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LIKE EVERY HOUSE in Ireland in the 90’s, there were at least a couple of VHS recordings of D’Unbelievables lurking around in old cabinets, ready to be ‘thrown on for a few minutes’ any time there was deemed to be ‘nothing on the telly’.
The intention would be to sit down, watch a sketch or two and then carry on with whatever needed doing around the place, while the comforting soundscape continued in the background.
But of course, that never happened. One by one, family members were lured in, maybe by shouts of ‘I won’t says I, I’m fine’ or ‘D’at’s right’, until eventually, everyone was gathered on the sofa, watching the madness on display in its entirety until the end.
That was the beauty of the D’Unbelievables. That ability to draw you in. To make you laugh from that place in your belly that you sometimes forget is there. From the simplest of set ups; a child buying sweets, a hurling coach giving a pep talk, coughing and conversation at the back of the church; the precision of the characterisations and the celebration of rural culture that appealed to young and old, was something we had never seen before.
In our house we had grown up on a diet of Dick Emery, Mr Bean, Fawlty Towers and now here were two of our own. The power of it cannot be underestimated. Jon Kenny and Pat Shortt found new ways for us to laugh at ourselves. The way they broke the fourth wall and transformed audience members into fully fledged characters integral to the sketch, felt revolutionary, like an act of rebellion. They may not have been the first ones to ever do it, but they were the first ones like us to do it.
Jon Kenny was laid to rest this week in his beloved Limerick. He leaves behind a grieving family, friends and colleagues who clearly adored him and a trail of characters and catchphrases that cement his status as a legitimate Irish comedy icon.
It’s always tricky to pinpoint where something creative begins, who influences who and how the next generation of comics are conceived, but there’s surely a line that can be drawn from D’Unbelievables to Tommy Tiernan, The Two Johnnies, and beyond, with plenty of offshoots in between. When D’unbelievables stopped touring in 2000, Jon went on to further great work throughout his career, often coinciding with challenging health issues which he faced with his trademark courage, humour and grace.
A Father Ted appearance as a bumbling Eurovision host who can turn on the charm for the cameras will surely go down as some of his finest work, as well as long-running tours of The Matchmaker co-starring Mary McAvoy and in more recent years Norma Sheahan, and most recently his unforgettable role in The Banshees of Inisherin which saw him reunited with his D’Unbelievables co-star once again.
“Jon had no time for notions”, Norma Sheahan told me by phone this week. She worked with him on several tours of The Matchmaker by John B. Keane, a role which expertly showcased his devilment and wit and for which he was rightly beloved.
“He would put his car keys in his pocket at the interval and get straight on the road after the curtain call. It didn’t matter where we were or how long it would take him, he wanted to get home and have a glass of wine or a cup of tea with his beloved wife Margy”.
It’s a theme that runs through the anecdotes of anyone who ever worked with him. A love of family and a no-nonsense approach to getting the job done. “Oh yeah, he wasn’t much into rehearsing, laughs Sheahan, “he preferred to keep it loose and get on with it”.
Kevin Gildea, himself a stalwart of early 90’s comedy in Ireland, remembers gigging with Jon in Limerick many moons ago. “He was with Pat, but I don’t know if they were officially the D’unbelievables at this point”. Kevin was performing with the sketch group Mr Trellis, alongside Ardal O’Hanlon and Barry Murphy. “It was a late gig for the students’ union I think, basically a really rowdy crowd who didn’t pay attention to us at all”.
With the gig rumbling on and the crowd getting more and more rambunctious, it was then the turn of Jon and Pat. “Pat played a lot of saxophone in those days and the gig was out of control at this point”, continues Gildea, “But then I remember he started playing this beautiful version of Summertime and Jon started miming all these summery things, swimming, going to the beach and so on, it was hilarious”.
It wasn’t long before the crowd took notice. “This rowdy bunch of chaotic students were completely transfixed. There was complete silence as the whole crowd paid attention. It was one of the funniest and most beautiful things I’ve ever seen”, finishes Gildea.
It conjures up a spark of creative madness that never seemed to leave Jon. At comedy clubs and venues throughout the country this week, standing ovations and applause were freely given in honour of a man who lit up Irish stages and screens for over two decades.
On announcing his passing, his family said: “Jon grabbed life and shook it as hard as he could, getting every ounce of fun, madness, and love from it”. There are comics up and down the country who he has directly inspired to do the same.
Ar dheis De go raibh a anam.
Sharon Mannion is the resident host of The Comedy Cellar, Ireland’s longest running comedy club, Wednesday 8 pm at the International on Wicklow St in Dublin. Her solo show ‘Sharondipity’ continues its nationwide run in early 2025. SharonMannionComedy.com, Insta: @sharonmannioncomedy.
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Can’t believe they are once again going to reward people for not working. Absolute redesign of unemployment payments are needed. Payable for a maximum of 1 month in a 12 month period. In a time of full employment, long-term jobseekers allowances should be abolished.
@Tommy Roche: how on earth do you expect travellers to ever work?!!!! How do you expect numerous drug gangs members to work?! How do you expect carrier single mothers to work?! How do you expect people with hundreds criminal convictions to work?!
@Tommy Roche: Again how do you expect crowd people seat 24/7 outside former Crown Paints in Coolock, commit arsons, criminal damage, acts of intimidation and blocking traffic for people coming from work… without increasing their job seekers allowance?!!! Don’t be so cruel!
@Sergej Simonov: drug gang members/ people with 100s of convictions , that’s a life choice that can be changed, not easily but it’s no excuse for not being able to work. Being a traveller doesn’t mean you can’t work either,
@Tommy Roche: Yes let’s prosecute the minority for the fee that don’t work. Typical right wing conservative sound bite. You’d love a bit of austerity wouldn’t you Tommy. We’re not at full employment, some of those figures are slave Labour CE and TUS schemes where the client has absolutely ZERO prospects of getting a job. We need to clamp down hard on tax avoidance from multinationals. Only difference between a scrote living in Blackrock and a scrote in living in Rossfield in Tallaght is the type of clothes they wear. We all remember the crash and the white collar gangsters who got away with it. Every single year it’s people like you who come out with their right wing agenda
@Alan: I think you’ll find the scrote uniform of choice is pretty consistent no matter what town or village they’re from. Canada Goose jacket, North Face tracksuit and some type of electric bike/scooter tells you all you need to know from a mile off.
@CP: he’s being facetious- ignore him
@Alan: Right wing agenda…lol. Imagine being a taxpayer who’s sick of supporting my neighbour up the road, who’s never paid a cent income tax in his life, was bragging only last week about getting a lump sum fuel payment of over €450 and is at this moment spending it in a Dortmund pub !! He, and thousands of others like him don’t have zero prospects of getting a job. They don’t WANT a job. At the current time, anyone seeking employment should have no trouble finding a job. One huge issue is those deemed within SW as ‘unemployable’. Change the payment name to Unemployable Allowance and maybe the stigma would make them rethink their life choices.
@Sergej Simonov: stop making excuses
@Shane O Mac: the thing is they’re not “excuses”, they’re facts. Would you employ any of the people he mentioned? I wouldn’t. Would pay for a fancy meal being served by Anto with multiple convictions, reeking of weed greeting you with a stooorrrry bud? What jobs should they do? And would you be willing to make someone else unemployed to facilitate them? The fact is if you stop their pay they will get their money by illegal means, you could be their victim. I’m all for stopping double payments and Christmas bonuses for long-term unemployed but in the real world you can’t cut them off.
@Gearoid MacEachaidh: so pay them not to commit crime, you’re funny.
@Tommy Roche: Very small minority of people that engage in that behaviour. Should we tell John Doe up the road with an intellectual disability to get of his hxxle to and get a job. It is right wing stigmatising, label anyone who hasn’t worked a day In their life as lazy, not bothering to work, maybe turn your attention to the white collar capitalist elite who sold their souls to the IMF and in turn the Irish government at the time absolutely destroyed the economy with massive tax hikes, massive austerity measures, unprecedented reduction of government spending. You might not have being affected but 1000s did and are still suffering. Capitalism is greed. What we need is a social democratic system of socialism. So please get off your high horse
@Mr “JonnieBoy” Johnson: thanks for the compliment but I’m not trying to be funny, I’m being factual. You live in this imaginary world where you can cut people off from any source of state help and suddenly they will see the error of their ways and generations of poor role models will count for nothing and Anto will don a 3 piece suit, a D4 accent and start selling mortgages for AIB. I live in the real world where giving people state help keeps them from costing the tax payers more in other ways. Every country on the planet has a portion of their population who unemployable. We’re not North Korea were they’re allowed to die of hunger. Even the USA has a welfare system.
@Sergej Simonov: I met a big group of coloock protesters during the summer a lot of mothers and nearly all of them in employment. Troll
@Paul Gorry: watch the smile on pascal face. That grin always show the contempt for the working class people. The biggest the smile the more we will get fecked. I remember how ecstatic he was to present the 5 euros increase a week for pension.
watch that smile
As usual, nothing ever for the working man. Except some pathetic 1% USC cut.
@Daniel Skelton: Better than no cut but could be way better than 1% indeed.
@Daniel Skelton: wrong, working person will be better off by over 1000, those with children even more so
@Pat Hazzard: and the working person will also be worse off by 1000 euro’s because of levy’s etc; typical Leprechaun economics.
@Pat Hazzard: Here, have a read of this from the Independent, and how any benefits we get in the budget will be negated for the most part by taxes and levies. The only one I actually agree with is what is being proposed for vapes and cigarettes, after all, it took me long enough to give them up, but the rest of the increases are going to hit families that are already hard pressed to make ends meet as it is.
@Jack Cass: the levys add up to about 200 pa
@Pat Hazzard: yes divide that 1000 by 12, then divide that by 4, its less than 20 euros so no were are not better off, being on the dole is better off. The working man always gets shafted
@paul dutton: wait until you see what happens in the UK. Things could be worse
@Daniel Skelton: the majority of the WORKING man is doing other jobs and cash in hand. So stop making up excuses
@paul dutton: or just divide by 52. Unless you’re living in a 48 week year.
The budget will not deliver anything to one section of society, the pensioners affected by the 2012 legislation which denied them a pension if they did not have 520 credits. People who took the time out to raise families, look after elderly, infirm and incapacitated relatives in a time when there was no carers allowance or childcare provision. The only thing they are entitled to this week is a free flu shot.
I predict a huge nothing burger from paschal the globalist for those of us that work, scrap carbon taxes and save the people.
@087 bed: Pachal isn’t actually the minister for Finance, but glad to see your consistency with just the one type of tax that you have an issue with.
@087 bed: I work, I’m benefitting so is my other half.
@Jason Memail: well he did an enormous amount of damage to the country in past budgets as minister for finance, so. This is what they really on our wonderful Fg, Irish who have amnesia
@Jason Memail: Donohue is a piece of work, he sent me a vicious email once upon a time after i addressed his intimidation and propaganda when the chamber was talking marijuana use. He’s a belligerent Tory who did a lot of harm when given the finance role.
I always seem to fall into the category that literally gets noting back !
Hashtag: sick of it !
@kevin rock: are you between a rock and a hard place?
Opportunity to tackle the
HOUSING CRISIS
@RIP: Whilst simultaneously tackling net immigration
@Mick Joe: we’ll need immigrants to build the houses
@Dermot Blaine: They’re one of the primary reasons we have a housing crisis.
@Dermot Blaine: please explain. The import of cheap foreign labour has resulted in the exodus of Irish high skilled workers that we’re building 70,000 houses per year 15 years ago . The rates of pay have only increased slightly from the crash, hence now we have a very large shortage of plumbers, electricians, bricklayers, carpenters etc. There isn’t the capacity to build more homes, hence the government trying to entice Irish skilled construction workers back, which has failed miserably.
@Dermot Blaine: So they are no longer Doctors and Dentists but in actual fact plumbers, and brickies?
Hard to keep up these days.
The USC should be gone completely at this stage.
Considering the money available now to this government, the budget is falling short of what could comfortably be delivered.
There’s a little being offered but there could and should be a lot more.
A government that has no excuses relating to lack of money ,yet absolutely no creativity or inventiveness to serve the citizens of the country. God love us all when the economy takes a turn, the government will feed us to the wolves.
Pribe the voters
Win …..
Collapse
Repeat …..
Can some one clarify please. What a out a single pension with no children. Just on there own. What will the budget do for them. Besides extra 12 € a week. Do they not get any double payment except x ma’s
@John Flanagan: increase in pension, increase in fuel allowance, increase in living alone allowance, double pension payment
@John Flanagan: You get a double payment if you can prove you can use the correct version of there, their or they’re.
National children hosp, security hut, bike shed, millions to IPAS business…just think while they give away money coming up to an election!
Buying votes.
Nothing done to alleviate housing, in fact the very opposite.
Failure from FFG as usual.
Give away budget before elections. But realise they give back our own payed tax money but pretend that it’s theirs.
@hans vos: this isn’t a giveaway budget. Majority of people getting little to sweet FA from this budget. Give away budget my hole.
@hans vos: SF supporters must be very confused as the government has stole their thunder and even outdid them.
@hans vos: they’re giving away less than in previous years. Was the last 3 budgets to get votes too? Answer is yes. That’s literally the whole point
@hans vos: “but pretend that it’s theirs”? Eh, how is it you think societies are funded? Everyone KNOWS it’s by the tax take, be it Corporate, VAT, Income etc.
So, no, no one, including those is Govt is pretending it’s anything other then the Tax take being distributed.
@thomas molloy: it’s not the first time that they have a budget before elections and than go back on their words after.
@Tricia G28: Societies are funded with tax money payed by company’s and public. Spending by government is taxpayers money. They know of cause but still pretend that they do us a favor when the spent it.
Not for the ordinary people.
@Áine G: wrong, budget will benefit everyone
@Áine G: what do you consider ‘ordinary people’ I genuinely can’t see any cohort that has been left out if leaks are to be believed.
Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash
New car, caviar, four-star daydream
@u6ZzANzx: think ill me a football team
Money don’t get everything it’s true
What it don’t get, I can’t use
Now gimme money, that’s what I want
@Modern Irish Dad: the best things in life are free..
@peter willekens: Mr Willekens you can keep ‘em for the birds and bees.
Before the election the government throw bones to the dog
To make happy the dog
@Hugo Omar Martinez: you’re right. It would be better if they threw no bones, isn’t that right?. Then you can moan about them doing nuttin”
USC was brought in as a temporary measure they should have abolished it
Buying the vote. They are just giving us our own money back, and if it wasn’t an election year, this budget would be very different. The only people that should be benefiting is the people going out to work and the vulnerable people in society. We have full employment people shouldn’t be paid to stay at home.
@Chris Lane: The people going out to work just got a tax cut or did you miss that part?
@Chris Lane: Which, for the average paid worker, is less than the increase of those that don’t work got.
@Tricia G28: so they aren’t giving anything but they will expect ye to be happy that they are not going to take quite as much in this one area were they are riding us workers raw. As for energy credits ye can stick them up your holes. Just stop the cartels gouging us left right and centre and we wouldn’t need it. All its doing is transferring our money to there mates and prolonging the gouging.
@Tricia G28: a pathetic cut that won’t make a difference.
I wonder what’s been done for the early years sector, it’s on the brink of total collapse.
@Rach: Here here.
@Anthony Curran: ss’zzz
Going to get a new Ouija board with the extra dole money. Thanks to all the workers!
…must be funny in a rich man’s world.
Serves majority of hospitality sector right. You reap what you sow hotels. Triple price hotels when concerts on. Hahaha. Wouldn’t stay in a hotel in rep of Ireland ever again, North of Ireland place to go, Belfast is the spot. From a southerner BTW.
@Bills n Stuff: don’t put highly funded hotels in same boat as small cafes and restaurants
I’m reducing my active contribution to the economy. They’re a bunch of tight fisted criminals. Taxpayer screwed again.
@Fintan Stack: Cry some more
@Vince Cable: get back out canvassing
@Fintan Stack: I’m a taxpayer, and I’ve done just fine.
2.1 billion for foreigners to settle in Ireland . The politicans are very generous with tax payers money. All people who have a vote in the upcoming general election use it.
Another sh itsh ow
A few good initiatives that will make a difference like school books, college reg fee reduction. These are things that two income middle class families will see a benefit of. I didnt expect much and we got a little. It could have been better but could also have been worse. People with young families seem to have gotten some good news and that’s important and also the companion travel I think is really good.
I won’t be voting for this government didn’t buy my vote
Hands up if you are currently working on the Sinn Fein Troll Factory?
Finally free of the Quinn levy. How much did he cost us in the end?
I’m
@David Hughes: lost for words?
We are not poor, we just suck at being poor, and I’m not referring to the Irish citizens.
Failte Ireland we can take off on the entrance to cafe
@Renars Pundurs: Interesting, although I don’t think they’re in cafes? Could be wrong, they are however in hotels, guest houses, hostels,
bed and breakfasts, self catering, caravan and camping and holiday camps.
Save Lebanese children from israeli terrorists
There are three dentists in the greater Dublin area I’m aware of that are still in the psri/medical card scheme for teeth – is fine Gael going to do anything about that ? cocked Up just like most healthcare!!
@Modern Irish Dad: but love dont give no compensation, love don’t pay no bills… Love kills.
have your say