The "Minister for Hardship" was performed by Eamon Morrissey, known for his work bringing the characters of Flann O'Brien to life on stage. The Minister was intended as a thinly disguised caricature of the unpopular Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave. Morrissey gave the Minister a life of his own, creating a character who could have walked off the pages of any Flann O'Brien novel, and is as memorable as any of the stock characters of Cruishkeen Lawn. The Minister may well have contributed to Cosgrave's downfall, with the real Taoiseach's image increasingly confused in the public mind with Morrissey's character. In any case, he remains the best remembered of the stock characters of Hall's Pictorial Weekly.
Brilliant! And it might have been scripted yesterday. NOTHING has changed in Irish politics. No wonder RTE got cold feet over this sort of programme, same as with 'Scrap Saturday.'
I think he's impersonating Liam Cosgrave. I remember this clip from the 70's & never thought it would come back to haunt us! Those jerks in Fianna Fail (especially Bertie)have brought this country to its knees (I'm non party). It will take a miracle and a courageous person to lead us out of this catastrophe
Although your comment was made a whole nine years ago, I must say (high horse). Was this character not called Richie Ruin? A parody on Richie Ryan FG, who would have been Minister for Finance in 1977. You're really contradicting your, 'non party' thing. There's a thing. As things stand nowadays, nine years later. What do you think of the state of the Country now? Have we been led out of the shite?
