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BROADCASTER SEÁN O’ROURKE is relishing the prospect of taking over from Pat Kenny on RTÉ Radio 1′s mid-morning slot next Monday and has insisted it doesn’t hold any fear for him.
“I just hold prospects, not fears,” he told TheJournal.ie in an interview this week as he prepares to leave behind two decades with the News at One as well as the Sunday TV slot with The Week in Politics – “two of the best slots in RTÉ” – to take over the Today show.
O’Rourke’s selection has been widely praised with his strong current affairs background a perfect counter to Newstalk’s potentially game-changing acquisition of Kenny.
But the RTÉ presenter insisted it is not about competition with the Denis O’Brien-owned station.
“It’s not about RTÉ versus Newstalk. This is about the Today programme – which is a really strong programme – competing with, first of all internal RTÉ programmes, Tubridy and Colm Hayes [on 2fm],” he said.
“We are competing with them first and foremost as national programmes. Newstalk are there and fine, but there’s a whole lot of programmes in the regions… thery’re the people we’re competing with as well.”
He continued: “I remember interviewing [Kilkenny hurling manager] Brian Cody and asking him: ‘What team are you concerned about most?’ and he said: ‘Kilkenny’. So what broadcaster am I most concerned about? It’s Sean O’Rourke.
“The others, be it Sean Doherty or Keith Finnegan or Pat Kenny or Ryan Tubridy or whatever, well they can all look after their own game. I’ll worry about mine, and more luck to them.”
Some have raised concerns about how a serious current affairs broadcaster like O’Rourke might handle the lighter items that are a staple of the Today show but O’Rourke believes life experience will help him tackle that.
“I go shopping in the supermarkets, I cook meals, I barbecue, I iron – yes, I do iron on my own shirts! I have six children who are aged between 14 and 26 plus a wife – all of whom are very grounded people. So I think I am pretty familiar with the realities of life,” he insisted.
The Laois-born broadcaster is full of praise for his production team having worked full-time with them for the past seven days ahead of next week’s first programme and said their experience has been key to him settling in.
“They are really energised, they’re smart, they’re on the top of their game, they’ve great experience. Between them they have literally put thousands of the Today programmes out on air,” he said.
One early test for O’Rourke and his new programme will be the traditional post-Budget phone-in with the Minister for Finance as well as the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform who come into the Today studio.
Will they be tempted to speak to Pat Kenny on Newstalk instead?
O’Rourke admitted he doesn’t know yet if the ministers will speak to him in mid-October but said that contingencies are in place and once again played down comparisons with Kenny.
“I think there’s a danger here that the people will focus on the first week or the first Budget or who gets this interview or who gets that interview. I mean this is a long game, it’s not about the first week,” he said.
“There will be a bit of attention paid to it, and you know the critics will say this was good or that as bad, or they got this and the other crowd got that but that will all settle down you know.”
Though there has been widespread praise for his selection to replace Kenny, O’Rourke said he has heard some negative feedback but he has the perfect response.
“Some people are like: ‘Oh god, your man is very serious’. Somebody wrote that I was a bit like a school headmaster, and that makes me laugh!
“There was a time in my life when I was the biggest troublemaker for any school teacher and I’ve one or two results to prove that!” he added.
The Today Show with Seán O’Rourke begins this Monday, 2 September on RTÉ Radio 1 from 10am
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They get a nice pension for that little stint. New passengers for the gravy train all aboard.
Sean
You bring envy to a new pitch completely. Government is made up of parts in much the same way as large organisations such as businesses. Is it so completely unacceptable that a Management team would assist in the running of a State and that we democratically elect those who will ultimately be appointed to that Team.
This mirrors the behaviour of every other democratic State as far as I understand and the people don’t behave like contributors to the Journal with a whinge or a moan or a piece of negativity at every hands turn.
Sean would you for Gods sake……grow up …..you’re as a bad as a country singer moanfest!
‘grow up’ is a common bit of advice on here….
Yes Will
Followed – or preceded – by ‘for gods sake’
More meaningless drivel
There is no need for many of these junior ministers. It really is a gravy train that keeps backbenchers happy and plays to constituency voters and party members. Rather than making personal attacks you could explain what contributions most of these appointments make to governance and progress. They are overheads that contribute little.
Rodgers as usual spouting tripe.
Richard ( Dick)
I am all too grown up that is why I can see the wood from the trees. These junior ministries were introduced under the Haughey era to give disappointed TDs a “job” who did not make it into cabinet. They certainly were not another level of management to assist cabinet . Far from being envious of these politicans . It is just plain anger that I feel for having to pay for their office out of my taxes.
Paul
I run a very substantial business with many hundreds of employees and contractors. I fully recognise that it would be impossible to do that without an appropriate Management Team across every level of the Organisation. We don’t have an Army Council or a Dear Leader as you would understand it. That wouldn’t function Paul in modern times. Of course in your Party which behaves so much like the politics of Cuba or North Korea where your friends impose their management style with imprisonment torture and execution you probably see that as acceptable!
Your one line nastiness is highly intelligent and reflective of your Sinn Fein allegiance.
Richard, you’re confusing a decent structure with decent incumbents. A high powered business such as yourself should know the difference.
John Perry will have to do out another SFS for the banks ..
John was in the right place at the right time
I wonder are any of these JUNIORS on job bridge!!!!!!!
any of these JUNIORS on job bridge…..no…all on the gravy train
If you put Coffey out for the rob, you’d get no takers. Worse than useless.
Good to bring in some new faces. Simon Harris has done well in the PAC hearings.
Taking Hayes’s job was the reward for running in the euro elections.
(And doing better than expected in them).
After seeing him snearing and sniding his way through the euro debates I dislike him even more
Harris is impressive, and I hope he can bring some fresh thinking to the Department. I fear, however, that he’s going to end up as a fireman when the truth about the banks emerges.
He may be good on paper, but he comes across as too much of a teacher’s pet for the Irish electorate to warm to him significantly.
He lacks the ‘man’s man’ macho charm and charisma of O’Snodaigh, Toibin and Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin.
What are his credential other than being young? Does he have a background in finance? Does he have a university degree? Has he ever held a job in the private sector? Finance?!?
Most of these Junior / Juvenile clowns will be redundant after next Election . Money wasting political farce.
Simon Harris is a young Mr Burns
I can hardly wait to see Enda’s new team!
I’d be ashamed if I was only getting promoted to try halt the rise of sinn rein, that is until I see the payment I’ll receive for playing my part in the charade that is democracy in Ireland!!
All that a reshuffel means is we will all have to listen to a different strain of verbal diorrhea.
Happy to see Simon Harris was elevated. He seems to actually be bright, unlike most junior ministerial hopefuls — ex-PD opportunist Mary Mitchell-O’Connor, for example.
Bright. Like a lighthouse in a bog. Bright but useless!
What happened Fergus O’Dowd?
He’s been dropped apparently. Right decision – he’s not an effective Minister at all in my view.
Anybody know why we have a reshuffle at same time as they do at Westminster?
One a side issue what do the lads here think of Esther mcvey the Tory minister promoted today? My god she is a stunner we could do with a replacement for Mary Harvey ;)
Ding Dong
Because we had local elections at the same time as the UK too.
She’s ok looking, but exactly a MILF by anyone’s standards
*not exactly
Check her pics out online I tell u she is a god :)
Sorry to see Ciaran Cannon dropped from Education.
He was a real advocate for IT in education; such forward-thinking is regrettably rare within this government.
It’s all well and good in the summer giving that chap the junior finance role. But once the school year begins again will he be able to juggle it with his Leaving Cert?
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