How Ireland spent its time in 2020: The books, TV and music that we consumed
Lockdown often gave people more opportunity to spend their time watching TV or reading books. These are the shows, albums and books we reached for.
Wed, 13 Jan, 2021 - 08:40
Mike McGrath Bryan
TOP TEN ON THE TELLY RTÉ retains pole position in the annual TAM (Television Audience Measurement) live viewership charts: the state broadcaster dominated the top ten, with nine out of the entries. Only the Ireland-France rugby fixture in October broke the ratings ceiling for privately-run competitor Virgin Media.
Of the nine programmes on the list from RTÉ, November’s Late Late Toy Show tops the charts at 1.716 million live viewers, furthering Ireland’s ongoing love affair with the long-running seasonal special.
John Boorman once said: âMovie-making is the process of turning money into light.â The publishers of Old Ireland in Colour have discovered that turning black and white photographs into colour is a surefire moneyspinner. It is the only book to have made more than â¬1 million in Ireland last year.
The practice of colourising black and white photographs may be controversial but there is no doubting its popularity. Old Ireland in Colour by John Breslin and Sarah-Anne Buckley, published by Merrion Press, sold 48,475 copies, earning almost â¬1.14 million.
Champagne Football by Mark Tighe and Paul Rowan (Sandycove) was Irelandâs best-selling Irish-published book last year with 49,307 copies sold. The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse by Charlie Mackesy (Ebury Press) was Irelandâs overall best-selling book with 67,926 copies sold in total, just ahead of Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens.
Jack Byrne of APOEL in action during the Cyta Championship defeat to Doxa at Makareio Stadium in Nicosia, Cyprus. Photo by Nicos Savvides/Sportsfile
And McCarthy’s long-avowed understanding of a football manager’s proximity to “the bacon slicer” will steel him now against any inclination for self-pity. As will his personal circumstance.
It’s just nine months since he walked away from the Ireland job with that bizarre contractual exit payment of €1.13 million to facilitate Stephen Kenny’s early ascension to the senior post following the postponement of Euro 2020.
That meant a total FAI payment of approximately €3m to McCarthy for the 18 months of his second spell as national manager and, given his APOEL contract ran to next year, another compensation package surely beckons.
We fill you in on what worked for us. By Aoife Barry Thursday 31 Dec 2020, 9:30 AM Dec 31st 2020, 9:30 AM 13,412 Views 36 Comments
Image: Shutterstock/Evgeny Atamanenko
Image: Shutterstock/Evgeny Atamanenko
A BOOK IS a portal to another place – a way to escape. You can jump into the past, explore the future, or take a sidestep into someone else’s life in just a few pages.
So what with 2020 being, well, the year that it was, it’s no surprise that many of us turned to books to get a bit of a break.
Conal:
“I re-read all of the Montalbano detective series, read Dario Fo’s plays and, most recently, Hannah Arendt’s report of Adolf Eichmann’s trial in Jerusalem which absolutely did not bring me comfort but was very good. Camilleri’s lovable detective Salvo Montalbano is a tonic. The novels transport the r
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‘The problem you had is that clubs relied on the FAI for a lot of things’
In part 3 of our series on the legacy of the old FAI, we chat to St Patrick’s Athletic Director of Football and former player, Ger O’Brien. By Paul Fennessy Wednesday 23 Dec 2020, 7:30 AM Dec 23rd 2020, 7:30 AM 4,767 Views 0 Comments
Ger O Brien is currently the Director of Football at St Pat s.
Image: Laszlo Geczo/INPHO
Image: Laszlo Geczo/INPHO
A DEFINING CHARACTERISTIC of the old Football Association of Ireland was people’s fear of speaking critically of the way it was run.
Journalists, players and those working within the game often bore the brunt of the association’s wrath.