Ireland
Journalist with a specialty in entertainment and seven years experience in the industry. Words on Metro.co.uk, Guardian, Irish Independent, i news, i-D, Cosmpolitan, Daily Beast, Bitch Media, Rogue, Huffington Post, Vice, Quartz and Pottermore. Appearances on RTE Radio 1, Victoria Derbyshire, Daily Politics, MTV, BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Radio Kent.
Twenty years ago, one white lie instantly became the biggest scandal Irish television had ever seen. There are a few legendary moments that have transcended terrestrial television to become staples of hun culture: Tiffany Pollard thinking David Gest was dead on Celebrity Big Brother.
Celebrity opportunities to break the internet were few and far between during lockdown. Sure, there was plenty of scope to attract the ire of the world by being anti-mask, saying that people dying due to a deadly virus was inevitable (hi, Vanessa Hudgens), or simply singing a bar of John Lennon's Imagine literally days into lockdown.
Still from Drag Race UK "Barbie Girl". "The Ketchup Song". "Baby Shark". All songs so ridiculously catchy that they burrow into your head against your will, replacing all useful information with lyrics that play on a loop until another earworm comes along or you die - whichever comes first.
I've got to give it to Love Island, it's a bold move to fill the villa with men who clearly dislike women. I'm the biggest defender of the show - my past summers have revolved around it - but over the past week and a half, almost every male islander has exposed himself as a player, unable to hold a conversation with a girl, self-obsessed or just plain misogynistic.
Day one. I check my eharmony inbox. A message! What a thrill! "Hi Emma! How are you? You have a great smile :)" Maybe this will be something. Maybe this guy will actually be a fun date. Maybe he'll be the one. "Are you submissive and obedient???
I love Twitter. I love the memes, I love the live-tweets of Strictly Come Dancing, I love the friends I've made on it. But I can also acknowledge that more often than not, it's a hellscape where vile movements gain volume. This week, one of these movements has attempted to take root on Irish Twitter.
In October 2018, porn stars Rebecca More and Sophie Anderson posted a suitably filthy video to promote a gangbang they were about to partake in. "Do you know what we are? We're fucking cock destroyers, aren't we babe?" Rebecca purred, with Sophie adding: "Cock fucking destroyers."
As a child of the nineties, I've been through my fair share of pop heartbreak. Geri quitting the Spice Girls when I was eight. Steps ruining Christmas by splitting on Boxing Day 2001 (thanks, H and Claire). Zayn leaving One Direction while I was on shift on a showbiz desk, and it hurting just as much as if I were a teenager.
For the casual viewer, the Eurovision Song Contest happens on one ridiculous, strobe-lit night in May, accompanied by a bottle of fizz and the sarcastic commentary of Graham Norton. But for the true devotee, the contest starts months earlier, with hot rumours and endless speculation about leaked demos, not to mention the precision tracking of every country's heats and hopefuls.