A Different View
Remembering two legends of Ireland’s media business
A Different View with Dave O’Connell
I can still see Tony Fenton standing in the middle of a massive dump outside the Nicaraguan capital city of Managua.
The smell from the dump was putrid and the aroma from the rest of us, seared within an inch of our lives in temperatures that would cook a chicken, wasn’t a whole lot better.
It was back in the eighties and we were a motley crew drawn together by Trocaire on a fact-finding mission to Central America where we could see first-hand what wonderful work that Irish development agency was doing in that part of the world.
I was working with the Star at the time, reporting back home with the help of our battle-hardened photographer Noel Gavin.
Tony was phoning in to the Gerry Ryan Show and between us all we were heightening awareness for the charity in advance of the Lenten collection.
Gerry – always the divil – had asked Tony to go because the show wanted someone who was well known but so far out of their comfort zone that it would make for good radio, not just worthy radio on the work of Trocaire, but a bit of entertainment stirred up by Gerry in studio, aided and abetted by Tony on the other side of the world.
And it worked.
This particular day, we were seeing how many families lived on this massive dump, scavenging through other people’s rubbish to eke out a pittance from selling bits of metal, bottles or plastic to someone else.
Tony’s natural environment was the nightlife of Dublin – the VIP clubs that we only knew by name; his best buddy was Jim Corr and he name-dropped like an Olympic champion.
He was king of 2FM’s Hotline at the time and one of the best known voices on the radio – as parodied for his Smashy and Nicey patter as he was loved.
We honestly didn’t think we’d like him – expecting a diva from the radio – but Tony Fenton was one of the nicest, funniest guys I’d ever met.
And when we stood in that dump and saw the detritus of other people’s lives being recycled by those who had nothing at all, Tony took it all in – and then offered an observation from left field.
“Would you say the sun is past its highest point in the sky?” he opined, looking at the ball of fire that was roasting us to a frazzle.
When we agreed that it might well be, Tony ventured: “I think that makes it time for a cold one.”
The chances of a warm one were remote, but a cold one in a Nicaraguan dump was as likely as a Presbyterian Minister saying Mass in the Vatican.
Tony Fenton was a funny man and he died far too soon last week; he was at home in the world of celebrity and he loved it. Music was his world, radio was his passion and he was grateful for every minute of both.
He was a terrible gossip but equally he never took himself seriously.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
A Different View with Dave O’Connell
The only time in your life that you should ever utter the words: “Do you know who I am?” are if you’ve just had a bang on the head or you are unfortunately suffering from dementia.
Because, otherwise, the phrase ‘do you know who I am’ only serves to make things a whole lot worse.
Normally, the phrase is unleashed towards late night door staff on a wave of alcohol – and never once in the history of time has it produced the result the utterer had intended.
The doorman may well know who you are which is often the very reason you’re not getting into the place in the first instance – or if he doesn’t know who you are, he won’t be unduly influenced when he does, unless you’re a famous movie star or his long-lost cousin.
‘Do you know where I am?’ might often be closer to the phrase you’re looking for, because that would serve you well when you’re looking for a taxi.
‘Do you know who I am?’ is a threatening phrase that in truth wouldn’t frighten the cat. But if you’re anxious to dig the hole a few shovels deeper, you should follow up with ‘I’d like to speak to your manager.’
Managers can be elusive at the best of times, but they’re normally rarer than hen’s teeth when it comes to the small hours of the morning – and even if they’re there, they are most likely watching proceedings on CCTV…just so they know who you are, in case you yourself can’t remember.
‘I’d like to speak to your manager’ suggests that you and he or she are from the one social sphere which is several strata north of the one occupied by door staff.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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A Different View with Dave O’Connell
As it turned out, we were much closer to a Eurovision win than we could ever have imagined – not Ireland, of course, because we’ve now mastered the art of just sending cannon fodder to be blown out in the semi-final.
No, this was just two of us – myself and our eldest – who were lucky enough to be at Anfield for the Reds’ recent win over Brentford, where positioned in the seat right in front of us were four happy lads from Finland.
One of them, we now know, was Käärijä, the singer of the catchiest song at Eurovision, Cha Cha Cha.
But just a week before 7,000 people sung his catchphrase at the Eurovision Arena, he and two his mates – accompanied by an older bloke who had to be either his dad or from the national broadcaster – sat anonymously in the same corner of the lower level of Anfield’s Main Stand.
He was utterly unknown to us as well of course, and the only thing that saw him stand out was his green nail varnish. Live and let live, of course, but it still ensures that you make an impression even if it looks like you were just very late for St Patrick’s Day.
Käärijä may well be Liverpool’s greatest Scandinavian fan, although the bar for that is set fairly high, given that they invade the city in greater numbers every two weeks than the Vikings did just once during the first millennium.
Equally, he may not be a football fan at all – although, as the rest of the week proved, he sure loves a crowd.
Positioned as we were in the corner of the Main Stand, the next section to us, around the corner in the Anfield Road Stand – currently adding a top layer – was occupied by the visiting Brentford supporters.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
A Different View with Dave O’Connell
Contactless payments reached a record €17.9 billion in Ireland last year – up by 31 per cent on 2021, as people came out from under their Covid shell and appear to have left their cash behind them.
Figures from the Banking & Payments Federation found that – despite the cost-of-living increases – the Irish public made three million contactless payments a day, worth an average of €53 million in the final quarter of 2022.
Given that there are 3.8 million people in Ireland over the age of 18, that means that almost every single one of us tapped the card every day last year.
And again, on the presumption that there are a few who still prefer peeling a fifty off a wad of notes, the true figure may be even higher, as we eschew actual money every time we go into a restaurant, bar or shop.
Then comes the monthly morning of reckoning when you open your statement – electronic of course because, like paper money, banks don’t deal in paper statements anymore either – and your guilty secrets unfurl like a rap sheet before your very eyes.
Five taps of a Friday night in the local, followed by a five-ounce burger meal on the way home.
And just why did you need a family-pack of crisps when a small bag would have done? Was all that beer and wine really for a party, or a night in just for one?
Cash provided plenty of dark corners to ignore your profligacy, but there are no hiding places in the contactless world.
Worse still, until that morning of reckoning arrives, you’ve no clue how much you’ve spent, and handing over the card doesn’t hurt half as much as parting with hard cash.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
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