{"id":623841,"date":"2026-09-13T23:20:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T23:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/623841\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T23:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T23:20:11","slug":"the-traitors-ireland-host-siobhan-mcsweeney-comes-across-as-a-bit-fed-up-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/623841\/","title":{"rendered":"The Traitors Ireland: Host Siobh\u00e1n McSweeney comes across as a bit fed up \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Traitors Ireland (RT\u00c9<\/a> One, Sunday, 9.30pm) has come down with a severe case of difficult second season syndrome and two weeks in there is little indication that it has captured the public\u2019s imagination. Part of the issue is the lack of a breakout character such as series one\u2019s Paudie Moloney<\/a> or the bromantic tag team of Nick and Ben. <\/p>\n

The other problem is that nobody involved this time around looks like they\u2019re having fun \u2013 certainly not host Siobh\u00e1n McSweeney<\/a>, who mustered an enjoyable villain shtick last year but now comes across as merely a bit fed up and ready to move on to something new.<\/p>\n

The contestants seem disgruntled also. There are tears at the round table at the end of Sunday\u2019s instalment as Dave is condemned as a Traitor even though he is very obviously a Faithful. His expulsion follows an uncomfortable flashpoint as an upset Janet is accused of traitorous carry-on by Pete because she didn\u2019t burst into tears upon hearing that Sam had been murdered. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m saying I\u2019m having a human moment,\u201d she says, adding that Pete is \u201cgoing to look like a horrible person\u201d if he has his way and she is voted off as a Traitor.<\/p>\n

But in the end the momentum is against Dave who is condemned because of verbal slips which make it seem he\u2019s up to something. He makes mistakes right to the end, such as when he refers to the \u201cother Traitors\u201d but, even allowing for that, he is so affable and incredulous that you can tell he\u2019s a Faithful. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s not nice seeing him go and there\u2019s no tension as the Faithful then all dissolve into tears and self-recrimination. Meanwhile, the actual Traitors, Carla and P\u00e1raic, lack the maniacal quality you need for a good back-stabber. They\u2019re obviously not having any fun plotting in the shadows \u2013 and if even the Traitors are a bit over the whole thing, how are the rest of us supposed to feel? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Traitors Ireland (RT\u00c9 One, Sunday, 9.30pm) has come down with a severe case of difficult second season…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":623842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43,62059,6085,6762],"class_list":["post-623841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-paudie-moloney","tag-rte","tag-siobhan-mcsweeney"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=623841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/623842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=623841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=623841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=623841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}