Latest news with #TonyConnolly
BreakingNews.ie
a day ago
- Entertainment
- BreakingNews.ie
‘I'm learning Irish, I wear Beir Bua': The brand combining Gaeilge, GAA, and fashion
Belfast-born clothing brand Beir Bua was founded on a love for the Irish language, a passion for fashion, and a deep connection to the GAA. The brand has gone from strength to strength since it burst onto the Irish fashion scene, having recently launched a retro GAA jersey in collaboration with Beamish. Advertisement Speaking to , founder Tony Connolly said he previously saw nothing linking his interests together, and felt that he had no "niche" of his own. 'I always felt like I had no niche. I was into a lot of things. I was into sport, I was into jerseys, I was into fashion. "I was into art, photography, music, and the Irish language. But I kind of didn't have a niche in any area and, at some point, it just clicked with me that I could combine them all into one.' Beir Bua seeks to champion the Irish language through clothing, while also celebrating Irish culture in a broader sense by drawing inspiration from GAA jerseys for its pieces. Advertisement 'What you see in Beir Bua is really just an amalgamation of everything I'm into and there's nothing there that isn't authentic," Connolly said. Photo: Beir Bua "Even to do with the photography stuff, it's all at places where we drank or went to, or where I played hurling. It's all kind of semi-reflective of my life because I know there's a lot of poserism in some form in this kind of area. 'Even when it comes to the Irish language, like there's mistakes in some of the Irish I use and I want that to reflect and show that it's okay to make mistakes. "It's about the journey of relearning Irish. Rather than being like 'I'm an Irish speaker, I wear Beir Bua', it's more like 'I'm learning Irish, I wear Beir Bua'.' Advertisement The birth of Beir Bua Connolly explained that the concept of Beir Bua came about as a result of him learning the Irish language. "I suppose it started when I started learning Irish around 2018. I started going back to Irish classes in Belfast, I was doing night classes at the time. I was just getting really into the Irish language and I saw there was a brand, Art of Football, over in England who were doing a lot of stuff with football culture and clothing at the time. "I think something just clicked in my head with the ability to combine the Irish language and promoting the Irish language with clothing. This came a few years after I'd really started learning. "Beir Bua was picked for the brand name because it's a sign off message and so you put it at the end of a letter or an e-mail. Advertisement "It's actually old Irish. 'Beir bua agus beannacht' is the full phrase, which means take victory and a blessing. 'Take victory' - I just always liked the way it sounded and looked, and putting it at the end of an e-mail. I just thought it was perfect. I was just getting inspired by a lot of Irish culture at the time. And I sort of had the idea to have the Irish language, the promotion of Irish language, really been the forefront of what Beir Bua was supposed to be about. 'There's a massive wave of Celtic revivalism at the minute going on, which has kind of been bubbling under the surface, probably for the last seven years maybe. "There have been lots of people that came before me, so I don't see myself in any way as like super original or anything like that. There was already lots of stuff being done with the Irish language and, to me, the Irish language has always been cool. "But the Celtic revival, it has kind of allowed me to get a full breakthrough, which is just lucky for me. So yeah, I definitely stand on the shoulders of some people who came before." Advertisement Kneecap, Gaeilge, and plans for the future Connolly said the goal of the brand is to get more people into speaking and learning the Irish language. "As I said, I always thought the Irish language was cool, but there's young people who, maybe to do with the way it's taught to them at school, aren't fully interested in Irish language. "You obviously have this Celtic wave that's kind of helping them decide that it's something that they want to be into and that's something I want to do too. Maybe to show that part of it, even though I feel like it's always been something that was cool." The Beir Bua founder said Kneecap cannot be left out of the Celtic revival conversation, as they inspired the younger generation to take an interest in the Irish language through their music. 'You can't mention the Celtic revival without mentioning Kneecap. They've been utterly instrumental in all of this, and I'd be lying if I said they didn't inspire me to push ahead with this plan as well. "As well as Kneecap and the movie industry and the music industry, you know, you have bands like Fontaines incorporating Irish language into some of their stuff as well but, apart from that, there was a whole wave of people before that that sort of brought the momentum into the culture. "You had An Dream Dearg champion Irish language rights in the North and I think all the hard work from groups like that and grassroots organisations have helped hold that up. Maybe people aren't really seeing that. But they allowed these things to come up through the culture and into the mainstream." Speaking about the future, Connolly said he intends to keep making garments that people are interested in wearing, and is open to more collaborations after the brand's successful partnership with Beamish. Photo: Beir Bua "Honestly, my plan is to keep making cool stuff. My mantra is to just keep making stuff that you would wear, stuff that you would like. I'm massively inspired by retro GAA jerseys and things like that, and I use my own taste to judge whether or not a design is something I would want to wear something myself. "We've actually done a collab with Beamish there recently which was our first collab. It was huge for us. In terms of other collabs, I'm listening to anyone who's talking basically. But, I suppose an obvious answer would be someone like Kneecap. "The two brands, the two entities, you could say, would be a good fit together I think, especially both being from the North as well. I just think it would be great, but who knows." Small business struggles Connolly highlighted some of the difficulties that come with running a small business, namely the balancing act of business costs and the cost of clothes for customers. 'It can be hard because it's a one man business here. So, I'm basically working on my own. And so it can be hard. Obviously, everyone has to start out somewhere," he said. "We're getting to the point now where we might be able to take on more, but the challenge at the minute is really just the financial struggles of running a tiny business, especially in modern day Ireland and Northern Ireland. The cost of living has gone up massively, and some of the pieces can be expensive to get made, and you don't want to charge through-the-roof prices for people who can't afford it. Connolly said it can be hard to find the right balance between making something that's worthwhile while ensuring that it's affordable for people, specifically Beir Bua's target demographic of 20- and 30-somethings. 'I don't come from money. I didn't get any leg up with this. It is just something I started very, very small and I was at a full-time job at the same time. "It's just about trying to grow bit by bit by bit with baby steps and, at some point, I suppose I'm just hoping that it will be a self-sustaining business." Beir Bua is a brand to keep an eye on. The brand has already come on leaps and bounds since it started out, and there will undoubtedly be more to come in the future.
South Wales Guardian
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- South Wales Guardian
RTE executives defend newsroom promo expected to cost 77,000 euro
The advertisement aims to portray 'a day in the life' of three RTE journalists, including RTE Europe Editor Tony Connolly, and has been in production for months. RTE's director of news and current affairs Deirdre McCarthy said concerns had been raised by staff but she rejected the ad was 'fake news'. 'Some issues were raised and an awful lot of the misinformation has come from a leak to the media from an internal editorial meeting that took place last Thursday,' she said. Deputy director of RTE Adrian Lynch, who said he is responsible for the ad, said three to four people are currently in Brussels to film part of the promo. He said the only external inputs in the production of the promo are in camera crew. RTE director general Kevin Bakhurst said he was 'infuriated' by the reaction to the promo clip. 'A significant amount of the press coverage has been totally inaccurate about it,' he told TDs and Senators at the committee. When asked about props used during the filming by Fianna Fail TD Peter 'Chap' Cleere, Mr Bakhurst said two plants were moved from elsewhere in RTE to cover up electrical points during filming before being put back. 'Even when you're filming news interviews, sometimes people wear make-up, they have lighting, you might move a plant so the shot looks better, and I would expect that of our highly professional promotions team. 'There's been some coverage about, you know, extras being brought in. 'The proper conversations were had about this between our marketing team, who were doing this, and the news management team about how we were going to do it. 'The initial request was, can some journalists from the newsroom sit in the background – they're going to be blurred out – can they sit in the background while we're filming this for several hours and the answer was 'No our journalists are too busy'.' He also said RTE had 'just spent 50,000 euro doing up parts of the newsroom' and the cost of filming the promo came out of RTE's annual two million euro marketing budget. Media committee chairman Alan Kelly said the newsroom promo 'really has annoyed a lot of people', adding it seems 'bananas' to the public that the camera crew is from outside RTE. Mr Bakhurst said it is not 'bananas' and that getting external experts is 'the most efficient way of spending public money'. Senior RTE figures appeared before the Oireachtas media committee on Wednesday for the first time since the new Dail was formed. In 2023 the broadcaster was sharply criticised over a series of governance and financial scandals which further fuelled a years-long trend in declining TV licence revenue. Among the issues RTE was criticised for was a commercial arrangement that saw the broadcaster underwrite sponsor payments that were to be paid to then Late Late Show presenter Ryan Tubridy. This ultimately led to the organisation paying 150,000 euro to him when the sponsor chose not to renew the deal after one year. Tubridy had previously indicated a willingness to return the two 75,000 euro payments to RTE if the personal appearance events did not materialise. The committee heard the 150,000 euro payments to Tubridy had not been repaid to RTE. Mr Bakhurst said: 'The answer is Ryan Tubridy has not paid that amount back. We've asked him, we have no legal basis as I have said previously, but I would like him to pay it back obviously.' RTE executives' appearance before the committee on Wednesday came after the broadcaster confirmed it had written down 3.6 million euro on a partly failed IT system. Mr Bakhurst told the committee while the write-down of public money was 'very unfortunate', it was 'very different from 2023'. He said the main part of the project, an updated finance system, was delivered while the HR element was not. 'Big projects, and particularly big IT projects, can go wrong, and what I've looked back at is how the organisation tried to salvage that, and what are the lessons learned from that.' Director general Kevin Bakhurst was among the RTE executives to address the committee (PA) He said one example of the changes made as a result is that every month the full list of significant capital projects now go to the leadership team. RTE's HR director Eimear Cusack told the committee the project was properly managed. 'I was responsible for the HR element and the HR requirements. We went through a tender process,' she said. 'There were a number of vendors who participated in that process. 'The final bids, we had external evaluation of those bids to ensure that we were picking the right providers and that was the result. 'The project ran into a number of difficulties. 'I think, that there were a number of issues that arose, particularly between the contractor and the subcontractor.' When put to her that the spec was not right, the right contractor was not chosen and it was not properly project managed, she said: 'I couldn't agree with that. 'We put in our requirements, the contractor and the subcontractor who won the tender said that they could deliver on those requirements. 'Ultimately, the finance system was delivered upon. 'The HR system, they could not deliver on, but that was not known at the time that they signed up and they said they could deliver on it.' Chairman of the RTE board Terence O'Rourke, RTE chief financial officer Mari Hurley and director of commercial Gavin Deans also appeared before committee. Ms Hurley said there was a 4% decline in TV licence fee revenues in 2024 compared to 2023. 'The more significant declines that have been experienced in '23 have been averted,' she said.
Rhyl Journal
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Rhyl Journal
RTE executives defend newsroom promo expected to cost 77,000 euro
The advertisement aims to portray 'a day in the life' of three RTE journalists, including RTE Europe Editor Tony Connolly, and has been in production for months. RTE's director of news and current affairs Deirdre McCarthy said concerns had been raised by staff but she rejected the ad was 'fake news'. 'Some issues were raised and an awful lot of the misinformation has come from a leak to the media from an internal editorial meeting that took place last Thursday,' she said. Deputy director of RTE Adrian Lynch, who said he is responsible for the ad, said three to four people are currently in Brussels to film part of the promo. He said the only external inputs in the production of the promo are in camera crew. RTE director general Kevin Bakhurst said he was 'infuriated' by the reaction to the promo clip. 'A significant amount of the press coverage has been totally inaccurate about it,' he told TDs and Senators at the committee. When asked about props used during the filming by Fianna Fail TD Peter 'Chap' Cleere, Mr Bakhurst said two plants were moved from elsewhere in RTE to cover up electrical points during filming before being put back. 'Even when you're filming news interviews, sometimes people wear make-up, they have lighting, you might move a plant so the shot looks better, and I would expect that of our highly professional promotions team. 'There's been some coverage about, you know, extras being brought in. 'The proper conversations were had about this between our marketing team, who were doing this, and the news management team about how we were going to do it. 'The initial request was, can some journalists from the newsroom sit in the background – they're going to be blurred out – can they sit in the background while we're filming this for several hours and the answer was 'No our journalists are too busy'.' He also said RTE had 'just spent 50,000 euro doing up parts of the newsroom' and the cost of filming the promo came out of RTE's annual two million euro marketing budget. Media committee chairman Alan Kelly said the newsroom promo 'really has annoyed a lot of people', adding it seems 'bananas' to the public that the camera crew is from outside RTE. Mr Bakhurst said it is not 'bananas' and that getting external experts is 'the most efficient way of spending public money'. Senior RTE figures appeared before the Oireachtas media committee on Wednesday for the first time since the new Dail was formed. In 2023 the broadcaster was sharply criticised over a series of governance and financial scandals which further fuelled a years-long trend in declining TV licence revenue. Among the issues RTE was criticised for was a commercial arrangement that saw the broadcaster underwrite sponsor payments that were to be paid to then Late Late Show presenter Ryan Tubridy. This ultimately led to the organisation paying 150,000 euro to him when the sponsor chose not to renew the deal after one year. Tubridy had previously indicated a willingness to return the two 75,000 euro payments to RTE if the personal appearance events did not materialise. The committee heard the 150,000 euro payments to Tubridy had not been repaid to RTE. Mr Bakhurst said: 'The answer is Ryan Tubridy has not paid that amount back. We've asked him, we have no legal basis as I have said previously, but I would like him to pay it back obviously.' RTE executives' appearance before the committee on Wednesday came after the broadcaster confirmed it had written down 3.6 million euro on a partly failed IT system. Mr Bakhurst told the committee while the write-down of public money was 'very unfortunate', it was 'very different from 2023'. He said the main part of the project, an updated finance system, was delivered while the HR element was not. 'Big projects, and particularly big IT projects, can go wrong, and what I've looked back at is how the organisation tried to salvage that, and what are the lessons learned from that.' He said one example of the changes made as a result is that every month the full list of significant capital projects now go to the leadership team. RTE's HR director Eimear Cusack told the committee the project was properly managed. 'I was responsible for the HR element and the HR requirements. We went through a tender process,' she said. 'There were a number of vendors who participated in that process. 'The final bids, we had external evaluation of those bids to ensure that we were picking the right providers and that was the result. 'The project ran into a number of difficulties. 'I think, that there were a number of issues that arose, particularly between the contractor and the subcontractor.' When put to her that the spec was not right, the right contractor was not chosen and it was not properly project managed, she said: 'I couldn't agree with that. 'We put in our requirements, the contractor and the subcontractor who won the tender said that they could deliver on those requirements. 'Ultimately, the finance system was delivered upon. 'The HR system, they could not deliver on, but that was not known at the time that they signed up and they said they could deliver on it.' Chairman of the RTE board Terence O'Rourke, RTE chief financial officer Mari Hurley and director of commercial Gavin Deans also appeared before committee. Ms Hurley said there was a 4% decline in TV licence fee revenues in 2024 compared to 2023. 'The more significant declines that have been experienced in '23 have been averted,' she said.
Leader Live
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Leader Live
RTE executives defend newsroom promo expected to cost 77,000 euro
The advertisement aims to portray 'a day in the life' of three RTE journalists, including RTE Europe Editor Tony Connolly, and has been in production for months. RTE's director of news and current affairs Deirdre McCarthy said concerns had been raised by staff but she rejected the ad was 'fake news'. 'Some issues were raised and an awful lot of the misinformation has come from a leak to the media from an internal editorial meeting that took place last Thursday,' she said. Deputy director of RTE Adrian Lynch, who said he is responsible for the ad, said three to four people are currently in Brussels to film part of the promo. He said the only external inputs in the production of the promo are in camera crew. RTE director general Kevin Bakhurst said he was 'infuriated' by the reaction to the promo clip. 'A significant amount of the press coverage has been totally inaccurate about it,' he told TDs and Senators at the committee. When asked about props used during the filming by Fianna Fail TD Peter 'Chap' Cleere, Mr Bakhurst said two plants were moved from elsewhere in RTE to cover up electrical points during filming before being put back. 'Even when you're filming news interviews, sometimes people wear make-up, they have lighting, you might move a plant so the shot looks better, and I would expect that of our highly professional promotions team. 'There's been some coverage about, you know, extras being brought in. 'The proper conversations were had about this between our marketing team, who were doing this, and the news management team about how we were going to do it. 'The initial request was, can some journalists from the newsroom sit in the background – they're going to be blurred out – can they sit in the background while we're filming this for several hours and the answer was 'No our journalists are too busy'.' He also said RTE had 'just spent 50,000 euro doing up parts of the newsroom' and the cost of filming the promo came out of RTE's annual two million euro marketing budget. Media committee chairman Alan Kelly said the newsroom promo 'really has annoyed a lot of people', adding it seems 'bananas' to the public that the camera crew is from outside RTE. Mr Bakhurst said it is not 'bananas' and that getting external experts is 'the most efficient way of spending public money'. Senior RTE figures appeared before the Oireachtas media committee on Wednesday for the first time since the new Dail was formed. In 2023 the broadcaster was sharply criticised over a series of governance and financial scandals which further fuelled a years-long trend in declining TV licence revenue. Among the issues RTE was criticised for was a commercial arrangement that saw the broadcaster underwrite sponsor payments that were to be paid to then Late Late Show presenter Ryan Tubridy. This ultimately led to the organisation paying 150,000 euro to him when the sponsor chose not to renew the deal after one year. Tubridy had previously indicated a willingness to return the two 75,000 euro payments to RTE if the personal appearance events did not materialise. The committee heard the 150,000 euro payments to Tubridy had not been repaid to RTE. Mr Bakhurst said: 'The answer is Ryan Tubridy has not paid that amount back. We've asked him, we have no legal basis as I have said previously, but I would like him to pay it back obviously.' RTE executives' appearance before the committee on Wednesday came after the broadcaster confirmed it had written down 3.6 million euro on a partly failed IT system. Mr Bakhurst told the committee while the write-down of public money was 'very unfortunate', it was 'very different from 2023'. He said the main part of the project, an updated finance system, was delivered while the HR element was not. 'Big projects, and particularly big IT projects, can go wrong, and what I've looked back at is how the organisation tried to salvage that, and what are the lessons learned from that.' He said one example of the changes made as a result is that every month the full list of significant capital projects now go to the leadership team. RTE's HR director Eimear Cusack told the committee the project was properly managed. 'I was responsible for the HR element and the HR requirements. We went through a tender process,' she said. 'There were a number of vendors who participated in that process. 'The final bids, we had external evaluation of those bids to ensure that we were picking the right providers and that was the result. 'The project ran into a number of difficulties. 'I think, that there were a number of issues that arose, particularly between the contractor and the subcontractor.' When put to her that the spec was not right, the right contractor was not chosen and it was not properly project managed, she said: 'I couldn't agree with that. 'We put in our requirements, the contractor and the subcontractor who won the tender said that they could deliver on those requirements. 'Ultimately, the finance system was delivered upon. 'The HR system, they could not deliver on, but that was not known at the time that they signed up and they said they could deliver on it.' Chairman of the RTE board Terence O'Rourke, RTE chief financial officer Mari Hurley and director of commercial Gavin Deans also appeared before committee. Ms Hurley said there was a 4% decline in TV licence fee revenues in 2024 compared to 2023. 'The more significant declines that have been experienced in '23 have been averted,' she said.
Powys County Times
28-05-2025
- Business
- Powys County Times
RTE executives defend newsroom promo expected to cost 77,000 euro
RTE executives have defended an unfinished newsroom promo which is expected to cost 77,000 euro plus VAT, a committee has heard. The advertisement aims to portray 'a day in the life' of three RTE journalists, including RTE Europe Editor Tony Connolly, and has been in production for months. RTE's director of news and current affairs Deirdre McCarthy said concerns had been raised by staff but she rejected the ad was 'fake news'. 'Some issues were raised and an awful lot of the misinformation has come from a leak to the media from an internal editorial meeting that took place last Thursday,' she said. Deputy director of RTE Adrian Lynch, who said he is responsible for the ad, said three to four people are currently in Brussels to film part of the promo. He said the only external inputs in the production of the promo are in camera crew. RTE director general Kevin Bakhurst said he was 'infuriated' by the reaction to the promo clip. 'A significant amount of the press coverage has been totally inaccurate about it,' he told TDs and Senators at the committee. When asked about props used during the filming by Fianna Fail TD Peter 'Chap' Cleere, Mr Bakhurst said two plants were moved from elsewhere in RTE to cover up electrical points during filming before being put back. 'Even when you're filming news interviews, sometimes people wear make-up, they have lighting, you might move a plant so the shot looks better, and I would expect that of our highly professional promotions team. 'There's been some coverage about, you know, extras being brought in. 'The proper conversations were had about this between our marketing team, who were doing this, and the news management team about how we were going to do it. 'The initial request was, can some journalists from the newsroom sit in the background – they're going to be blurred out – can they sit in the background while we're filming this for several hours and the answer was 'No our journalists are too busy'.' He also said RTE had 'just spent 50,000 euro doing up parts of the newsroom' and the cost of filming the promo came out of RTE's annual two million euro marketing budget. Media committee chairman Alan Kelly said the newsroom promo 'really has annoyed a lot of people', adding it seems 'bananas' to the public that the camera crew is from outside RTE. Mr Bakhurst said it is not 'bananas' and that getting external experts is 'the most efficient way of spending public money'. Senior RTE figures appeared before the Oireachtas media committee on Wednesday for the first time since the new Dail was formed. In 2023 the broadcaster was sharply criticised over a series of governance and financial scandals which further fuelled a years-long trend in declining TV licence revenue. Among the issues RTE was criticised for was a commercial arrangement that saw the broadcaster underwrite sponsor payments that were to be paid to then Late Late Show presenter Ryan Tubridy. This ultimately led to the organisation paying 150,000 euro to him when the sponsor chose not to renew the deal after one year. Tubridy had previously indicated a willingness to return the two 75,000 euro payments to RTE if the personal appearance events did not materialise. The committee heard the 150,000 euro payments to Tubridy had not been repaid to RTE. Mr Bakhurst said: 'The answer is Ryan Tubridy has not paid that amount back. We've asked him, we have no legal basis as I have said previously, but I would like him to pay it back obviously.' RTE executives' appearance before the committee on Wednesday came after the broadcaster confirmed it had written down 3.6 million euro on a partly failed IT system. Mr Bakhurst told the committee while the write-down of public money was 'very unfortunate', it was 'very different from 2023'. He said the main part of the project, an updated finance system, was delivered while the HR element was not. 'Big projects, and particularly big IT projects, can go wrong, and what I've looked back at is how the organisation tried to salvage that, and what are the lessons learned from that.' He said one example of the changes made as a result is that every month the full list of significant capital projects now go to the leadership team. RTE's HR director Eimear Cusack told the committee the project was properly managed. 'I was responsible for the HR element and the HR requirements. We went through a tender process,' she said. 'There were a number of vendors who participated in that process. 'The final bids, we had external evaluation of those bids to ensure that we were picking the right providers and that was the result. 'The project ran into a number of difficulties. 'I think, that there were a number of issues that arose, particularly between the contractor and the subcontractor.' When put to her that the spec was not right, the right contractor was not chosen and it was not properly project managed, she said: 'I couldn't agree with that. 'We put in our requirements, the contractor and the subcontractor who won the tender said that they could deliver on those requirements. 'Ultimately, the finance system was delivered upon. 'The HR system, they could not deliver on, but that was not known at the time that they signed up and they said they could deliver on it.' Chairman of the RTE board Terence O'Rourke, RTE chief financial officer Mari Hurley and director of commercial Gavin Deans also appeared before committee. Ms Hurley said there was a 4% decline in TV licence fee revenues in 2024 compared to 2023. 'The more significant declines that have been experienced in '23 have been averted,' she said.
