''Mooney'' (successor to ''Mooney Goes Wild'') is an Irish radio programme broadcast on

RTÉ Radio 1 RTÉ Radio 1 ( ga, RTÉ Raidió 1) is an Irish national radio station owned and operated by RTÉ and is the direct descendant of Dublin radio station 2RN, which began broadcasting on a regular basis on 1 January 1926. The total budget for th ...

. Presented by

Derek Mooney Derek James Mooney (born 4 March 1967) is an Irish radio and television presenter, as well as a radio producer. Until January 2015 he presented a weekday afternoon programme called '' Mooney'' on RTÉ Radio 1. He is the current executive produc ...

, the programme airs Monday to Friday from 15:00 to 16:30. ''Mooney'' was the 18th most listened-to radio programme in Ireland. It was presented by Brenda Donohue or Aonghus McAnally when Derek Mooney was absent. Its predecessor programme, ''Mooney Goes Wild'', was known for its coverage of nature and the later programme featured web broadcasts of

blue tit The Eurasian blue tit (''Cyanistes caeruleus'') is a small passerine bird in the tit family, Paridae. It is easily recognisable by its blue and yellow plumage and small size. Eurasian blue tits, usually resident and non-migratory birds, ...

s nesting and hatching. In 2009, ''Mooney'' blue tits nested live online in the gardens of

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese f ...

Mary McAleese Mary Patricia McAleese ( ; ga, Máire Pádraigín Mhic Ghiolla Íosa; ; born 27 June 1951) is an Irish activist lawyer and former politician who served as the eighth president of Ireland from November 1997 to November 2011. She is an academic ...

History

''Mooney Goes Wild'' started in 1995 on Saturdays on RTÉ Radio 1. It mainly focused on wildlife and nature. ''Jackie and Daw'' was broadcast on ''Mooney Goes Wild''. ''Mooney Goes Wild on One'' won the prestigious

Prix d'Europe The Prix d'Europe is a Canadian study grant that is funded by the Ministère des Affaires culturelles du Québec of the Government of Quebec. Established in 1911, the award has been distributed annually to a single individual through competition w ...

in Berlin in 2000, with the award given for a programme that observed the lives of two nesting jackdaws. On 2 October 2006, the programme moved to a weekday slot. In early 2009, RTÉ weather presenter

Nuala Carey Nuala Carey is an Irish full-time weather presenter on Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ). Carey was educated at Muckross Park College, Dublin and graduated from University College Dublin (UCD) with a Bachelor of Arts in English and Sociology. ...

launched a nationwide search to find herself a man on ''Mooney''. Reports of her escapades at several dating events accompanied by her friend Ciara were broadcast on the radio programme. In 2011, it featured a world record attempt at having the most people dressed up as a leprechaun in the one place. People came from

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...

and

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, a ...

to participate in the "Largest Gathering of People Dressed as Leprechauns". ''Mooney'' combined with the

RTÉ Concert Orchestra The RTÉ Concert Orchestra is one of the two full-time professional radio orchestras in Ireland that are part of RTÉ, the national broadcasting station. Since its formation as the Radio Éireann Light Orchestra in 1948, the RTÉ Concert Orchestr ...

and the RTÉ radio audience to create ''Mooney Tunes'' from the

Grand Canal Theatre Grand may refer to: People with the name * Grand (surname) * Grand L. Bush (born 1955), American actor * Grand Mixer DXT, American turntablist * Grand Puba (born 1966), American rapper Places * Grand, Oklahoma * Grand, Vosges, village and commun ...

for RTÉ over Christmas 2011, an obvious pun on the similarity between the presenter's name and the word "Looney" as used in ''

Looney Tunes ''Looney Tunes'' is an American animated comedy short film series produced by Warner Bros. starting from 1930 to 1969, concurrently with its partner series '' Merrie Melodies'', during the golden age of American animation. ...

'', the

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

animated cartoon series.

Jedward John and Edward Grimes (born 16 October 1991), collectively known as Jedward (a portmanteau of their first names), are an Irish singing and television presenting duo. They are identical twins who first appeared as John & Edward in the sixth ...

put in an appearance at the show. Listeners were left stunned on Friday 13 April 2012 when a caller to ''Mooney'' was attacked by a swarm of bees live on the national airwaves. The caller screamed down the telephone before going silent amid the sound of the buzzing swarm. ''Mooney'' bee expert Philip McCabe had been giving advice to the listener at the time of the incident. In July 2012, Mooney criticised listeners who complained about the show discussing issues to do with the LGBT community.

Format

With the change to ''Mooney'' the programme's focus changed more to general chat and interviews. It also had live music and music discussion. In 2009, ''Mooney'' was the first place to preview six contestants going up to represent

Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest Ireland has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 55 times since making its debut at the contest in Naples, missing only two contests since then ( and ). The contest final is broadcast in Ireland on RTÉ One. Ireland has a record total of ...

. A memorable feature of the show was "Mooney's Money", whereby Mooney would dispense cash to listeners via a competition. Dermot O'Neill was a frequent guest on the programme. As well as talking about gardening he was once offered to learn opera. He took up the challenge and performed at a

New Year's Day New Year's Day is a festival observed in most of the world on 1 January, the first day of the year in the modern Gregorian calendar. 1 January is also New Year's Day on the Julian calendar, but this is not the same day as the Gregorian one. Wh ...

concert on ''Mooney''. Authors, such as Joan Geraghty, spoke about their books on the show. ''Mooney'' also searched for a

Little Orphan Annie ''Little Orphan Annie'' is a daily American comic strip created by Harold Gray and syndicated by the Tribune Media Services. The strip took its name from the 1885 poem " Little Orphant Annie" by James Whitcomb Riley, and it made its debut on ...

to star in an Irish tour of the musical '' Annie''. The finalists were reduced to three. The competition was won by Nastasia Vashko from

Limerick Limerick ( ; ga, Luimneach ) is a western city in Ireland situated within County Limerick. It is in the province of Munster and is located in the Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region. With a population of 94,192 at the 2016 ...

. Fridays were dedicated to the original format of the ''Mooney Goes Wild'' show, with guests, and panelists such as Éanna ni Lamhna, talking about nature and wildlife in Ireland. Annually ''Nestwatch'' had cameras in birds' nests. It was similar to the setup of the BBC's ''

Springwatch ''Springwatch'', ''Autumnwatch'' and ''Winterwatch'', sometimes known collectively as ''The Watches'', are annual BBC television series which chart the fortunes of British wildlife during the changing of the seasons in the United Kingdom. The p ...

''. One nest box was installed in the gardens of President Mary McAleese at

Áras an Uachtaráin (; "Residence of the President"), formerly the Viceregal Lodge, is the official residence and principal workplace of the President of Ireland. It is located off Chesterfield Avenue in the Phoenix Park in Dublin. The building design was credite ...

in 2009 at her own invitation. The male blue tit once went missing and the female blue tit had only laid six eggs, half of what was initially expected. Show reporter Terry Flanagan visited national school students to observe their freshly hatched chicks. The weekday programme originally lasted two hours, but was shortened when ''

Drivetime DriveTime Automotive Group Inc. is an American used car retailer and finance company. It is based in Tempe, Arizona, and sells and finances cars to customers around the nation. The company was formerly known as Ugly Duckling and was renamed ...

'' was extended. There are news and sport bulletin interruptions during the programme.

References

External links

''Mooney''
at

br>(archive link)

at

br>(archive link)
{{RTER1 1995 radio programme debuts 2015 radio programme endings Irish talk radio shows RTÉ Radio 1 programmes