There may be “no show like a Joe show” but not, it seems, when it’s in the hands of the national broadcaster.
Pat Kenny and his team came under severe criticism at the recent meeting of Mullingar Town Council.
Cllr McIntyre said Late Late Show specials on the GAA and the late Joe Dolan were more like “Pat Kenny and friends” with “the same boys on every time”.
“I’m no longer happy to pay €158 for that,” he added, and Cllr Ken Glynn agreed, saying he was disappointed with the Late Late.
“Westmeath County Council put on a superb show,” he said of the town’s Joe Dolan weekend and criticised the amount of coverage it got, although he appreciated the “matters of the day were very important.” The pork crisis story broke the same day.
Cllr Collins described the Joe Dolan Late Late Show as “a most insulting programme”.
“The tribute was a disgrace,” he said and added that he spoke to many people about it. “There are excellent singers from Mullingar who should have been singing. Whoever told Shane McGowan he could sing?” He pointed out that it wasn’t a live show, and that some performers had to be re-recorded several times.
“It didn’t give a reflection of Mullingar, it didn’t give a reflection of Joe Dolan’s life, and the life of the Drifters.”
The research that went into the programme was “non-existent”, concluded Cllr Collins.
