{"id":294022,"date":"2026-01-20T13:51:24","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T13:51:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/294022\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T13:51:24","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T13:51:24","slug":"micheal-martin-lacks-charisma-for-opener-of-this-novel-tv-concept-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/294022\/","title":{"rendered":"Miche\u00e1l Martin lacks charisma for opener of this novel TV concept \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

As with most outside-the-box ideas on television, The Assembly<\/b> didn\u2019t originate in Ireland but is an import from the UK<\/a>, where it ran on ITV<\/a>. The premise is that a beloved celebrity \u2013 Gary Lineker<\/a> or Danny Dyer<\/a>, say \u2013 is grilled by autistic and neurodivergent people, whose line of inquiry pushes beyond \u201cmedia-trained responses\u201d and yields answers that are \u201chonest, humorous and unpredictable\u201d.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a promising concept and, needless to say, neurodiverse people aren\u2019t seen enough on TV, so well done to Virgin Media<\/a> for bringing the format to Ireland (Monday, Virgin Media One, 9pm). But you do wonder if the producers have chosen the best possible opening-night guest in Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a> \u2013 a successful politician, but not someone who exactly radiates charisma. In episode two, the interviewee is comedian Joanne McNally<\/a>: might she not have been a better \u201cbox office\u201d with which to kick off the show?<\/p>\n

Filmed on the top floor of the Exo Building in Dublin\u2019s Docklands \u2013 it\u2019s one of just two (puny) skyscrapers in the city\u2019s, ahem, \u201cbusiness district\u201d, so you can\u2019t miss it \u2013 the broadcast makes for chatty, revealing fun. Martin is a good sport, as his interrogators pose questions about his supposed love of elephants and a childhood spent playing soccer, GAA and rugby \u201con concrete\u201d \u2013 for which he lost a tooth.<\/p>\n

Martin\u2019s tone understandably changes when he is asked about the deaths of two of his children \u2013 Ruair\u00ed, at five weeks old, and L\u00e9ana, shortly before her eighth birthday. These were life-altering challenges, but he feels he did right by himself and his family by continuing to work. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a lot of soul-searching,\u201d he says. \u201cYou could retreat and not do things. If I had retired, that would have had a worse effect on my life. You just keep going in some respects.\u201d<\/p>\n

There isn\u2019t much about Government policy, though one participant puts Martin on the spot by asking him to name his least favourite Fianna F\u00e1il leader. Martin does not take the bait. Smooth as anything, he turns the question on its head. All of the party bosses had strengths and weaknesses, he says. If you were to ask him, his favourite would be Jack Lynch.<\/p>\n

Do we get a more profound sense of Martin as a person? Not especially. But the show is nevertheless worthwhile in that it gives a platform to neurodivergent people. The only caveat is it could have benefited from a tighter run time. At nearly an hour (including ads), The Assembly perhaps outstays its welcome. It is an engaging and endearing watch but would have been even more compelling had Virgin trimmed it by a few minutes.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Joanne McNally at 3Olympia review: \u2018I have lost a lot of friends to wellness \u2013 it\u2019s very sad\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As with most outside-the-box ideas on television, The Assembly didn\u2019t originate in Ireland but is an import from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294023,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[11357,18,117,19,17,68115,5765,33653],"class_list":{"0":"post-294022","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-autism","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-joanne-mcnally","14":"tag-micheal-martin","15":"tag-virgin-media"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115927756439350680","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294022","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=294022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}