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ALMOST 1.5 MILLION people tuned into watch Kellie Harrington’s lightweight boxing final at the Olympic Games in Paris on RTÉ 2 television last week, according to new figures released by the broadcaster.
Over the three-week event and over 250 hours of coverage of Games, a total of 3.4 million people watched the coverage on RTÉ 2 television while the events were streamed 7.2 million times on the RTÉ player.
Team Ireland had its most successful Olympic Games this year, bagging seven medals in boxing, swimming, rowing and gymnastics.
Harrington’s gold-medal win in the lightweight boxing final last week was the most-watched event across both RTÉ television and the RTÉ Player over the course of the games.
Rashidat Adeleke’s 400m final, Daniel Wiffin’s bronze-medal finish in the 1500m swimming competition, Rhys McClenegan’s gold-medal win in the pommel horse final and the 400m women’s relay in athletics, were the most-streamed events, respectively.
Over 926,000 people tuned in to watch Adeleke’s final and 910,000 people caught the 400m women’s relay final on RTÉ 2 television.
RTÉ’s Group Head of Sport, Declan McBennett and the broadcaster’s boss Kevin Bakhurst have welcomed the glowing report card and have expressed pride in the team’s ability to deliver the coverage.
Other stand-out events included Mona McSharry’s bronze-medal swim, which peaked at 621,000 viewers, and Fintan McCarthy and Paul O’Donovan’s back-to-back Olympic-winning performance in the lightweight rowing was seen by an audience of 429,000.
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Work for nothing. You will never be out of a job
The truth of the matter is we are not respecting our force and people dont want to join , they need serious amounts of support. Years ago it used to be a good job now they are getting abuse and cant respond.
@B McCurragh: that’s probably because of all the abuse of power over the years and exposed corruption.
@B McCurragh: years of underfunding and lack of recruitment has made it a force that’s hard to respect. Go and have a look on reddit- the amount of serious issues being reported is shocking. Garda not showing up for calls etc
I’m sure Helen and Harris could beef up their numbers with more retired x British soldiers no problem they would fit right into the guards these days the way they are carrying on.
A good dose of James “Lugs” Branigan
is what the country could do with.
Policing on the cheap.
It’s possibly not a bad idea to plug holes in the garda ranks with volunteers… But I think it is stopping short. Why not increase Community Oriented Policing, and Neighbourhood Watches to aid battling crime and increasing the saftey of our communities?
@Seriously Really: are you serious. Snitching will get you or Yr family hurt. We are dealing with habitual thugs here. N
@Dave Barrett: I get it… Snitches get Stitches… However, it has been documented and proven successful… When you have a strong police presence in walking the streets and in cars, combined with police who actually adopt neighbourhoods (involved at neighbourhood events as part of the community) and advertised neighbourhood watch programs… Together, the fore mentioned decreases the number of crimes. We must take ownership of our neighbourhoods, known our neighbours and support the saftey of all in our neighbourhoods.
@Seriously Really: Vigilantes to deal with local thugs would sort out a lot of crime in local communities . Courts are a joke on dealing with repeat offenders.
Total election talk!, if you can’t recruit….start at the top and get rid of the PSNI and the out of depth Justice minister
€10-€15 per hour is hardly worth risking life and limb.
@Paul1st: working in lidl/aldi safer on that wage.
Being a Garda is not like it used to be. The respect was there for law and order. I will always remember my dad saying to us when we were young, “don’t anyone of ye ever bring a garda to the door”. Back then if you found Yr self in trouble you would run a mile away from them.. Now it’s a different story.
If anyone can remember the Black Maria. I can remember a time when in Cork if you were picked up for anti social behaviour or being a thug you would go for a spin to the back of cork airport for a chat,left out and found Yr own way home. Ahh the good old days.
“Dublin is SAFE”or will be now.
Helen is a credit to the people of Ireland… We’re so blessed to have her . In Helen we trust in absolutely everything.
@Quinny: shes a muppy
Gardai need to be armed and also carry hefty batons on display like most police forces and be able to use them when threatened and abused.
We also need a height requirement and fitness requirement. Fat and undersized Gardai are a waste of money.
Ban Gardai on the best also a waste of money.
The thugs laugh at them.
What a complete waste of time, energy & money. Whats needed are real Gardai, not dressed up weekend warriors. This is more of this government trying to convince people that there are more Gardai than there are. They’re still on about reaching 14k Gardai – and it’s been declining for years. 14k was a target 15 years ago, and our population is growing all the while so that number isn’t nearly enough now. Fix the post 2013 pension problem & they might have some hope of recruiting & retaining people – but now you’d be mad to join the Gardai – for a pension the equivalent to Jobseekers Allowance. They can’t see the wood for the trees with these bullshit policies and the Commissioner hasn’t the balls to call them out – because he doesn’t care what happens when he’s gone. Looking after no.1
More police to protect the immigrants couldn’t give a fiddlers about the Irish people.
€15 an hour and most likely to be left hours short as not to receive full payment..
Look after the members that you have first and get a new commissioner who cares about the members not himself and his cronies
When is a Garda not a Garda?
Being a garda now requires only the toughest,they should also be better armed,and should be available for call out when needed,which is often not the case.
I would have been interested in applying however I’m too old, but definitely could have added some value!
I had a relationship with a highly intelligent deep understanding girl who was a garda reserve in one of the most challenging districts in Dublin , and she told me the regular garda where horribly insidious and racist
They forgot to add that recruits can’t have tattoos!
@Aisling Lohan: So? Plenty of jobs where you have no chance or only a slim chance with visible tattoos.
@Wolfgang Bonow: The world is changing and tattoos have been normalised. Most adults under 40 have them so I think that An Gardai kicking out 2 willing recruits last year was a major error, especially when the no. of recruits are so low. Most young people could relate more to a guard with a tattoo, it would be a great ice breaking for community policing.
Bunch of thugs
Pay is still awful and age restriction should be increased to get fit healthy 60sin with time on their hands..
have your say