TG4 has appointed Joe Mag Raollaigh as its new political correspondent. He replaces Cathal MacCoille, who left the position in October to take up a post as presenter on Morning Ireland. Originally from Oranmore in Galway, Mag Raollaigh worked with Clare FM before joining Nuacht TG4 when the station went on air in 1996. His most recent position was as mid-west correspondent for TG4, based in Limerick. Mag Raollaigh will take up his new job in January. Until then, Cathal MacCoille will step in to lend a helping hand to his former colleagues. MacCoille will be covering the latest TG4/MRBI opinion poll on the Sligo-Leitrim constituency, which is due out on Monday.
RT╔ has advertised internally for the position of Industry and Employment correspondent, which has been vacant since Peter Cluskey's resignation in September. The job is advertised on a two-year contract basis. The successful candidate will be responsible for RT╔ coverage of industrial relations on radio, television and the Web. Peter Cluskey has recently taken up a position in the press office of the Dublin Transportation Office.
At the moment, somewhere at an undisclosed location in rural Ireland, a house is being purpose-built to be the scariest, most terrifying venue in the country. So says Louis Maguire, the man behind the idea for a new television programme to be broadcast on TV3 in the New Year. Haunted House will take 20 contestants to the sealed-off house for three days and three nights and, in the words of Maguire, "scare the living daylights out of them!"
Maguire has assembled a team of 20 special effects experts from all over the world - including Hollywood - to create what he calls a "rollercoaster of hell". "We're looking for people who are brave, up for it and generally game for a laugh," he says. But he warns that the stunts are genuinely frightening, and all potential candidates will have to undergo full medical and psychological assessments before being allowed to take part. The contestants will be filmed for the duration of their stay, and their experiences made into four hour-long programmes to be shown on TV3 in early February. Although contestants can leave the house if they wish, they lose the opportunity to win €20,000. The winner will be chosen by viewers during a live show to be broadcast straight after the last programme goes out.
The programme is sponsored by TV3, Suzuki and the Sunday World, and has also received significant private investment. Maguire claims to have spent $2.5 million on the special effects alone. He hopes to sell the format to broadcasters and production companies worldwide, and is confident he can recoup his investment. This is his first venture into television production with his new company, Funny Stuff Television. More information about the application process for would-be contestants is available on a premium phone line: 1580-715111.
Kirsty MacColl and Shane McGowan's Fairytale of New York has been voted the most popular Irish song ever. A poll conducted by RT╔ Radio 1's arts show, Rattlebag, and the Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO) found the Christmas duet to be the number-one choice of hundreds of listeners who voted by post and online for their favourite songs. Earlier this year, a shortlist of 150 songs was compiled by RT╔ music producers, and listeners were invited to pick their top 50. From this, a jury made up of representatives from RT╔, IMRO, music journalism and Rattlebag listeners compiled the Top 75 Irish songs.
Although Fairytale of New York was the most popular choice from the listeners' poll, the final list is arranged in alphabetical order. It ranges from All Kinds of Everything to Woman's Heart, and musically from Carrickfergus to Riverdance. "The 75 songs chosen represent three centuries of Irish music but, in the nature of such snapshot polls, tend to reflect the tastes of audiences from the latter half of the 20th century, and more particularly, the last 30 years," says Rattlebag presenter Myles Dungan. The poll was commissioned as part of RT╔'s celebrations of 75 years of Irish radio. On New Year's Eve, the RT╔ Concert Orchestra will play a selection of the Top 75 songs at the National Concert Hall, and this will be broadcast live. The full list can be viewed on the website: www.rte.ie/rattlebag
mkearney@irish-times.com