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The Daily PollA HUGE NUMBER of famous faces passed away in 2016.
The celebrity deaths spread from well-known musicians to stage and screen stars and those who shaped our lives.
Many of the deaths caused a huge outpouring of grief with in depth coverage of the person and their life.
So today we’re asking, do you think there is too much focus on celebrity deaths?
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Dr. Donald Henderson, a man largely responsible for the eradication of smallpox, died in August 2016, but his death barely got a mention, which sadly says a lot about society and its obsession with celebrity culture.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/07/donald-henderson-obituary
@Paul Fahey: the point is that he would not have wanted any fuss, he had no egotism or inflated notion of self, he was a great humanitarian and did invaluable work. His legacy will be preserved in medical textbooks and in historical work.
The cult of celebrity is ephemeral and transitory.
No that is not the point, the media should make a bigger deal of his life and his legacy than they do about many of the celebrity deaths of 2016. Henderson actually changed history and the lives of millions of people, but how many of our children will be taught about him or the eradication of small pox?
@Paul Fahey:
Without the bravery of Edward Jenner,Donald Henderson’s work would not have been possible. Too often we now reach back into the past and project 21st. century morality onto past events. Henderson’s death might have been used to highlight this but that wouldn’t fit with today’s myopic idealism.
@Paul Fahey: the mainstream media simply follows the lowest base of human interest.
I read the Guardian because it is less celebrity obsessed and it focuses on more substantial issues, including technology, economics, social and political matters.
Education is a different matter. I have no doubt that Henderson’s legacy will survive and that his approach is part of the science curriculum.
Popular and mainstream media is not the source of my information. I buy books and periodicals as well as newspapers such as the Guardian.
You could offer to write an article on Henderson for The Journal.
@Paul Fahey:
I’m reminded of RTE’s Irlenad’s Greatest poll in 2010, where people voted on the greatest Irish people of all time. Bono made the top 3, not a single scientist featured in the list. Not even the father of chemistry, Robert Boyle.
@ML and Optimisation:
Typo there. Bono made the top 5, not top 3.
Joe – agreed, but Jenner died in 1823 and I don’t think the celebrity culture was quite what it is today.
@Micheal OLainn: “the mainstream media simply follows the lowest base of human interest.”
Aodhan O Riordan is next up !
@ML and Optimisation:
There are a lot of people, particularly in Africa, who have Bono to partially thank for their education, prolongation of their lives for those with HIV-AIDS, or their existence to begin with. Irrespective of what you make of his personality, and/ or music, dismissing his efforts boils down to small-minded begrudgery.
Obsessing about people you’ve never known personally is bizarre imo
Jesus and your man Mohammed come to mind when you say obsessing about people you personally don’t know. At least the people we obsess with theses day actually exist. If the whole middle east were more worried about Hollywood stars like we are the world would be a small bit more peaceful I reckon.
Good man. Bring religion and Muslims into it. Some segue.
I brought Christians into it aswell.
@king Jamie: I did say religion…
Why did you have to highlight Muslims would religion not have covered what you were trying to say?
@king Jamie: you did go on about the middle east in your point… come on. what is the dominant religion there again?
Islam is the dominant religion in the middle east. Muslim(s) is not a religion. I hope you learned something today from our short exchange.
They are predominantly Islamic. I didn’t say Muslim was a religion you knob
This year in particular so the media can feed their hysterical, false narrative of “OMG 2016 is like totally the worst year”.
Since journalism stopped reporting news and started printing opinion what else would they write about.
Are you all waiting for Jonathan Sugarman to pass away before mentioning him?
There’s clearly an appetite for that information on here, it pops up daily.
“Started printing opinion” where have you been due the last 30 years Robinson Crusoe ?
Seems like I was stuck in Friday for some time!
Everybody gotta die sometime
I’m just mad that no one mentioned Pat Kenny was moving to newstalk. I got an awful fright when I heard him.
Wait… WHAT? When did that happen?
@CarmelOh: What is Newstalk?
Celebrities are not immortal. It would be strange if celebrities did not die.
@Micheal OLainn:
Classic daily shot of the obvious from Michael!
Celebrities are used by society to have something in common. We don’t really care what the news about them is, just that there is some news so we can talk about it. Similar to the weather really.
what irks me is the endless stream of mindless ‘RIP’s posted on news forums.
You wouldn’t send an RIP to the bereaved by text, so what purpose does an RIP comment have on a forum? Who is it directed at? Is it just to demonstrate how wholesome you are?
What gets me is when people wish that someone else had died instead .. when George Michael died , others were saying why couldn’t it have been Justin of Kanye instead . Why would you want to wish death on someone else ?
And guess what…More celebrities will die in 2017 aswell!!! Go figure!! A lot of the high profile deaths this year had one big thing in common…decadent lifestyles and most of them passed between 50-65 years! It will all catch up on you eventually!
Yes it sickens me, I want to smack every person that mourns the loss of their imaginary friends…. Smack them right in the mouth!
A lot of condescending crap going on in here. Celebrities or cultural icons mean something to someone. Mocking those who mourn reeks of sanctimonious bullshit. Let them do their thing and move on.
@Rowan Murphy: mourning is a bit extreme when a celeb dies.
Many of the celebrities that died this year were more than mere celebrities. The word icon would be apt for a good few of them. Bowie, Ali, Prince, Cohen, and even Carrie Fisher would bring back fond memories for a lot of people. What’s wrong with celebrating their lives? It doesn’t mean that others are less worthy, it just means that not everyone would be familiar to the masses. Many of this year’s deaths brought back floods of memories to me. So, I for one will raise a glass on New Years Eve to celebrate the likes of Robert Vaughn ( The Man From Uncle), Dan Haggerty (Grizzly Adams), Gene Wilder (Willy Wonka), Florence Henderson (Brady Bunch) amongst many others.
I agree, but I’ll add one more to the list Alan Rickman. So many of his films I watched. I shed a tear when I heard of his passing, I’m even tearing up typing this. He really did leave an everlasting impression on my heart and on my soul.
People seem to lack a sense of proportion in their lives. Calpurnia’s assertion in the play Julius Caesar says a lot about popular reactions to different deaths:
“When beggars die, there are no comets seen; the heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.”
Some of these celebrities we grew up with, we loved some of them and they were part of our family.
The likes of Carrie Fisher who was on my TV screen as a child a number of times. I adored her character.
Yes I mourned her.
Robin Williams was also a part of my childhood childhood and that of my kids. I also felt pain when he died. A loss of part of my happy experiences as a child, I always associate him with laughter and joy. That now is slightly tinged in sadness (that he is gone) but also acceptance (that he is no longer suffering).
I may have not know them personally but they in some way had an impact on me. And if I want to share my sadness at their passing the easiest thing is to write something open and straight from my heart, even if it’s just a simple hopeful Rest In Peace where that person no longer suffers. If it’s in a comments section or on my Facebook page it’s not directed to anyone but a reflection of my feelings that I am openly sharing. Sometimes I’m not so open with my feelings other times I am especially when I’ve been touched by a person or their performance. It nice and touching when others share similar feelings and can mourn and remember things together.
I was a fan of Bowie, and respected Prince and Cohen, but know others who liked some and not the others. The focus on the number of celebrity deaths has seemed excessive. The vast majority of people paid no heed to these people individually. Carrie Fisher has barely flicked upon our radars since the 1980′s, for the minority of people that are Star Wars fans. This isn’t to dismiss their achievements or importance individually to people, more question the somewhat over the top reaction to their passing-on.
Carrie Fisher was probably defined by her role as Princess Leia. The Star Wars movies were/are huge box office draws. There are very few people in the developed world that wouldn’t know of Star Wars and it’s many characters. If you were to pick up two round buns and hold them either side of your head, anyone in sight would probably straight away think of the character Leia. 37 years after Carrie played her. If that’s not iconic, nothing is.
There is too much focus on celebrity end of… people need to live their own lives.
@Emachine: It’s when they start pushing their political opinions that gets my goat,just sing and dance then go away,I don’t want to here your ultra liberal ill informed political nonsense,you live in a different world and cannot comprehend most peoples struggles.
This yr was particularly bad. With most recently George micheal for example everyone has a hero .for some it an actor others it’s a singer.. it’s all about celebrating te life of the person and a legacy they have left behind. We do the same for our own family and friends .but more privately..
Lindley Murray RIP
It’s really just about musicians and actors being bookmarks in people’s lives and the mourning is people dealing with the loss of connection with those chapters in their lives. That’s all really. It’s a different thing to the loss of brilliant life saving scientists or close relations or friends. I really don’t get why I have to put up with people on my FB timeline talking personally to their dead heroes as if those heroes have logged on in another warp and are reading them. That’s the weird bit. I did try sending messages back to those people but it didn’t go down well.
I believe that its more people coming out of hard and sad times, releasing this in a safe manner, the celeb is just the focus. As long as it doesn’t wander into obsession, cant see the harm.
I cant remember a year where so many big names died tho.
Media outlets love it, Major click bait. thejournal.ie is no exception, they are probably laughing at us all now posting about this…..
It depends on the person you are and the celebrity they were and whether they had been an influence on you. Yes, you and said famous person most likely would have not known each other or anything about each others personal lives. However, we get to see the let’s call it, the “famous” side of celebrities. You can say that “Famous McFamousface” died today, but shur we’re all going to die some day anyway, so what difference does it make? Truthfully, not a lot, but I’ll use one example of a famous person to get my point across. 12 years ago, one of my favourite guitarists, Dimebag Darrell, died (he was killed on stage, which is a different to dying of old age or illness of course, but the outcome is the same). And while I didn’t shed a bunch of tears or anything like that, his death did strike a chord with me. He influenced the way I play guitar, broadened my taste in music, and from the day he died, I knew I’d never get to see him play at a live event or hear any of his new music.
I supposed in the age of online forums and social media, you’ll always have the attention seekers to a certain extent and you can’t really get away from that, and yeah, celebrities are only human, but some aspects of their lives are and were quite influential and it is understandable that fans of those are affected a little bit when they suddenly aren’t there anymore and that’s ok I think.
Not a mention here of any deceased politicians…..yet….
@Gus Sheridan: there are a few I would gladly cheer for not mourn….
Entertainment is a huge business now that we have so much free time on our hands or need new Gods to replace the old!..more and more people are being employed in the industry and so more and more will die naturally each year and of course the media machine will gobble up it’s own creations in it’s ultimate goal of profit to keep the monster fed.
Yes , if the comments on here were anything to go by …
Yes. Yes there is.
Yes
The problem I have is not that we like celebrities, I like music and musicians. The problem is that we allow them to advise us on matters for which they are not qualified. We have Leonardo De Craprio, Tax Pro Bono , Bob Yeldoff a boat, and many more. Let them do what they are good at, keep out of government. Keep a sense of proportion, they won’t pay your bills.
@Val Martin: They live in there own bubble and can’t understand regular peoples issues, they are just song and dance people,shut up about things you don’t understand and stick to the day job
Sky news is the newest r.i.p section lately
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