NiallOK’s Blog

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Such is the nature of the beast that last Friday night, being on the air myself, I missed RTÉ One’s “Late Late Show” (not that I’m an avid watcher when I’m not on the air myself, you understand!). When I was talking to co-presenter Darren over the phone, he told me about the “insufferable arseholes” incident where a Mr. Paul Stokes jumped on stage next to Pat Kenny and harrassed him, yelling at him, calling him and former Late Late presenter Gay Byrne “rude” names and just generally stamping his feet and throwing his toys out of his pram.

You can see it here:

Stokes managed to say the following before being removed: “How ya doin’ Pat? You’re a censorer . . . how dare you . . . Gay Byrne and you are a … you’re insufferable arseholes. You arsehole. You piece of shit! You piece of shit.”

Gay Byrne himself (inaccurately) said “Apparently he called me a ’shit’. But that’s old news, isn’t it? He’d want to come up with better than that.” Kenny, in fairness to him, was actually quite professional while it was taking place, actually asking him to clarify something he said (”I am what?”) and THANKING the man (very much, no less!) for his interruption. RTÉ really could and should have been a wee bit quicker on the uptake though, pulling the live feed and going to the ads. Maybe they will next time!

Certainly, “inventor” Stokes, who is on a perfectly noble mission to bring the number of deaths on our roads to zero, feels he has a very valid point and is perfectly justified in making this particular form of protest. He’s aggrieved at Gay Byrne - who is the director of the Road Safety Authority, and Pat Kenny of course, presenter of the Late Late Show - Byrne for not entertaining his ‘Black Box’ idea for solving the problem of road deaths in Ireland (and also spectacularly failing to pay him the princely sum of €5m for his idea in the process) and Kenny for not giving him airtime on the Late Late to get his views and his ideas to the nation.

Stokes “Black Box” plan involves every car having an on-board computer which would essentially allow drivers the insane option of driving hands-free. He demanded €5m from the RSA and they, in the words of Gay Byrne, said “thanks, but no thanks”. Two weeks ago, in response to his rejection from the RSA, he drove his car up onto the footpath outside Government Buildings in Ballina, which houses the RSA, and blocked the doorway. RSA staff had to call the gardaí and have the car towed away as Stokes had gotten out of the car and walked away, leaving the entrance obstructed. On Friday night, after the Late Late incident - during which it took 8 gardaí to remove him from the Donnybrook studios, he was arrested and detained for questioning.

This man, who is a campaigner for the improvement of road safety, freely admitted that he’d had a few drinks before plucking up the necessary courage to hop up onto the stage and make a fool of himself. He certainly sounds drunk in the video. I wonder if he drove to RTÉ himself - while over the limit?

(source)