Reality TV · creators · the week

Irish pop culture, with the receipts still warm.

Who got felted this week, what the edit actually showed, and which creator posted the thing they should've slept on. We name names. The clips are real. The latest long read is the Gilroy file — thirteen years, four party labels, an Oireachtas register that did not get the memo, and a Workplace Relations Commission ruling about a face mask at Decathlon.

Read the Journal Weekly digest
Start here

The reading pile

Reality TV, the creator economy, the memes before LinkedIn explains them to death. Long-form when it's worth it, short and mean when it isn't.

Long read · Party-continuity · Latest

The Gilroy file

Seven receipts. Thirteen years. Four party labels. A 6.45-per-cent peak in 2013 that turns out to be the best night of the whole career. A 2014 resignation that the Oireachtas register did not, in fact, action. A bounded legal middle that ends, of all places, in a Workplace Relations Commission ruling about a face mask at Decathlon. A 2024 relaunch at the CityNorth Hotel in Gormanstown. A 2025 Court of Appeal joinder ruling against Google. The whole continuity ladder walked through the official record. Companion piece to the dossier on kino.ie.

Long read · 17 min · 13 May 2026
Long read · Broadcaster + election · Folder four

The Boylan file

Classic Hits since 2011. A fact-checked promo clip in February 2024. An MEP candidacy in April that switched the microphone off the same day. 30,637 first preferences. A "back to radio" choice four days after the count. Back on the same show by April 2026.

15 min · 13 May 2026
The Rake Back · vol. 1

The Rake Back vol. 1 — the pilot

The launch edition. What "felted" means, what "kino" means, and a sweep of the Irish pop-culture moments — Tubridy, Kielty, the Love Island pipeline, the ASAI archive — that earned this column in the first place.

10 min read · 23 April 2026
Journal

The long stuff

Evergreen explainers, format studies, industry maps. Filed weekly. Reality TV gets rewatched; good writing about it should outlast the season.

Explainer

Love Island's Irish pipeline, explained

Why so many Irish contestants, what the shortlist is actually looking for, and how an Irish Love Islander differs from a British one on screen.

8 min read
Meme watch

The Irish meme calendar, 2026 edition

The seasonal schedule of a small-nation meme economy — from Stab City stock-takes to the annual "worst pint in Dublin" thread.

6 min read

Read the full journal

Tip line

Tell the lads.

The clip everyone's dodging, the post that got quietly deleted, the thing that happened at an industry event. Anonymous by default. We don't run on a single tip — we use it to find the receipt ourselves. How we handle sources.

We'll only use it to follow up if the tip needs clarification. Never shared.