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‘Injury Time’ with Damion Ryan. In this programme Damien is talking with sports commentator George Hamilton. Broadcast Friday the 13th Of September 2024 https://www.connemarafm.com/audio-page/
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‘Injury Time’ with Damion Ryan. In this programme Damien is talking with sports commentator George Hamilton. Broadcast Friday the 13th Of September 2024 https://www.connemarafm.com/audio-page/
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‘Injury Time’ with Damion Ryan. In this programme Damien is talking with sports commentator George Hamilton. Broadcast Friday the 13th Of September 2024 https://www.connemarafm.com/audio-page/
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On September 21st, Ireland's top traditional artists are coming to Connemara for an unforgettable night of music, song and dance. The Irish Traditional Music Archive presents The Drawing from the Well concert tour, featuring Irla O'Leonard of the Glowmen, Derek Hinckley, Ethan Yves-Lean and Stephanie Kane, our special guests Barry Bergen and Mick Keneally. Saturday, 21st of September at Our Clan's Cush Farraga in Inverne, Aircode H91 W925, Shanskull, Salerno. Tickets start at 15 Euros, book today at itma.ie. Artisan House Publishing invites you to the launch of a new book called Community, A Time, Place and People, a memoir by Michael O'Neill. The launch is by Dr. Laura Tamura-Hugh from QL2QL3 Ireland and the launch takes place on Sunday the 15th of September in the Chalkhill Culley at 5 o'clock PM. A second launch will also be taking place at the 47th Clifton Community Arts Festival with Dr. Brendan Flynn on Saturday the 28th of September in the Station House Hotel Clifton at the Omie Street at 12 o'clock noon. All are welcome. It's possible to have more fun with drugs if you like them, but they put a lot of pressure on you. It's possible to have a lot of drugs that you love, something that will keep you going for a long time. Put the other drugs away when you want to go for a drink. You can go for a drink and... If you want to know more about drugs, you can go to Passionary and other people on my website. If you have any questions about drugs, or if you'd like to speak to someone, take the RSA.ie course. The second Prince Festival takes place from the 13th to the 15th of September. There's great new accents from all series. They'll be set from Breaking Trad, Moolaxan, Resin, Amazing Apple, Ross Strong, Nick Cummins, Galway Jam Circle, Family Entertainment on Saturday with Jay Ryan from RTE, a Gold Shootout at the New Hallcourt, and Drawings with Caroline Cunningham on Saturday morning. All of Cagan Prince Festival outfits, orange brands, and further details of events, times and venues. Oh, in my life, oh no. Looking for a unique birthday party celebration for your child? Join Killary Adventure Company at our new Aerial Park. Our birthday party packages will have your little monkeys zipping through the treetops for a birthday they'll never forget. Perfect for kids, teens, and adults alike. Call Killary Adventure today at 095 434 11 or visit our website to learn more. Adventure begins at Killary. Bounce Back Recycling can collect old mattresses and furniture direct from your address. Recycled materials are recovered and diverted from landfill for a more environmentally friendly option. So go green and get in touch today. Collections across Connemara every Friday. Bookings are subject to availability. To get a quote or make a booking call 091 76 08 77, see bouncebackrecycling.ie or message Bounce Back Recycling on Facebook. Joyce's Hardware Reset, located behind Joyce's Grocery, specializing in animal feed, fuel supplies, and all your hardware needs. Competitive prices on bulk feed. Joyce's will deliver to all areas of Connemara. Contact Brian on 095 347 50 or 087 268 69 40. Trifton Supply Centre, Galway Road, Trifton. Provide building supplies, plumbing and heating supplies, fuel merchants, DIY and general hardware. Contact the Trifton Supply Centre on 095 214 76. When I got up this morning, the house was filled to the brim. When I got up this morning, the house was really freezing. I checked the oil tank. It was empty. That must be the reason. So I called up Sweeney Oil, a truly local company, and took my order for some oil and delivered it straight to me. Sweeney Oil are at your service. Friendly, helpful, and they care. There are many easy ways to pay. Now that's what I call fair. They deliver oil to homes all over Galway and surrounds. And Sweeney Oil's prices are the very best around. For the best value home heating oil in Galway, call Sweeney Oil today on 1-800-555-999 or visit Sweeney Oil.com. Sweeney Oil, the warmer way to heat your home. This program is kindly sponsored by Cymor Abbey and Gardens. 095 52 001. Good evening, guys, and welcome to Inview Time here on Claremont Community Radio. This is myself, Jamie Ryan, for the next hour. And hopefully it's been a lucky Friday the 13th for a lot of you out there. It's been pretty good today, bar the weather. Unfortunately, the afternoon really was a little nasty one, but we'll keep the show on the road. There is plenty of action in the local scene, which is great to see it. And West Coast United are back in the tick of action once again with their underage squads, along with the Ladies Development Academy starting up as well. And also the seniors are out as well. So this is the weekend fixture for West Coast United. The senior team are at home to Carbceltic in Lenefrac tomorrow at 2pm. The Under-14 Canuck Cup, it is Ballast Low for West Coast United. Under-14 squad took to Ballast Low in the Canuck Cup, and that is on Saturday as well. And then Sunday, the Canuck Under-16 Cup. Emirates United off Mayo have declared it off at 2pm. It would be great to get a bit of support for the Under-16 squad there. And hopefully there will be a big crowd in Lenefrac there for the seniors on Saturday. So Saturday and Sunday, a couple of home games, and then the Under-14s are away to Ballast Low. And then the Girls Soccer Development Academy is kicking off in Lenefrac at 10pm on Sunday, along with the academy. So the academy is back on Sunday, 10 o'clock for players born in 2014. 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017. So hopefully the weather will be straight and dry for the weekend. And a big shout out to Clifton tomorrow in the G. They play Arran Islands in Rathmouk at 3.15pm show-in. I think they are still guaranteed a quarter-final in the Intermediate Championship. So we wish them all the best of luck. We want to wish all the teams the best of luck in the coming weeks. So I have a special show this evening, guys. Just one interview, but this guy needs no intro, I have to say. He's been the voice of Irish sports for a number of years. Be it soccer, be it Olympics, he's been there, he's seen it all, he's witnessed it all. And this guy needs definitely no intro, because he just announced that he's left RTE this week. And we caught up with George Hambleton a couple of weeks ago, just before the two international games. And we wanted to have a quick chat with him about his career to date, and the many moments where he brought joy to us on RTE, along with the biggest, probably the moment we all remember, is the nation holds its breath with the Ireland versus Romania penalty shootout, David Leary, the winning penalty. But we'll straight into it, and a little interview and stories here from the great George Hambleton. For over 40 years, this gentleman was the voice that brought the beautiful game into our homes with a knack of turning every match into an epic story. You know, George has captured the highs and lows of Irish sports for generations of fans, ever since he first took up the microphone in the mid-70s. The journey, I'm sure it has seen so many different countries, and so many big, big moments in Irish sport. This gentleman needs no introduction because he's been around, he's seen it all, he's a character, he brings, even just speaking before we got on air, he's just been a breath of fresh air, full of stories, which is great to see it. It's no better way to launch this podcast because it's been on our minds for a while to set this podcast up, and to name it, the nation holds its breath after that famous penalty shootout against Romania for Jack Charity over there as well. So no better man to have on the line to launch this podcast is George Hambleton. Good evening, how are we keeping, George? I'm doing great, thank you. And let me say, Damien, I'm delighted that you've asked me to be on your inaugural podcast, and that you've given it the title that you have, because that's very flattering indeed. Thank you very much. Yeah, I'm a big Ireland fan for many years, and before we touch on it, I'm sure there's many stories that will be told in the next maybe half an hour, 40 minutes. But just to kind of, for our listeners out there, you know, your background, your early days, so, like obviously you're a big sports fan, would soccer be your main sport, or would you have any other random interest in sports? Oh, well, I'm interested right across the board, but if you're saying to me, what is my favourite sport, it would be soccer, association football. Because when I was a kid, my dad, who had been a player in the Irish League at Centre Forward, used to take me along to his old club, Cliftonville, to see them play. In those days, in the 1950s, they were an amateur team, and they were forever near the bottom end of the table, and there was no promotion or relegation in those days. So 12-team Irish League, and Cliftonville was generally one of the bottom two teams, which meant they had to apply for re-election every year to remain in the league. Thankfully, they did remain in the league. But it meant that when I went along to their matches with my dad, there weren't too many people there, because Cliftonville didn't have a big fan base in those days, because they weren't a winning team. It was a lovely way to get introduced to a semi-professional team. The other teams were semi-professional, Cliftonville were amateur. Not seeing too many people there, you could break down to the railings. My favourite spot was just behind the goal, at what they call the unreserved end, an uncovered terrace, which went up, oh, not very high, there was a wall at the back, and if you looked over the wall, you looked down into a lovely pristine bowling green, because that's where Cliftonville Bowling Club was. On a summer's afternoon, if it wasn't too cold and wet, it was pleasant enough at half-time to go up and watch the men and the women bowling, playing long bowls over the wall, and then come back and stand behind the net. You were really close, because there wasn't a very big cinder track around the pitch. When the ball would go in the net, as it generally did when Cliftonville were defending, you really felt it was coming your way, and you could hear the rustle as the leather hit the rigging, so to speak. Jim Parkhill was the goalkeeper, and he almost became a friend of mine. I spent so much time on that terrace, very close to him. But that's where it all started, and that's where my love of football grew. When I was a kid at home, I was an only child. Like so many other commentators, like Gerard Canning, for instance, he's an only child. Marty Morrissey is an only child. The late Jim Sherwin, the late Fred Cogley, they were only children too. I think when you have a childhood where you have to make your own entertainment because there are no siblings around to bounce off, you then have the opportunity to maybe develop as what becomes a commentator. I, anyway, used to have a game called New Footy, which was little toy footballers, and I used to play it on the dining room table, playing against myself, so to speak, and commentating as I went because I was fascinated with comedy. So that's where it all began. So long-winded way of saying, association football, soccer is my favourite. Loved lots of sports beyond that. I've played other sports as well, rugby and cricket in particular, and golf still. Not very well, but I like all sports. I mean, I started at the back of the paper first thing. You know, that's the way it is. You've just said you've been playing the little game and commentating on the game as well. Did anyone in particular kind of stand out to, as a hero of yours when growing up, when you'd watch a game and you'd think, okay, this is who you want to be, you know? Oh, yeah. Well, that man was Kenneth Wolfson, home of the BBC. We only had BBC in our house for long enough, and then ITV, Ulster Television came along, but it was two-channel land and there wasn't very much football at all. The FA Cup final was the only match that was regularly broadcast live. But the commentator on it, on the BBC, was Kenneth Wolfson. Well, when Match of the Day started in the early 60s, he presented it from the touchline and then did the commentary. And he's the famous commentator at the 1966 World Cup final when England were playing West Germany and they were in extra time and England were 3-2 up. And some fans excitedly jumped the fence and ran onto the playing surface. And he came out with the famous line, some people are on the pitch, they think it's all over. And as he's doing so, Geoff Hurst poured down the goal and cracked the shot that hit the net and made it 4-2 to England. And Wolfson's famous line was, they think it's all over, it is now. And that was the perfect piece of commentary. And if anybody of my vintage wanted to be a commentator, there was how to be a commentator. Match the words to the pictures, which Wolfson Home did in exemplary fashion on that occasion in the World Cup final in 1966. That was spectacular there. Fair play to England, I think they deserve that as well. In your academic teens and your interest in the commentary, how did you go about, did you go to college? Did you get into it by chance? How did you go about it? Well, I'm often asked that question by aspiring commentators who might want to follow the career path. There isn't really a career path into commentary. And my story probably bears that out. I had an aunt who had a rather senior position in the BBC in Belfast, in that when the head of the finance department was on leave, she signed the cheques. So that was how up the food chain she was, my Aunt Isabel. And there was a programme on the radio at the time, very little sports coverage. But this programme, Sports Town at half past six on a Saturday, featured match reports from football matches, rugby matches, anything that was taking place on a Saturday afternoon. And the people who did the reports, they were all professional people of one sort or another, like lawyers, solicitors or whatever, school teachers, primary school teachers in the main seem to do a lot of this. Names like Harry Thompson, John Bennett come to mind. But in any case, the civil servants, people who had day jobs, did these reports for four or five pounds on a Saturday afternoon. And I had this itch that I needed to scratch because of my childhood commentaries around the dining room table, that I wanted to see could I make it as a broadcaster. I had ambitions beyond doing it on a Saturday and earning a little bit of pocket money. So I said to my aunt, how do you get into doing that programme? I was a final year student of languages, German and French, at Queen's University at the time. And she said, well, there are periodic auditions. And then she was a rather stern lady, lovely lady, but she was stern enough. And she said to me, I'll get you, put your name down for auditions, but there's nothing more I can do for you after that, it'll be up to you. So I said, well, fair enough. So I duly did the audition, which went okay. The one thing that I wasn't too happy about was they said they had enough football reporters that have to audition on something else. So I did rugby because I played rugby. And I went along to a rugby match and I took notes. And then I went home from Saturday to Wednesday to do the report. And you can imagine how many times I wrote and rewrote that report. And it was to be a minute and 30 seconds long. And it was within an inch of it's life of being a minute and 30 seconds. It was absolutely perfect, I thought. Anyway, I brought it in, I went through it, and I did it like I was doing it live on the air. They recorded it and then they brought me out into the control room to listen to it. And the lady who was in charge, who was the assistant to the head of sport at the time, and would eventually become the first female head of sport of the BBC, Joy Williams, she listens. She said, that wasn't bad, but in the middle of it, she said the word, however. She said, would you say however if you were talking to me? I said, maybe not. She said, what was the context? And I said, well, the context was that one team was on the attack, but then the other team broke away and scored. She said, you didn't say however they broke away and scored. You said, fucks, didn't you? I said, yes. Well, then go in there and do it again. Change however to fucks. And I did it again. And then I came back out again and listened back. And it made absolute sense because broadcasting is about conveying the message through telling the story. And you don't use words that would look well on a page. You don't dress it up to try and make it look literally because you're speaking it. You're telling it a story. So you tell it in a conversational style. And however doesn't have a place in a conversation, but buts does. So that's how I got in. Anyway, I've done the audition. And they say that phrase that you don't want to hear. Don't ring us. We ring you. So I thought, well, at least I've given it a go. And that was that. And I'll go off and I'll be a civil servant or a school teacher. Maybe I'll go into a post-grad law degree or something. I'll find something to do and I'll get a career somehow. Anyway, the phone call came. And it was to go and do a match report the following Saturday. And that's where it started. I was doing rugby match reports, minute and 30 seconds of a Saturday evening. And by the end of that rugby season, I was inside the door of the BBC and there were freelance opportunities in the summer when regular reporters went off. So another guy called Mike McKim, whom I knew from school and myself, we picked up freelance shifts through that summer. And when the academic year began again, there seemed to be enough freelance work possibility to stick around. So I stuck around for another academic year, so to speak, in the course of which there was the opportunity to apply for a job as a continuity announcer. And at the second attempt, I got that contract for a year. And before the year was up, they'd offered me a presenting gig because they were expanding the station to inaugurate Radio Ulster. And I was the first presenter of the breakfast show, Good Morning Ulster. So I had now a career in current affairs with sport on Saturday. But sport was expanding as well as the radio station. So after two and a half years, I gave up Good Morning Ulster and went freelance into sport. And that led me to RTE, who invited me to the World Cup in Argentina in 1978. And when I came back from that, RTE offered me a full-time job in sport. The rest is history. When you mention Argentina, it's probably when it leads to my next question. It's a journey I'd love to do myself. I do a bit of commentary with the Gaelic football here in Connemara. But it must be tough being on the road. Obviously, there is joys of it with the travelling, with the team, the players and all that, management, fans. But it must be tough being on the road for the majority of the age, especially these tournaments. If you go to Argentina, you're there for three to four weeks, maybe longer. But it must be tough on that side of things. Oh, indeed. Indeed it is. Bear in mind, I was a much younger man when I went to Argentina. The excitement of being on the inside at a World Cup for the very first time, a tournament that I had followed closely from 1958, when it was told on the back pages of the Belfast Telegraph by the Diana Sports Journalist in Belfast, Malcolm Brodie, to 1962, the grainy black and white pictures that we saw from Chile. And then, of course, 1966. And that really made the World Cup a four-year fixture in my life. So to actually be at it 12 years after that famous Kenneth Wilson home moment was something very, very special indeed. So Argentina was no hardship. Spain was great fun. The funny one was Mexico, which was a six-week trip in 1986. And my younger daughter at the time was just 18, 19 months old. And it was rather strange because when I landed back at Dublin Airport after that trip, she made strange, as the saying goes, and her elder sister had to say to her, that's Dad, that's your Daddy. That's the Daddy you've been calling for all this time that he's been away. But my little daughter didn't recognize me anymore because I'd been away for six weeks. So, yeah, there's the hardship. And, of course, it is obviously wearing that you're away for such a long period of time. But equally, you're caught up in the excitement of the whole thing and certainly in the glory days. You know, like in Jack Charlton's era when we traveled with the team, when we stayed in the same hotel as the team, and we were almost part of the team. That was a terrific experience and one that will never be replicated again because things have changed so much. The more money that has come into sport, the less contact, the less freedom there is for the players and the participants, the athletes, to interact with the journalists and the broadcasters who are covering the events. And it's a very different job now to the job that it was when I was alongside the Jack Charlton team in that wonderful decade that just ended when they were eliminated in the playoff at Anfield in 1995. You can see how it's gone. I've been lucky enough to have traveled to a few places. I think I've only done it once and I've been very unlucky. As you said, years ago, the players and fans mixed a bit more regularly before or after the games. But I went to a hotel there in Poland for the friendly and I think I must have waited around. Obviously, I was having a few pints there myself as well. I think I waited in the team hotel for maybe three or four hours and that one player came down and I was like, I must be unlucky here now. But it's a different ballgame now. Years ago, they were mixing it with fans a bit more regularly. Now, it's a bit more different. It's very different nowadays. It is and as I say, it's all to do with the fact that the game has become such a money pot. When you think of players and their contracts now, part of it's all about image rights. They don't want to be giving their stories away for nothing. Also, the fact that the clubs and the national associations, they want to keep a handle on as much as they can on the publicity and the press side of it. So, everything is by appointment now. You're lucky if you get to talk to a player outside of a press conference or a mixed zone after a game. The days of hanging around hotel lobbies and sitting down for a cup of coffee with Niall Quinn are no more. It doesn't work like that anymore sadly and I think the world is poorer for it because I made great friends over the years with lots of professional sportsmen and I see them still and I'm involved in events with them still and we enjoy each other's company still because we knew each other as people. We played tennis together, we had pints together. It doesn't happen like that anymore and more it's a pity in my view. That's right, it's a pity it's gone that way. You've touched on a few big tournaments and a few big moments during Ireland's Jack Charlton's era decade there. We also have to mention Stuttgart, USA, Italian 90. There's memories that will live long with a lot of fans. All the players, they've never forgotten us and it was such a huge moment. Looking back at that time, Italian 90, Italy, a great country but there was a nice bit of travelling. It must have been an amazing experience there to travel for them a few weeks, the four or five weeks there with the team. I'm sure Jack was very strict in ways but I'm sure the experience and the stories that you have will definitely live long. Oh, absolutely. Making the point, it was almost like we were part of the team. We were very welcome as part of the family. Right off the top of my head, having a drink with Jack Charlton in the bar in Vienna after a qualifier, having a drink with Jack Charlton in Stuttgart. We were very lucky to get near him because the hotel was full of fans after that victory over England when they put the ball in the English net. It was open house, it wasn't a very big hotel in the woods above Stuttgart and Jack was happy enough that everybody came in and it was wall-to-wall fans and they were singing and carousing and just having a great time and Jack was loving it all. Jack, as an aside, international management was perfect for Jack because it wasn't the day-to-day grind seven days a week of running a football club and trying to get a result week after week after week. He would get his players together once a month as it were, he would have a few days in camp with them, he would enjoy that and then he'd be able to go back home to his fishing and the relaxed style of life that he had. I think he was in his element as an international team manager as opposed to a club team manager. Jack was the most sociable of people and he was the happiest when the fans were around and the press were around and he was, apart from the famous incident in Italy, he reckoned that that was the way to bond everybody together and get the best results. He had his methods on the pitch but I would not underestimate how big the efforts off the pitch were where he allowed the team to mix with the fans and the team got to understand in that way how much they meant to the fans and I'm sure there was an extra percentage when they went out on the pitch because they knew there were so many who were rooting for them and on their side. Would Jack allow them to have a pint or two after most games? Oh yes, there was no issue about that at all. Indeed, famously in the United States, I think it was in Orlando, Jennings installed a tap, I think it was in his bedroom but I know for sure in Rome when they got to the quarter-final there was a barrel of Guinness, a keg of Guinness and a tap and the late Jack Kelly who was one of the team, the FAI team who accompanied the international squad when they went to tournaments. Jack was a self-appointed barman and pulled a perfect pint and where was it? It was near the people's summer residence of Castle Dandolfo where we stayed but Jack was in charge of the pint and obviously not in the run-up to the game but after the game they were welcome to partake. Oh yes, Jack Charlton was by no means a stickler for formality like that he let them off the leash when it was appropriate to do so and they liked him all the more for it. 100% and he seems that way when he's there having a crack he'll enjoy but the opposite side of things when they lead up to a match he can be a very strict man and he's got the results obviously with the three draws and the penalty shoot-out win over Romania he's got the best of the players in a way because he's probably more of a likeable character everyone seems like that I wouldn't really in a way and he's probably more of a man-manager he knew how to deal with players in certain ways and I'm sure there's probably players out there in that era that probably needed a bit more management than others. Oh indeed and we'll knock it down that road but just a measure of a man not very long ago when Jack was not in the best of health Niall Quinn approached me to ask could I help him in arranging an evening for Jack at the K Club in County Kildare where he was going to try his best to get as many of Jack's players who were still around to come to the K Club as a kind of a salute to Jack a dinner, an evening of entertainment not one player that Niall approached turned down the invitation they came from all the squads across the year one interesting story about that Terry Phelan the left back was one that Niall was struggling to get in touch with and quite by chance I was listening to BBC Radio 4 which was reporting on a flood disaster in India and they interviewed a football coach who happened to be in the area in India and it was Terry Phelan who was working in India and I got on the phone straight away to Niall and said I just heard Terry Phelan on the radio, he's in India if you ring the PM program on the BBC they'll have a number for him, Niall did and Terry Phelan turned up, came from India to be in the K Club at Jack Charlton's night and that tells you in a nutshell I think 100% he was such a character and he brought Ireland he brought the Irish football on the map in a way and the fans got behind him in every way possible and you could see the numbers he might not play the prettiest of football but he got results and you have to say he was a likeable character and the fans got behind him and the results got him where he was and that night in Anfield probably stands out in a way like what an emotional night it was against the Dutch Without question I mean it was the first of the playoffs and they were so close and it was such a shame that they didn't get to that European Championship because it was in England and can you imagine the volume of crowds that would have followed Ireland not only the Irish crossing the water but the Irish who lived in England who could have had a chance to support the team close up it would have been terrific but sadly it wasn't to be because there was a young man on the rise, Patrick Kluivert who stole the show in Anfield and that brought the curtain down on Jack Charlton's 10 years but it's worth making the point I think that Charlton came in, his first campaign was so he came in at the end of a nearly campaign which was the 1986 World Cup and sadly brought the curtain down on Owen Harn's 10 years but in came Jack and went through that qualifying campaign which ended with Bulgaria being defeated by Scotland which sent Ireland to Euro 88 and Jack was there until December 1995 now that's the best part of 10 years I don't think we'll see an Irish international manager in the post for 10 years ever again because that's how special Jack was and he took on a team that had never qualified and he got them to 3 tournaments 2 World Cups and a Euros and I don't think there will be another Irish manager like him of course those who might say he was a lucky manager in the way they qualified for their first tournament because Bulgaria were odds on to beat Scotland they had to lock it home for a long time Scotland's away record was poor and yet Gary Mackay scored that goal and it all happened looking back from this distance Jack Charlton and that era we will never see their like again very true and people might say he was lucky but he had the players like Packy Banner, Tony Cascarino Ronnie Wheel and Ray Houghton they were all big players playing with big clubs nowadays you don't see that now there's very little playing there's 1 or 2 just playing there for Ipswich Town in the Premier League back then there was Kevin Moore Mick McCarthy probably the best squad you had ever for Ireland maybe the likes of Roy Keane Robbie Keane, Iain Harris when they had a brilliant tournament they were very unlucky against Spain I don't think Jack was lucky he had the players around him he's style of football he's way of not getting bet I think he deserves that credit absolutely he deserves total credit you touched on what has happened in the interim that has made it very difficult for whoever is in charge of the Irish team all those players you mentioned were all playing at the top level playing in the European Cup the Champions League now you have a Premier League in England which is effectively an international competition because of the best players from all over the world so Ireland which traditionally sent its best players to that market that market isn't there for them to the same extent anymore how many current players are playing in the Champions League it's just a completely different landscape in football to establish themselves at a level and consequently they are not available to be an international manager having the experience at that level and that just makes it so difficult for whoever is in charge of the international team to actually produce the results that Jack was able to do very true and looking towards the next coming weeks a couple of big games England and Greece at home new management there it's been a long way for a new manager but we finally got there in the end how do you think he'll get on going into the next few games obviously it's not the same as Jack Charlton with players playing at the high level the whole time but there's a young team there now of promising players coming up who are getting a bit of their chance so the likes of Ogbene signing with Ipswich just today actually and he was with Luton in the Prem last year Evan Ferguson with Brighton Adam Ede has gone to Celtic how do you see him getting on with the younger squad I think when you look at what he achieved as the joint manager of Iceland when they actually defeated England in Nice at the Euros in 2016 which was a result that nobody could see coming it has proven that he's been on the inside when big results have been achieved by smaller teams and I think we must be optimistic that he knows his way around the game at this level and he will be in a position to fashion a team and a style with the resources that he has that will have the opportunity to challenge shall we say at a higher level than has been the case recently I'm not saying that those who were in charge as managers didn't do their best but their best turned out not to be good enough and now we have instead Helmer Hungrensen who is getting his opportunity of a front line European nation let's be honest about that he's got a rank or two above his own national team the Icelandic team he has that squad as you say it's not an old squad at all by any matter of means you've mentioned the names at the back look at the goalkeepers he has all the way through to the front of the team with strikers who are playing at the top level in England and Scotland and you would hope that he is able to extract a style of play from his coaching background that will suit the players that he has and give them the opportunity to blossom it's a new era, it's pretty much a new team now that those younger players are establishing themselves and I think we have reasons to be cautiously optimistic it's going to be difficult of course it's going to be difficult because the cumulative effect of in the rankings means that there will always be two better teams at least in whatever group Ireland end up in and you can see the pictures that are down the line with England and Greece and Finland coming up in pretty quick order in this Nations League that it's not going to be easy but it will be some night when England come on Saturday the 7th of September when England come to the Aviva and who knows it might just be another... exactly, exactly and you know these moments they all stand out for me obviously Shane Lang's goal versus Germany in the Aviva was something else but looking back with all these big moments I've been lucky now to have been I was in Poland for the Euros, I was in France for the Euros I've travelled to places like Tbilisi, Baku, the Faroe Islands I've been so blessed to have travelled and followed Ireland for probably the last 20 years now with this data you've travelled outside of the big tournaments you've travelled a lot, what was one of your favourite cities that you've travelled to see for culture wise away from the game as I say well I'd say my favourite there are two that are right up there that are kind of jostling for position as favourites there's Paris and there's Munich I lived in Germany, I have a great growth of Munich because as a city in the south of Germany it almost has an Italian feel to it so it's not as Germanic, it's Bavarian there is the joke that it is Italy's northern most city culturally it's full of museums there's a wonderful concert hall and the classical music which is one of the things is well served there and I just love being in Munich and the ambience in Munich I was fortunate enough to be there in the summer of the Euros and I was fortunate enough to be in Paris at the Olympics it's just something about Paris when you arrive in Paris Paris has such a personality all of its own that you don't need a reason to go there because when you're there you're just in Paris and whatever way you turn you're going to love it whether it's artistically or whether it's just simply the culture of being in France it's quite simple, it's quite astonishing I tell you, Wes Hoogland's goal in Paris was highlighted well there he was one of the most underrated players to ever play for Ireland I think I have another favourite moment from there which was Robbie Brady header in Lille which beat the Italians from that tournament, that was sensational it was special, I was behind the goal when that went in and it was just, art is unbelievable I managed to be caught on the RT camera there crying on the TV myself it was just odd, a moment that brings tears a lot of football men we don't cry at all but we need emotions it was something special the whole tournament was I got a kind of a fun question for you George, or two fun kind of questions what's the one match you wish you could have commented on but didn't get the chance to if there was one oh gosh that's a hard one to say quite possibly it would be the 1982 World Cup Final in Spain I was working for BBC Radio at the time and I wasn't far enough up the pecking order, I was like the number 3 commentator and numbers 1 and 2 on the radio would have got the chance to commentate on that so I got as far as the semi-final and then missed out on that wonderful World Cup Final in Madrid in 1982 a match that not everybody is going to remember the match but it was a sensational match Italy beat West Germany by 3 goals to 1 Paolo Rossi was the star of the show and just as an aside, spinning out of that match I regret I didn't get the chance to commentate on three years later I was in Daly Val Park there was massive overcrowding the gates had to be opened to let the fans in fans then spilled up onto the running track around the pitch at Daly Mount and they were seated on the touchline very respectfully watching this friendly match which featured, let us not forget, the World Champions Italy from Spain three years earlier and Paolo Rossi was substituted and you might know Daly Mount Park, the benches the technical areas are off to one side, they're not bang on the halfway line and in those days the sun had to come off at the halfway line which meant that Rossi had to then walk from the halfway line down the touchline which was populated by these fans who were sitting on the grass all the way down to the dugout and they all stood up as he walked past and shook his hand I think it's an incredible memory to have of this guy who dominated the World Cup, the top scorer of the World Cup in 1982 and there he was walking down the touchline in Daly Mount Park three years later being shaken by the hand by every Irish lad who was along that touchline and so obviously you've seen countless footballers over the years, you've mentioned a few already who would be your five-a-side team out of everyone you've seen play? Five-a-side team? Two Northern Ireland players immediately, George Best the greatest player I've ever seen, yes Maradona yes Pelé, yes Ronaldo yes Messi, but George Best on pitches that weren't always pristine was a supreme athlete who never seemed to need to train he didn't leave the outreach light but yet he turned it on and boy could he turn it on and there's one match I remember of his when Northern Ireland beat Scotland at Windsor Park on Saturday afternoon in October of the 60s and Best basically beat Scotland on his own, so he has to be in he also comes from the same part of Belfast as I do so my thread with George Best goes back a long, long way to the point where we were both christened in the same church so he was a Best connection, I'd have to have him in my team for all those reasons and the other the other one is another down man like myself and a lovely man I'm proud to consider a friend Pat Jennings would be the goalkeeper so I mean now I'm struggling because I've only got three I think I'd have to have Liam Brady do you detect an Arsenal connection coming out? yeah, Pat Jennings would yeah, but Brady was the first player from let's say the English league who actually went abroad and made it he didn't just go to Italy and play for one team he played for three wasn't it in the end and he still has great connections there but on the pitch I mean he was a wizard now the only problem is that he's left footed I suppose so we could say we'll have best in who else would I have? Johan Cruyff this is probably giving my age away here because these are players who were big in the earlier to mid period of my commentary career that Cruyff I'm thinking of because he was in a match my first big match to commentate on live which was Netherlands versus Northern Ireland in Rotterdam in 1976 Best played in that match he was recalled from his international retirement in Inverton Commons by Danny Blanchard and he played and it was a 2-3 draw I'm digressing a little because I'm kicking for touch here for my fifth player I've got Jennings, I've got Cruyff, I've got Brady, I've got Best I suppose I really really need to have a defender don't I? and if I'm going to have a defender and I only have one defender in my 5-a-side team I'll have to go for an Italian because they have the meanest defences of all and the Italian I would go for is Franco Barresi so that's my 5-a-side team it's Jennings, Barresi Brady, Cruyff and Best especially defending by attacking with that team you're going down slow it's 5-a-side don't forget it and George would Paul McGrath be anywhere near that squad? Oh yes, Paul McGrath would be in the squad he would definitely be in the squad the only reason that I didn't have him in my 5 and I'm glad you asked me about it is because I was thinking it was getting too unbalanced and the defender I wanted now you could argue that Paul McGrath it was against Italy that he was at his most effective in Giants Stadium that Paul McGrath should get the vote ahead of Franco Barresi maybe that's nostalgia kicking in on my part and also the fact that he didn't specify it had to be an Irish team that's right George before we let you go we obviously have to bring up the biggest moment in Irish sport your trademark Geneva Genoa sorry my apologies easy ones to mix up but it was a special special moment that moment Dave O'Leary scored that winning penalty to get Aaron True it was a special special moment and we really want you to relive that moment again with us to launch our podcast it all began in Sicily when they finally grew with the Dutch and they were level with the Dutch and there was no certainty as to who would go where and there was what FIFA called the drawing of lots because Holland and Ireland records were identical so it was going to be around a 16 match against either West Germany or Romania now it could have been West Germany in Milan and that's who Holland played and West Germany beat them but we got Romania in Genoa so we did the West Germany game the night before and then we worked to do the game in Genoa and then we were diverted to Genoa Tom Flanagan was my accompanist there was no co-commentator in those days and we were driving out of Milan heading for Genoa on the match that night on the morning of the match we had no accommodation in Genoa because it wasn't in business that we would be going there so we just packed an overnight bag and we're approaching the outskirts of Milan to get on the tangentiale, the ring road and head off down the Autostrada to Genoa just in case the inevitable happened inevitable now looking back the wished for happened and Ireland actually qualified so we bought this celebratory bottle and we put it in the boot and we drove off down the road and I remember the journey so well because we were laughing and joking and imitating other sports commentators as we went it was a lovely sunny day all the way down to Genoa about 100 miles I think and we looked for a B&B and we found one lovely place there, lovely cool tiled floor shutters of the windows, rotating fan in the ceiling beautiful place to stay we parked our bags and we drove back into the city to go to the game at the time in Italy the match day was a dry day, no alcohol on sale in the match venues, even if there was no match on there was no alcohol on sale in Genoa and also there was the possibility of having the hooch confiscated on the way into the stadium because you weren't supposed to have a bottle of any description going into the ground, nowadays you couldn't do it because they had airport scanners at the various places on entrance of the stadium well anyway there was no airport style scanner there was just a personal bag check, we managed to smuggle in and we did the game and it was a most undistinguished game there was never a moment in it that I thought Romania were going to score a goal that was going to put us out, we got to 90 minutes and we went into extra time and that wasn't very good either so we've had 120 minutes of pretty average football and we've got to the shootout so we're preparing for the shootout and I get a word in my ear because this was 6 o'clock-ish Irish time, so the 6-1 news was on RTVE now I got word in my ear that the news was going to come live for the shootout we were on what was then called Network 2, the only two television stations available, native stations in Ireland as opposed to the BBC or ITV so no TV3 at that time anyway we got into the shootout and I've been advised to maybe be careful about my descriptions because there would now be people watching who didn't know about football and might need to be guided a bit more than a regular football fan well I don't think there was much guidance needed because everybody was getting caught up in it, I knew that, I knew that would be the case and when we got to the ultimate Romanian penalty, the 5th Romanian penalty and Pachybonor saved, then it was obvious that this was going to be decisive and at those moments you're not too sure, have I got the count right and all that but Tom Flanagan was counting as well so we were certain that if this goal went in, this goal went in, Ireland would be in the quarter-final so in my head and when you're commentating and you're at a high level of intensity and concentration, a couple of things came clear to me in that instant, one this kick can decide it all which is actually the words I used and the other fact was that I'd been told that the news was watching as well as our regular audience which meant there was no other picture being shown in Ireland at the time on an Irish TV station but this kick and having said this kick can decide it all, it hit me that everybody is on the edge of their seat, it just came to me, the nation holds its breath, yes we're there and that was it and that's where it came from, you can't pre-plan moments like that and it's the spontaneity that is the key to the longevity of the statement. So you're really in the moment and it is all flowed really it's a spectacular moment really for yourself and it's always going to leave in Irish sport and Irish soccer and it's unbelievable to see it and hopefully under the new management Ireland can maybe recreate or create new memories and hopefully that can get a result against England and Greece but George it was an absolute pleasure having you on Thank you for taking the time. You know just before you go David, the nation holds its breath wasn't the end of the story, remember the bad bottle that we smuggled into the ground? It had sat in my satchel at my feet through the searing heat of the Italian afternoon and now they've qualified and because there's no co-commentator there's no reporter, there's no Tony O'Donoghue, there wasn't correspondent in those days, it fell to the commentator to do the post-match interviews and so Tom and I left our seats with the satchel, with the bottle in it and made our way through a tunnel, there's a tunnel under the pitch at the Luigi Ferraro Stadium in Genoa to the other side where the dressing rooms were and the interview position was and they got the two heroes out for me to interview, Paki Bonner and David O'Leary and we're live on the air and produced the bottle and they're quite astonished but bear in mind they've been out there for 120 minutes plus in that awful heat and they're really parched and we opened the bottle and Tom pours three little glasses three little plastic glasses that we had and handed them to me and to the two boys. I'm standing there in my Hawaii Five-0 shirt because it was very trendy at the time and it was the summer time and Paki Bonner and David O'Leary are side-by-side and we raise the glass to the success of the Irish team and I take a sip out of mine simultaneously and David and Paki are having a sip out of theirs and of course we each get the same sensation eight hours in the boot of a car and outside the boot of a commentator in a searing heat of an Italian afternoon has turned the Asti Stumanti into something like fizzy vinegar and they look at each other and they will do the same thing and they decide to pour it over my head and that is exactly what happened. You'll find it on Twitter or you'll find it on YouTube but that was how the match day ended was with a dousing in rather warm and off colour Asti Stumanti but that was the day of the nation holds its breath and it's a day I will never ever forget. And I don't think we will either This is the start of the nation holds its breath podcast and hopefully we'll plug we want to mention your books as well your first one was the nation holds its breath and that was nominated for a sports book of the year a few years ago and you have if you want to tell our listeners you have a new one coming out You were coming out It's just about the time of the England game in September It's called the Hamilton notes, it's more tales from the road and maybe a bit more about the classical music as well the Hamilton scores on Lyric FM and a few bits more beside the first one was really a reflection on the Charlton era and how I managed to be caught up in it this is a bit more about what else went on I'm looking forward to reading it and hopefully we can share a few notes on our next few podcasts as well I think that's it from my side of things It's been great to talk to you I'm sure we can get another five episodes out of you maybe sometime in the future we'll come back to you You know where I am Thanks a million Hopefully we keep the honour of the nation going strong Wish you all the best with it Thank you George Thank you Now that was the great George Hamilton we caught up with him with the legend the legend beside me was Colin O'Malley Big shout out to him I've run out of time We want to wish all the teams the best of luck over the weekend and hope you enjoy the weekend and a big shout out to George Hamilton for coming on the show Thank you so much, take care, see you soon This programme was kindly sponsored by Kylemore Abbey and Gardens 095 52001
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