. Late-night chat show host. Football pundit. Radio presenter. Author. Podcaster.
At his core, however, he describes himself as a journalist and an editor.
“I love current affairs. I might be sitting here at half ten at night and a story breaks and I want to get going on a podcast about it. But I am interested in the big stories,” he says.
“Look at RTÉ’s evening news. A body is found in Mallow. Eight stories about local crime, serious crime, before half six. But no mention of Ukraine, Gaza, any of that stuff.”
He points to some of his old mentors, such as RTÉ’s former head of sport Tim O’Connor who once wrote an open letter to a national newspaper saying that he had no intention of taking Dunphy off the air when pressure was mounting on him during the 1990 World Cup.
He says Aengus Fanning backed him repeatedly during his time with The Sunday Independent. “You need to know when to take a risk, when to stick by your gut. That is the job of a good editor,” he says. “Now too often it is a numbers game, unfortunately.”
Eamon Dunphy: “The issue we need to talk about is Europe.” Photo: Bryan Meade
He is caustic about social media, especially X, formerly Twitter. “I think the tweet, Twitter, will take us all down,” he says.
“I think it will take politics down for one. The power it has to tell the story, a genuine story, or to make one up. It’s manipulated by people like Musk and so on. It’s the biggest threat to newspapers. It is the biggest threat to mainstream programmes like Newsnight.”
As Dunphy steps away from The Stand, he’s clear-eyed about the challenges ahead. “I think we’re heading towards authoritarianism, and we may be heading to something worse,” he warns.
“Almost everything depends on Ursula von der Leyen. And I don’t think she’s up to it. If Europe collapses or splinters, then everybody has a big problem, and Ireland has a massive problem because Ireland has hitched its wagon to Europe.”
I ask what he would be podcasting about if he was still in front of the microphone. “The issue we need to talk about is Europe,” he says. “And how Europe survives without America.”
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The Dunphy gets it.
The Therapeutic narcissists are beset on dragging humanity into the madhouse with their oppressions. The average person has had enough of this nonsense and is pushing back… It’s unfortunate that the far right is gaining as a result but the left have abandoned society.
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