THERE ARE PLENTY of gems on RTÉ’s Archives, including some old clips from Arthur Murphy’s TV show ‘Mailbag’.

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Every Saturday evening, Murphy would spend a half-hour reading out letters related to RTÉ and broadcasting in general.

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Over the Easter holidays in 1987, Arthur Murphy received some complaints from angry children.

12-year-old Emily Hurley from Glengarrif, Co. Cork, did not appreciate RTÉ’s selection of advertisements over the Lenten period. You can watch them read out her letter here.

She wrote:

I am twelve years old and I’m doing my best to stay off sweets for lent. But RTÉ are no help to me. Every night since Lent, RTÉ have shown a lot of advertisements for sweets. Not alone the old ads, but now they are showing new ones too. They could at least try to cut down on these ads during lent.

Poor Emily. We know the feeling. And so did Michael Twomey from Kilgarvan, Co. Kerry. He also complained about the amount of ads for sweets:

Dear Arthur, I’m writing to you about RTÉ. They shouldn’t show so many ads for sweets and bars. It’s just not fair to people like me, who are trying to stay off of sweets and bars for Lent. Please Arthur! Stop this awful temptation.

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Arthur’s solution for these kids?

Michael and Emily, I’ve given your problem a great deal of thought and I think I’ve come up with the perfect solution. Why not give up watching television for Lent? Think of it! No more temptation from all of those ads for sweets!

It’s safe to say that Michael and Emily were cursing him after that.

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