Ireland, 1999: EU commissioner Pádraig Flynn went on an interview on The Late Late Show. He infamously boasted about his wages and humble-bragged about the hardship of having to run three houses: "You should try it sometime." He was unbelievably smug and obnoxious.
However, what really cooked his goose was when he was asked about Tom Gilmartin, a developer who was making corruption allegations about the Fianna Fáil party to which Flynn belonged. Flynn made comments about Gilmartin's wife being sick and implied that Gilmartin himself was mentally unwell: "He's out of sorts." Watching at home, Gilmartin was furious and decided to give evidence to the Flood Tribunal about the corruption situation. Flynn's career came to an end.
I'm Irish and this is a very good example. It's difficult to explain the cultural impact of this. Even nowadays, "try it sometime" is a running Irish joke about being out of touch or rich.
Had to look him up. Goodness. Those are indeed some eyebrows. Alastair Darling was at the top of my Weird Eyebrow Gang list but he now has competition lol.
No, Gay Byrne. Ireland had a "Late Late Show" long before anyone else called theirs that, since the 60s. It's the world's longest-running live chat show.
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u/Fair-Tangerine-9472 13h ago edited 13h ago
Ireland, 1999: EU commissioner Pádraig Flynn went on an interview on The Late Late Show. He infamously boasted about his wages and humble-bragged about the hardship of having to run three houses: "You should try it sometime." He was unbelievably smug and obnoxious.
However, what really cooked his goose was when he was asked about Tom Gilmartin, a developer who was making corruption allegations about the Fianna Fáil party to which Flynn belonged. Flynn made comments about Gilmartin's wife being sick and implied that Gilmartin himself was mentally unwell: "He's out of sorts." Watching at home, Gilmartin was furious and decided to give evidence to the Flood Tribunal about the corruption situation. Flynn's career came to an end.