The Full Irish was a radio breakfast show on RTÉ 2fm. It ran for three years from 2002 – 2005 and was on air from 7 – 9 am. Ryan Tubridy presented; Shane O'Donoghue read out the leading news in sport and Avril Hoare read out the news. The "holy moley mug" was the main prize given out in competitions. It was a lighthearted show which discussed random topics.
The Full Irish began on Monday 18 March 2002 as an attempt by RTÉ to halt the haemorrhaging of listeners who were deserting Damien McCaul's breakfast show.[1][2]
Tubridy once heard a story on an early morning news bulletin about students in Canada who skinned a cat. Throughout the rest of the show, he imitated the cat with comments such as "Meow, please don't skin me" and "It hurts so much when you skin me".[3] The next day, when talking about the hunting ban in England, Tubridy made reference to "the filthy felines".[4]
His new challenge is to boost up their "yoof" station 2FM with an exciting new breakfast show called The Full Irish which starts tomorrow [...] Tubridy's new show aims to pull in the 15 to 34-year-old listener. In the past, the breakfast show, which lost listeners under its last presenter Damien McCaul, has played second fiddle in Dublin to Today FM's Ian Dempsey and the FM104's Strawberry Alarm Clock.
Ian Dempsey's morning show took listeners from Radio 1's Marian Finucane and 2FM's Damien McCaul. Eamon Dunphy's The Last Word ate into the listenership figures of RTÉ's flagship evening current affairs programme, Five Seven Live.