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The performers from Friday's show Andres Poveda

The Late Late Show country special draws biggest audience this year

The show featured performances from Big Tom, Daniel O’Donnell and Nathan Carter.

FRIDAY’S COUNTRY SPECIAL edition of The Late Late Show drew in the show’s biggest audience so far this year.

Around Ireland an average 707,400 people were watching at any one point to see performances by stalwarts of the Irish country scene.

RTÉ has said today that more than half of the total audience watching television at that time on Friday night in Ireland were tuned in to the programme.

Speaking about it, host Ryan Tubridy said, “We knew that country is huge when we decided to have this special, so it’s not surprise to us that so many people tuned in on Friday night.

It was truly one of the most enjoyable Late Late Show’s I’ve ever presented and the reaction to Big Tom’s appearance, and that very special performance of Four Country Roads, was something to remember.

It is estimated that the total audience who watched any part of the programme was as much as 1.3 million people.

Performers on the show included Daniel O’Donnell, Big Tom and Nathan Carter.

Appearing before the country segment got underway, actress Saoirse Ronan appeared to talk about her new film Brooklyn and Irish rugby coach Joe Schmidt spoke about the nation’s recent World Cup efforts.

The show also hit record highs for the number of people streaming, with 6,300 tuned on RTÉ’s web player.

Read: 7 things we learned from last night’s Late Late country bonanza

Also: ‘I’m certainly not going anywhere’ – Joe Schmidt on England job speculation

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    Mute Tony Slap
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    Sep 18th 2013, 11:37 AM

    Miserable comments from miserable people. Even when you get something for nothing you still moan. You are only happy when you are unhappy. Perhaps a mass underwater protest without breathing apparatuses might be in order.

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    Mute Rob O Reilly
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    Sep 18th 2013, 1:07 PM

    Do you realise that Dublin Port is a state company and the shareholder is the minister for transport ? This wasnt a gift to the state, we already own it ! they gave us something we own and we celebrate. Wow people are stupid.

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    Mute Fergal Reid
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    Sep 18th 2013, 4:55 PM

    Same old griping and grousing. Sometimes you can understand why Cromwell wanted to send us all west of the Shannon.

    Re: Bull Island, replacing the causeway with a bridge would do wonders for the flow of water and would prevent much of the bird sanctuary from silting up beyond rescue.

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    Mute Bernard Cantillon
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    Sep 18th 2013, 10:00 PM

    But it will now be in the hands of DCC, which means it will be owned by the people of Dublin

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    Mute Dom AcePlazo
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    Sep 18th 2013, 11:34 AM

    Great idea.

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    Mute Mick Collins
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    Sep 18th 2013, 11:19 AM

    A gift to the people of Dublin my arse. Its a money saving venture by Dublin Port thus offloading the cost of upkeep to Dublin City Council and ultimately the taxpayer.

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    Mute Barry
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    Sep 18th 2013, 11:27 AM

    mick, its people like yourself that just like to shit on anything good, sure the same could be said for any gift to any country or city

    Kilkenny Castle was given to the city for a very small fee of 50 punts (token gesture really).
    But by your logic you can bitch and moan and say its a burden due to the costs that had to go into renovating the castle,

    France gave the statue of liberty to the USA as a gift, but sure you can bitch and moan the American’s have to pay to look after it.

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    Mute Mick Collins
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    Sep 18th 2013, 11:29 AM

    Yawn !

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    Mute Bilbo Baggins
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    Sep 18th 2013, 11:49 AM

    Sure if that was their outlook why wouldn’t they sell it to someone, or leave it as it is , they’re not exactly under any obligation to ‘upkeep’ it. At least if DCC have it there is a possibility of it being of use to the people of and visiting Dublin.

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    Mute Morticia
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    Sep 18th 2013, 11:21 AM

    Any alterations to the port area could cause Bull Island disintegrate, it is ‘artificial’ as it formed as recently as 1820 -1860. On the other hand it could grow massively ,interesting times ahead for the Bay

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    Mute Darren Callaghan
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    Sep 18th 2013, 11:52 AM

    It says it all in the article for goodness sake the key words being “community gain element” of their application for deeper berths for the cruise ships ,we don’t need all the bull all we need as a city of intelligent people who want the best for our city is a proper environmental study done to make sure dredging and construction work won’t do any lasting damage to environment and animal life in Dublin Bay and to make sure that ‘consultant’ fees and costs are within a realistic budget. My bet would be that if Dublin City Council had minimum role to play and Dublin Port Company took the lead on it things would go pretty smoothly

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    Mute Brian Donovan
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    Sep 18th 2013, 11:24 AM

    Sounds like a bribe to me

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    Mute Paul Brophy
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    Sep 18th 2013, 11:15 AM

    Hahaha genuine smiles in that photo.

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    Mute Declan Carr
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    Sep 18th 2013, 11:40 AM

    sounds like its going to be turned into a dump.

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    Mute Ireland Uncensored
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    Sep 18th 2013, 9:33 PM

    As lon as its still ok to go dogging or sell drugs there then i dont care who owns it

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