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GRAHAM NORTON WAS in excellent form during the BBC’s Eurovision coverage last night, with sassy quips and scathing put-downs aplenty.
He took a moment before song nine however to pay tribute to his predecessor, the late Sir Terry Wogan, who was BBC’s Eurovision commentator for 35 years.
In a heartfelt speech, he explained why song nine was so significant to him and Sir Terry:
Tonight’s Eurovision is a bittersweet one for many of us because of course it is the first contest since the death of Sir Terry Wogan. Eight years ago when I was lucky enough to get this job of commentating, Sir Terry very kindly, graciously phoned me and the only bit of advice he gave me was ‘Don’t have a drink before song nine’. Now, this is song nine…
An audibly emotional Norton then asked the viewers at home to raise their glasses in honour of Wogan during the ninth song, Sweden’s entry.
So whilst the crowd here cheer on their home boy, I would urge you back in the UK to raise a cup, a mug, a glass, whatever you have in front of you and give thanks for the man who was, and always will be, the voice of Eurovision. Sir Terry, this is song nine.
And raise their glasses they did:
In a pre-Eurovision interview with the Press Association, Norton said Sir Terry’s voice is in his head the entire time he’s in the commentary box.
Sir Terry’s main advice to me when I took over was ‘Don’t open your bottle until song nine’. It was very practical advice, very sensible and very him.
Written by Valerie Loftus and posted on DailyEdge.ie
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All the 8th amendment does is harm women’s health. Replace it with legislation that treats pregnant women and girls as autonomous humans, not Tupperware containers. The rally for lies this Saturday will be interesting.
@DaisyChainsaw: I find these, while no doubt well meaning, a tad disturbing in that the more options and recommendations that are made, the more they’ll cherry pick from and ignore but still be able to quite legitimately say they followed the advice of the Citizens’ Assembly.
That all makes sense. Hopefull the Oireachtas implements the recommendations of the report.
@Daithí Ó Coinnigh: Kenny announced when the Assembly delivered not what was wanted (by the politicians in government) that there was another committee to be set up and ‘consider’ the Assmbly’s output – i.e. Water it down or even better – drag it into a dark alley, ignore it and bull ahead regardless.
Let women determine their own treatment options – NOT politicians!!!
If you’re going to explain the word consensus, don’t do so incorrectly. Consensus is where you arrive at something acceptable to all or the vast majority. Thus, these recommendations are acceptable to the vast majority of the assembly.
Are we going to need new jumpers with REPLACE on them instead?
@Fiachrá Ó Dubhthaigh: repealing and then creating legislation for this is the best way.
Ireland’s obsession with referendums for everything really needs to stop, the only way this can stop is us stopping adding everything to the constitution even when it doesn’t need to be in it.
Repeal! It’s their choice. We are all human and I have no right to tell another human how to live.
@Nicholas J Campbell: we are all human and we ALL have a RIGHT to live.
Just bring it in, make it available for anyone who plans on having one & get it over with.
Nicholas we are all human and we all have a RIGHT to live
There still wasting taxpayer money !
Women are tax payers too and their health deserve to be properly looked after
Nicholasjcampbell we are all human and we ALL have a right to live
The first thing I have to say is “When did 25% become a consensus”. The second thing is ” I believe that the Citizens Assembly is one of the most sexist groups I’ve ever come across. Have men and boys not got an equal right to control over their reproduction . Or any ! This assembly is so biased that it didn’t even mention condoms for boys and men.
This article is either poorly written, or the Citizen’s Assembly was all over the shop.
“These recommendations were arrived at via a consensus (ie a majority were in agreement) of the members’ responses.”
and then
“Between 15 and 20 members calling for a recommendation (roughly 25%) was taken to be consensus.”
If the latter is what they viewed as a consensus, then the must have only a cursory relationship with a dictionary.
“usually in singular: A general agreement.”
have your say