Dear Frankie on RTE this evening
July 31, 2006
RTE 1 is re-broadcasting the True Lives documentary about Frankie Byrne – Ireland’s legendary agony aunt – this evening at 10.25pm. I saw the programme when it was first broadcast and I urge you to tune in, it’s an extraordinary documentary not alone about Frankie’s life but as an insight into the Ireland of the 50s, 60s and 70s. I grew up listening to Dear Frankie on Radio Éireann (as it was at the time) and remember the down to earth advice dispensed by Frankie to husbands and wives throughout the country in an age devoid of Oprah, Dr Phil and agony aunt columns in magazines. If you want an insight into how we got here…then tune in.
I for once watched TV one night and caught this. It was really good and really sad. We need more people like Franie Byrne in our media these days. She was a great liberator.
Yes it was really heartbreaking on so many levels – how she gave such solid relationship advice while in what would have been a socially frowned upon arrangement herself.
There’s a wonderful quote from her at the end of the programme (I’m paraphrasing now) where she talks about the words not coming to her any more…fantastic material and in an age of reality TV this is what my license money should be spent on! (well that and more for Conn’s podcasts!)
I didn’t catch it last night but was fortunate enough to have stumbled across it on its first outing. Fascinating person and fabulous insight into our society of not so long ago. The one thing which grated on me was how her life was summarised and dismissed as some sort of a failure.
She touched so many lives, was admired and love. She even was fortunate enough to become acquainted with the child that she was forced to give up for adoption. I reckon there were probably a lot more women of that era who weren’t so fortunate. So there was no need to end the programme about her life on such a sad note.