{"id":77064,"date":"2025-09-21T13:41:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T13:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/77064\/"},"modified":"2025-09-21T13:41:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T13:41:08","slug":"what-separates-the-irish-show-is-our-ability-to-tell-the-truth-in-a-sarcastic-way-and-get-away-with-a-lie-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/77064\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018What separates the Irish show is our ability to tell the truth in a sarcastic way and get away with a lie\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the finale looming this week, we are a nation in the throes of peak Traitors<\/a> speculation, which means anyone involved in the series, whether in front or behind the camera, is fair game. And let\u2019s face it, us viewers have a lot of questions: who will emerge victorious to share the \u20ac50,000 prize? Who will be treacherously stabbed in the back? And where can we source every item of presenter Siobh\u00e1n McSweeney\u2019s<\/a> stunning wardrobe? <\/p>\n

Comedian, writer, television host and dad-of-two Kevin McGahern<\/a>, presenter of Uncloaked, the televised Traitors podcast on RT\u00c9 1<\/a>, has had to fend off a lot of questions at the school gate while picking up his kids. He has all the hottest Traitors gossip but is sworn to secrecy. \u201cI\u2019m being harassed but I just tell people I can\u2019t say anything or I\u2019d be sued,\u201d he laughs. \u201cActually it\u2019s an easy secret to keep, people don\u2019t really want to know, it\u2019d be like unwrapping your Christmas presents too early.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Catch up on all our Traitors Ireland reviewsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

On a Zoom call from his home in Dublin<\/a>, the walls festooned with framed movie posters, he\u2019s delighted to be involved in the show. Set in Slane Castle<\/a> in Co Meath<\/a>, the series has been a profile boost for the former host of Republic of Telly. \u201cI\u2019m really enjoying it, it\u2019s great to work on a show that people are actually watching, a lot of my career has been working really hard on shows that nobody watches,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Unless you\u2019ve been hiding under a cloak, you\u2019ll know The Traitors Ireland is an Irish version of a beloved international franchise featuring a group of contestants completing missions to build a prize pot. Some of the contestants are traitors, secretly scheming to sabotage the group. The rest are faithfuls who are tasked with identifying and eliminating the traitors before being picked off themselves. It\u2019s like a real-life version of the kid\u2019s game Mafia, and it\u2019s proving a hit for RT\u00c9 at a time when the beleaguered broadcaster badly needed a feelgood ratings-grabber.<\/p>\n

The Traitors, produced by Kite Entertainment<\/a>, is that old-school thing, appointment TV. \u201cWhen you think of your happiest childhood memories a lot of them are around watching TV with the whole family watching stuff like Gladiators or the Late Late<\/a>,\u201d McGahern says. With streamers and on demand TV, \u201cwe\u2019re missing out on those kinds of shared experiences. So it\u2019s lovely to be even a small part of a show where the whole family sits down and discusses it and cheers and shouts at the telly\u201d.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no surprise that he thinks Traitors Ireland is \u201cmiles better\u201d than the UK version<\/a>, even if he had his doubts at first. \u201cI thought Irish people might be too reserved, or too self conscious, that we wouldn\u2019t open ourselves up but if anything the contestants have been more emotional, and they\u2019ve made genuine friendships.\u201d <\/p>\n

While being cut-throat and deceptive is the name of the game, he says viewers might be surprised to learn how close all the contestants are. \u201cI know they are all part of a WhatsApp group and they all get on despite what some members of the public might think.\u201d He feels some of the commentary about the eliminated contests has been \u201cquite cruel\u201d. When he had Eamon, the Garda, on the show some viewers felt he didn\u2019t go hard enough on him for how he treated fellow traitor, the 68-year-old former prison officer Paudie. <\/p>\n

\u201cI thought I gave Eamon a few digs \u2026 people were criticising Eamon for how he spoke about Paudie and that justified their hatred of Eamon, but I know for a fact they get on with each other.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"TVTV presenter Kevin McGahern. Photograph: Evan Doherty <\/p>\n

McGahern\u2019s show is like the post-match analysis after a big game. Uncloaked comes on after each episode airs, with well-known people from Alison Spittle to Rhasidat Adeleke sitting down with him to dissect each episode. Fans of McGahern\u2019s acerbic, cynical Republic of Telly demeanour will note he is a little more avuncular on this show. He says his presenting style for Uncloaked has evolved with a little help from his wife, Siobh\u00e1n Cassidy, who has a background in theatre. <\/p>\n

\u201cI had been trying to come up with jokes and one liners but I had a chat with my wife after the first episode and Siobh\u00e1n was like, \u2018this is not a panel show, this is a fan show. You have to be in service to the fans. This is not about you, Kevin.\u2019 It was excellent advice,\u201d he says. \u201cI went in the next day with a completely different approach.\u201d <\/p>\n

What have been some standout moments for him in The Traitors? \u201cWatching Paudie dodge accusations like Keanu Reeves dodging bullets in The Matrix blew my mind. I was such a fan of his, I have such a gr\u00e1 for that type of Irish man. And one thing that totally separates the Irish show from every other iteration is our ability to tell the truth in a sarcastic way and somehow get away with a lie. Like Paudie was accused of being a traitor in the very first episode by Michelle, and he just went, \u2018Oh yeah, that\u2019s right, I am yeah, all day.\u2019 And he said it in such a sarcastic way that everyone\u2019s like, \u2018sounds like he\u2019s legit\u2019. Like, nobody else can do that in any country in the world. Nobody can just blatantly tell you the truth and you assume they\u2019re lying to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0The Traitors cut loose: Paudie\u2019s son Andrew lifts lid on hug-gate – \u2018he was being pure cute\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

McGahern, who turns 40 next year, grew up on a farm in Gowna, Co Cavan and studied animation in college but was drawn more to live comedy. \u201cYou could be working on a cartoon for six months, stand-up was a quicker way to get a laugh,\u201d he says. He worked as a barman in Dublin\u2019s stand-up mecca the International Bar. He\u2019d go to gigs and sit with comedians afterwards, asking endless questions but not revealing his true motivation. Eventually his friend and fellow comedian\/animator Robbie Bonham, who died earlier this year aged 54, told McGahern \u201cjust do it\u201d. So he did.<\/p>\n

After gigging for a while he rose to prominence as the host of Republic of Telly on RT\u00c92, bringing a quirky edge to the satirical current affairs comedy show. He has also acted in television programmes such as Hardy Bucks, Smother and Finding Joy, as much at ease with drama as with comedy, and fronted documentaries such as Kevin McGahern\u2019s America. On Uncloaked, he is showing off his chatshow chops for the first time. Watching him at his witty, astute, conversational best, it\u2019s not hard to envisage him as a future Late Late Show presenter.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0The Traitors craic, wit and wolfhounds has restored my pride in IrelandOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

On the one hand McGahern, a fan of American chatshow hosts, admits he\u2019d love a gig like that but when I ask if he\u2019s ambitious, he says no. \u201cI hugely admire ambitious people,\u201d he says, joking that his wife will give out to him for admitting he lacks ambition. In fairness, his laid-back approach to career progression seems to be working so far. The day after the Traitors finale he\u2019ll be back on our screens again in the second series of Cheap European Houses. With a second series of The Traitors Ireland and Uncloaked pretty much guaranteed, it looks like the talented McGahern will be busy for a good while yet. \u201cI say I\u2019m not ambitious, but then again, when work dries up, I am a mess, I go into panic mode. But as long as I\u2019ve a job next week, I\u2019m fairly happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The final episodes of The Traitors Ireland and Uncloaked are on RT\u00c9 1 on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the finale looming this week, we are a nation in the throes of peak Traitors speculation, which…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[268],"tags":[434,18,117,19,17,3251],"class_list":{"0":"post-77064","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-the-traitors"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77064","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=77064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}