logo
Henry Shefflin hilariously dabbles in Gaelic football punditry as RTE's Saturday Game debuts format change

Henry Shefflin hilariously dabbles in Gaelic football punditry as RTE's Saturday Game debuts format change

The Irish Sun11-05-2025

THERE was a noteworthy format change in The Saturday Game which led to an amusing moment where Henry Shefflin gave his two cents on the Ulster football final.
Donegal's
Advertisement
2
It's not the usual set-up for the hurling and football analysts to be on at the same time
Credit: @TheSundayGame
2
One of the greatest hurlers ever admitted he had limited football insight to offer
Credit: @TheSundayGame
Typically during either the Saturday or Sunday version of the highlights programme, the football and hurling pundits don't appear on-screen at the same time.
However, on this weekend's edition Shefflin and Diarmuid O'Keefe remained at the table while Sean Cavanagh and Vinny Corey joined the party as attention turned from
Initially host Damien Lawlor threw to former Wexford ace O'Keeffe on account of him being a brother-in-law of Armagh ace Jarly Og Burns.
But he then asked the Kilkenny icon for his view on the latest memorable provincial final to unfold before a packed house in Clones' St Tiernach's Park.
Advertisement
Read More On GAA
Shefflin chipped in with: "Well, we were sitting here in the dark studio here all day today while everyone else was enjoying the sunshine.
"But you could feel the tension (in Clones) from all the way over here and that's the great thing about the football and hurling Championships this year.
"I think it's pure drama and sport at its finest, going right down to the end and that's what we want in sport."
With a smile he then literally held his hands up and added: "Now that's all I can say. As for football tactics Damien? No, I'll pass on this one to be honest with you!"
Advertisement
Most read in GAA Hurling
Amid all five men laughing in the moment of levity, Cavanagh then suggested: "Football is the new hurling eh men?"
Only for Shefflin to fire back: "Hold on, I wouldn't go that far now!"
Henry Shefflin hilariously dabbles in Gaelic football punditry as RTE's Saturday Game debuts format change
On a more serious note, there was one unsavoury aspect to the Ulster Championship decider as there was a
The situation was defused before Donegal skipper McBrearty lifted the Anglo-Celt Cup.
Advertisement
Donegal boss Jim McGuinness did not see what caused the ruckus.
He said: 'I don't have a perspective on that. It's not nice to see. It shouldn't happen.
"I was giving my daughter a hug at the time. I didn't see what happened, but it shouldn't be in the game.'
His Armagh counterpart Kieran McGeeney has to lift his players for a group of death with Dublin, Galway and Derry but hopes they can bounce back after raising Sam Maguire last July.
Advertisement
He said: 'We've been in the group of death for the last three years, so what's new?
'It's a tough one. Derry are playing well. Dublin are Dublin, and Galway are probably one of the best teams in the country. There's no easy ones left.'

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Republic of Ireland's goal-shy summer ends in a whimper after dreary Luxembourg draw
Republic of Ireland's goal-shy summer ends in a whimper after dreary Luxembourg draw

The Irish Sun

time4 hours ago

  • The Irish Sun

Republic of Ireland's goal-shy summer ends in a whimper after dreary Luxembourg draw

AT HALF-TIME, sprinklers suddenly emerged from the turf and doused everyone in their range as they rotated. Curiously, they only appeared on the half of the pitch where Ireland's substitutes were going through their paces. 2 Republic of Ireland and Luxembourg played out an uneventful scoreless draw 2 Luxembourg supporters protest in the stadium during the international friendly match between against Republic of Ireland Ordinarily, you might suspect dirty tricks but, here, you wondered if it was on And if they needed waking up then what about the players who had actually been on the pitch during the opening 45 minutes? Presumably, they were being water-boarded in the dressing room. During the warm-up, the Ireland boss had gone over to the Ireland fans who were in one corner of the ground and graciously accepted the birthday card which was thrust in his direction. read more on football If only his players had gone to the same effort to mark the occasion of his 58th birthday. Instead, they turned in a display which suggested they were more concerned with making sure they had everything packed for their end-of-season holidays. All that was lacking was Alice Cooper in the stadium singing 'school's out for summer'. Let's just thank our blessings once again that our World Cup qualifying campaign does not begin until September. Most read in Football Because had a journey with North America with its intended destination been due to start in this window, we would not have managed to reverse out of the driveway. A glance towards the touchline, where 'Don't say that on camera' - Nathan Collins' admission about Caoimhin Kelleher's move leaves Heimir in stitches If he had not anticipated the sort of performance he got from his team, then clearly whoever was doing the formation graphic for UEFA had not got a notion of what to expect. It is safe to say that they were the only person who envisaged seeing Troy Parrott at right-back, But maybe they were onto something because that could scarcely have been less cohesive than what was served up with players in more orthodox roles. Whilst Max O'Leary starting ahead of That saw At 6ft 2in, with his socks hanging around his angles, he had all the look of a Gaelic footballer. Unfortunately it was his appearance rather than his performance which was striking. After a half-hour he was moved onto the left with Will Smallbone taking on his central role but, by the hour mark, both had been replaced by Festy Ebosele and Jack Taylor. Bar O'Leary - who made a fine save from Danel Sinani - no player could have had any complaint had they been hauled ashore. This was a game in which Jason Knight was named player of the match when his most memorable moment was to stick his leg out to deflect a shot. Sometimes, there just is no worthy candidate. LUXEMBOURG PROTESTS Presumably, the only player feeling less comfortable than those in white was Luxembourg striker Gerson Rodrigues. He scored the only goal when his side claimed a shock win over Ireland in Dublin in March 2021 but that is not why he was being booed by the visiting fans, along with a section of the home crowd. His continued selection despite his conviction on three assault and battery charges - including one against his former girlfriend - has drawn sharp criticism. There were several banners in the stand protesting against his presence on the pitch. One said 'red card to violence against women', another read 'football is political'. A group of around 30 home fans held up red cards and they found common cause with the 360 Ireland supporters who booed his every touch. But they would have hoped, and expected, to have had more to cheer about against a team ranked 91st in the world, on paper the worst opposition Ireland had faced in Hallgrímsson's 10 matches in charge. Most people are willing to accept Hallgrímsson's point that Ireland will not dominate possession in a lot of the games they play. This, however, was one where it was not unreasonable to think that Ireland would have the lion's share of the ball. Instead, it was the proverbial hot potato with Ireland gifting possession to the hosts with alarming regularity. Their inability to retain the ball meant they found it next to impossible to carve out any opportunities with their only chance in the first half resulting from a set-piece when Collins hit the post with a header after Dara O'Shea had helped on Smallbone's free-kick. There was an improvement, of sorts, after the break. Ryan Manning - who had come on for the injured Robbie Brady in the first half - sent in a good deep cross from the left with Kasey McAteer sent back across goal but Parrott could not finish and ended up handling the ball. Taylor and Ebosele provided a bit more than the players they had replaced with Adam Idah then thrown on for Ferguson whose 75 minutes summed up what has been a difficult season for him. Nobody could find a winner, though Idah tried his luck with an overhead kick before Taylor later cannoned a shot off the underside of the bar. But, then, this was the sort of game which probably did not deserve one. Whether the players' holidays were earned is open for debate but they certainly looked as though they needed them.

Remembering Housewife of the Year, deadbeat husbands and patronising Gay Byrne
Remembering Housewife of the Year, deadbeat husbands and patronising Gay Byrne

Irish Times

time4 hours ago

  • Irish Times

Remembering Housewife of the Year, deadbeat husbands and patronising Gay Byrne

For many of us who lived through the era covered by the recent Housewife of the Year documentary, the viewing was always going to trigger a dull, throat-constricting ache. A film about a 30-year old television show that ran for just 10 years would provoke less predictable responses in younger viewers. Some sat down to sneer but left it deeply unsettled. The cameras panning over the huge audiences in their Sunday best revealed glimpses of a deeply unfamiliar Ireland: shy, minimally made-up faces with uniformly dark hair, neglected teeth, unshowy clothes modestly buttoned up to the neck. This was Ireland in the 1980s, the country Gay Byrne correctly diagnosed back then as 'banjaxed'. I watched the film twice in an effort to distinguish the television show from its dapper host. Byrne was celebrated for the rare quality among chatshow hosts of a genuine curiosity about people. [ At home there's an apron with the slogan 'Calor Housewife of the Year 1985′ Opens in new window ] Introducing the first televised Housewife of the Year in 1982 he welcomed the fully-grown competitors as people who 'sing little songs for us and they write little poems and they do all sorts of quare things ...' READ MORE The women smiled desperately, often rictus-like, conveying the glassy look of rabbits caught in headlights. The questions – intercut with images of the 'simple' meals cooked by competitors – were eerily repetitive. How did you meet your husband? What did your husband do for a living? Did you make your own dress? Give us a twirl. Show us what you cooked. How have you taken to motherhood? You're a mother of 14, is that the end of it now Angela? (And coyly) would you go again Angela? Six children was the least of it. Where there was an evident gap in baby production, he asked what happened. He held hands with the women, doubtless to encourage them, and called himself Uncle Gaybo while leaning into a woman's pregnant stomach. A still from RTÉ's Housewife of the Year All this was expressed in Byrne's cheery light entertainment tone. None of it was said or done unkindly. He knew better than most the oppressive patriarchal depths of that Ireland and its calamitous impact on girls and women. His HOTY years ran alongside some of the nation's most tumultuous events, which in turn generated the agonising first-hand confidences that animated his daily radio show – the divorce referendums, the Eighth Amendment, the contraception battles, the death of Ann Lovett . These must have colonised some part of his brain while he perpetuated the same old patronising stereotypes on HOTY. But the ever-curious Gaybo was entirely absent. Perhaps it wasn't the time to ask the remarkable Lily, who had 13 children by the age of 31, how she was surviving physically or mentally. Or for a quick question about Miriam's life, a nurse who had loved her few carefree single years in London and had plans for Australia until called back to rural Cork to help care for her father. Or to ask Patricia – who said she loved not having to go out to work – how she squared the 'housewife' label with being the breadwinner, working as a 'postman' while rearing hundreds of turkeys 'and still had the housework' to do. Even the Roses of Tralee were asked about their hopes and dreams. The Housewives were never asked if they envisioned themselves as something other than 'housewife' – as the farmers, entrepreneurs, artists, designers, craftswomen some already were – because aspiring to anything beyond wife and mother would amount to betrayal of the script. From the film we learn that Lily, mother of 13, had a husband who 'receded further to the pub' with each new baby while she fed her children from a food charity. That Ellen's husband walked out on her without a word soon after the competition, leaving her destitute but bouncing back to found her own business – 'It was my money. No one was going to smoke it, no one was going to drink it ...' That Miriam, the nurse who had to give up her dream of travel and then her job on marriage, was rewarded with a dearth of pension contributions. Do we need reminding of all this, you might ask? That the national broadcaster and its national treasure were in cahoots with commercial interests to sell this society's idealised vision of a woman back to women on prime time TV? That the birth agony, care and maintenance of eight, 13 or 14 children were made to sound like a breeze. And that fathers were mentioned only in the context of their jobs or illness, copper-fastening the myth that the men could or would always be faithful providers to their women who stayed in the home? Just as de Valera's Article 41.2 continues to imply. But in the eyes of the State and society back then, those treasured mammies were just dependants on their welfare-dependent husbands. So perhaps the true marvel is that these women mustered the courage to enter a competition on prime time TV, dreaming of a break and public acknowledgment of their many labours. And perhaps it was the certain knowledge that Gay's questions would be kind, swift and superficial that encouraged them to step up to what for some – such as the extraordinary Lily – was a life-changing shot of confidence. But for others, the damage caused by the televised myth of the perfect and perfectly happy housewife is incalculable. In an era of backlash, we always need reminding. That dull ache will take a while to abate.

Eight hurling championship observations: Did Cork and Limerick play better against the wind?
Eight hurling championship observations: Did Cork and Limerick play better against the wind?

Irish Examiner

time4 hours ago

  • Irish Examiner

Eight hurling championship observations: Did Cork and Limerick play better against the wind?

In the official programmes for the two 2024 All-Ireland finals, ten experts were asked for their pre-match prediction: five football and five hurling. Nine of them called it wrong. It is the kind of statistic that illustrates how difficult pre-match predictions really are. The game before the game is just as treacherous. Clare and Armagh were both marginal underdogs for the decider, but only one expert opted to back one of them. (Christy O'Connor – Clare, for anyone wondering.) Rest assured, this writer offered equally inaccurate forecasts within these pages too. This is exclusive subscriber content. Already a subscriber? Sign in Subscribe to access all of the Irish Examiner. Annual €120€60 Best value Monthly €10€4 / month Unlimited access. Subscriber content. Daily ePaper. Additional benefits.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store