Vincent Browne

Very sad to hear that.

Vincent has been struggling lately so it’s no great surprise. But on his day he could cut any politician down to size, he’ll be missed.

Vinnie on a bad day is sharper and more incisive in his questioning than anybody else in the business.

This leaves a void which cannot ever be filled.

I suspect the show will carry on with a different presenter but it won’t be the same at all - it’ll be like when the manager of 2Unlimited tried to continue the group under the same name but with two entirely different people to Anita and Ray.

Vinnie’s show was for many years the glue which held this forum together and from 2009 to at least 2011 it was the most compelling show on television anywhere. Those dystopian banking and financial crisis specials featuring Constantin Gurdgiev, Paul Somerville et al. were BOX OFFICE.

For what it’s worth I hope Mick Clifford carries on the torch, but the nightmare and, I feel, most likely scenario is Yatesy getting a platform to spout his patented brand of the worst kind of contrarianism all over the late night television schedule.

RIP #vinb.

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Just watched this again on hearing the news. Vinny going mad at Jerry Beades:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KktZITAtV3c&feature=youtu.be

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:smile:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzvW0im7Ris

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4j1UWqBgLo

Will be a good book written about Beades yet

Watching the +1 there, Vinnie is not taking the easy way out anyway. Panel of four women discussing the abortion referendum - Maria Steen giving him an awful time of it

Smashing tribute to Vincent Browne by Patrick Freyne in The Irish Times today:

“…we’d sing (well my wife and I would sing) and then watch in delight as he waterboarded a blueshirt or made a socialist do a sum or confused a Fianna Fáiler by having a belief system or sighed an independent to death.”

:laughing:

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'a sideways smirk on his downcast face, as if to acknowledge the absurd nature of existence like a sad clown’:clap:

Very funny article. He’s a bit off the wall is Patk Freyne but normally good value

Should we log our favourite Vinny memories before he’s gone?

  • Gorse Hill - he made clean shit out of them all
  • Jerry Beades on the show
  • Anytime he tore poor Pat Carey to shreds
  • His bizarre Friday night show that never made any sense
  • The peoples debate in Mayo that Enda wouldn’t show up to and subsequent hijinx where Michelle Mulherin was thrown to the dogs

His last ever episode

That’s a very good read. I chuckled silently several times.

Last week, he announced that he will retire at the end of July. Until then, his show sees him dealing with the issues of the day while waxing nostalgic. This is a bit like watching a savage puma attack in which the savage puma sporadically gets a faraway look in his eye and puts his arm around his stunned and bloody prey (last night: Conor Lenihan) to recall savage puma attacks of yore. It’s quite endearing.

Who could replace him? They’d need to be a passionate curmudgeon with real values, not a cynical contrarian, which is the current fashion for broadcast journalists. They’d need to be properly left wing and feminist to balance the wider biases in Irish media. They’d need to be fearless and not just loud-mouthed. And they would have to be called Vincent Browne, because the show is called Tonight with Vincent Browne and the stationary has been paid for.

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When Joan Burton told him to stop haranguing her.

Poor Joanie, she is always being harassed or being picked on.

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The show had its day from 2010 to end 2012 . Since then no one watched it much .

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It was absolutely essential viewing ten. Now, not so much.

Yes . It needed huge misery and public anger to make it viable . Once the anger receded the shows popularity waned .

Vinnie was at his peak in 2010. The country in deep recession. Noone was safe from him

Must grab a copy later.

His annihilation of that woman running for the Seanad in 2011 was special.