{"id":261430,"date":"2026-01-01T09:57:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T09:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/261430\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T09:57:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T09:57:07","slug":"its-a-paudie-expanded-universe-and-were-all-just-drifting-through-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/261430\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a Paudie expanded universe, and we\u2019re all just drifting through \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unless you\u2019re the sort who lives for midnight fireworks \u2013 and you obviously are not \u2013 New Year<\/a>\u2019s Eve is a damp squib. It\u2019s Christmas with all the good bits expunged, leaving nothing behind but forced jollity and terrible music.<\/p>\n

Oddly, much the same rules apply to the Late Late Show<\/a>. While the Toy Show is a rare example of an original idea emanating from RT\u00c9<\/a>, the New Year Special (RT\u00c9 One, 10.25pm) is a pasty-faced cover version of the BBC\u2019s Jools Holland Hootenanny. That remains the case with the 2025 edition \u2013 though Patrick Kielty at least gives the impression of enjoying himself, which can\u2019t have been easy considering it was pre-recorded on a random afternoon in November. <\/p>\n

The guests are all essentially either musicians or sports stars. This plays into Kielty\u2019s strengths, which include positivity in the face of impossible odds and vapid banter. That isn\u2019t a ding: vapid banter can be challenging to carry off (we see you, Pat Kenny) and Kielty is great at it, as is made clear when he chinwags with champion athletes Kate O\u2019Connor and Fintan McCarthy.<\/p>\n

He also talks with singer Lyra, who shares an anecdote about pushing former taoiseach Leo Varadkar by the bum during an outdoor adventure show in South Africa.<\/p>\n

There is also a flashback to The Traitors as Kielty sits down with winning trio Oyin, Vanessa and Kelley and the show\u2019s cult star Paudie, in advance of his appearance on Dancing with the Stars Ireland. It\u2019s a Paudie expanded universe, and we\u2019re all just drifting through it.<\/p>\n

But the chatter is ultimately a sideshow as RT\u00c9 stages its own Montrose Hootenanny. David Gray is the highlight with two stunning moments from his early career, while social media star Garron Noone joins The Stunning on Brewing Up A Storm. Ticking the \u201conly on the Late Late\u201d box, meanwhile, is Sharon Shannon, performing a trad version of the K-Pop Demon Hunter soundtrack with the assistance of vocalist Lucia Evans.<\/p>\n

Kielty has had a rough 2025, with the death of his mother and the end of his marriage to ITV breakfast presenter Cat Deeley. But he gives it his all throughout what could so easily have been a ho-hum new year hoedown. It doesn\u2019t quite close the 12 months just gone with a bang \u2013 but there are worse ways to see out the year and to hope for better days ahead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unless you\u2019re the sort who lives for midnight fireworks \u2013 and you obviously are not \u2013 New Year\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261431,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[18,117,19,17,48706,84521,3409,1181],"class_list":{"0":"post-261430","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-late-late-show","13":"tag-new-year","14":"tag-patrick-kielty","15":"tag-rte"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115819252445977851","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}