Paddy Duffy

Paddy Duffy, 28, is a writer and broadcaster. Growing up as a young boy in rural north west Ireland on a diet of raw quiz shows and comedy not quite directed at someone his age, he decided early that a career in media was uniquely suited to his dual skills of talking incessantly and retaining trivia of speculative use.

Apart from the blog you’re currently reading Paddy is also the author of Did That Actually Happen?, a humour book profiling the most ludicrous but true stories of Irish politics over the years. He was not short of material.

Previously he wrote a column for the Irish diaspora website IrishCentral, was a staff writer and editor for Ireland’s national youth website SpunOut.ie, for the European Youth Press as a reporter and columnist on EU affairs from various cities across the continent, and for a variety of other websites and newspapers, making him either very versatile or chronically indecisive.

As a commentator on TV and radio he’s a regular recurring, Buzzcocks-style radio columnist on RTE Radio One's Drivetime and also appeared on the BBC and Al Jazeera, and on one glorious occasion was interviewed for Hungarian TV in the back of a Renault Scenic in Brussels.

Apart from writing about and watching TV Paddy has also helped make actual shows, including University Challenge, Top Gear, Secret Fortune Britain and Ireland’s Next Top Model and the BBC’s 2010 election coverage, and in 2011 he was actually let on TV as resident social media pundit for the BBC's Northern Ireland Assembly coverage. He also got to be team captain on a live edition of Would I Lie To You? hosted by Charlie Brooker at the Edinburgh TV Festival, and is inordinately proud of the fact he's got a song on popular BBC 6 Music feature The Chain. Three times!