Viewers watching the Late Late Show on Friday night shared a very mixed reaction to the panel of young successful Irish people.

Blogger Rosie Connolly, boxer Michael Conlan, actor Barry Keoghan and journalist Ellen Coyne all appeared on the show to talk about life in Ireland for people in their 20s.

Speaking about opportunities for young people in Ireland at the moment, Rosie said: ‘I think our generation has been given a lot of opportunity, or there is a lot of opportunity out there for us.’

‘I think you can kind of create a career out of anything if you want to, whereas a lot of careers didn’t exists many years ago.’

Pic: RTE

Michael added: ‘For me it’s a confidence thing. How we speak in this generation is very different to past generations.’

‘I’m saying I wanna be a three world champion, but if it was my father telling me: “You can’t be saying these things, you can’t speak out like that, it sounds cocky or it sounds arrogant”.’

Former Olympian Michael and actor Barry Keoghan also spoke out about spending time away from home, with Barry admitting he has ‘rebel music blasting’ when he feels homesick.

Pic: RTE

He said: ‘Never listened to it before I went away, but I don’t know, you become more attached to your country when you’re away and you appreciate it more.’

Rosie and Ellen also both spoke about what the word feminism means to them.

Rosie said: ‘Sometimes the word feminism can be tarnished with a view that maybe it’s all man bashing and burning your bras and that kind of thing.’

‘I feel like the word has a lot of stereotypes around it so it’s not a word I kind of shout from the rooftops about but I do think that it’s a really important issue and obviously I’m very supportive of women.’

Ryan then asked Ellen if the word feminism was ‘comfortable’ for her in 2019.

She said: ‘It is for me, but I completely understand why it isn’t for other people, I think in particular maybe for men in their early twenties.’

‘Ireland is actually so interesting at the moment because feminism is actually populism in politics now for the first time probably ever, and to be anti-feminist is almost like an anti-establishment position.

‘The core idea is obviously one that I think most reasonable people will agree with – that women deserve equal status to men.’

Pic: RTE

‘But I appreciate that sometimes it has something projected onto it that maybe it actually wants to take something away from men to actually give it to women.’

‘Obviously it’s quite scary if you’re someone who feels maybe you’ve benefited from the status quo so far and that for things to be tipped the other way, men have to be the ones who are oppressed.’

‘I think one of the things that gets lost in feminism is the fact that one of its key things is that it also makes life better for men, so to take away that pressure of toxic masculinity, that can lead to such mental health problems in men, that are completely disproportionate to the rates in women.’

While most people appreciated each of the contributors of the panel’s point of views, others on social media were less than kind about their appearance on the Late Late.

Some people felt that UCC Student Union president Alan Hayes should have also been given a seat on the panel, after he was interviewed briefly from the audience about the work he and his family do for suicide awareness.

The panel discussion certainly brought out a lot of debate on social media after it was aired…

What do you think?