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Irish Examiner
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
'With Kerry at times I feel like I'm overcritical': the tricky balance of being a Kingdom pundit
After their escapades in 2009, the late Páidí Ó Sé took great relish in singing the tune dedicated to his nephew Tomás Ó Sé and Colm Cooper. Jack O'Connor dropped the pair for the All-Ireland SFC qualifier against Antrim for breaching discipline but it all worked out in the end and 'It Wasn't Lucozade', belted out by Ó Sé in The Boar's Head pub over the All-Ireland final weekend they beat Cork, was the hit that never was. Will O'Connor's latest row with an Ó Sé inspire another ditty? Don't be surprised. Kerry make a habit of making light out of the dark even if O'Connor's thinly-veiled dig at Darragh Ó Sé spoke of a profound difference. Some wounds cut deep. Friendships and associations have ended on the back of commentary. 'The one player who won't talk to me is Ogie Moran," Pat Spillane wrote in his autobiography, No Pat on the Back – Confessions of A Football Pundit. "Ogie was a great player. My problems with Ogie, or more precisely his problems with me, go back to the time when he was manager of the Kerry team and I was very critical of him. One of my dearest wishes would be that Ogie and myself could bury the hatchet." Perhaps sensing his analysis would eventually be interpreted similarly, one of the game's most insightful minds Dara Ó Cinnéide left The Sunday Game after five years. His work commitments with Raidió na Gaeltachta had increased but Ó Cinnéide was also acutely aware of how his words resonated within the county's confines. Being a pundit is akin to an occupational hazard for a Kerry footballer. Of the 20 Kerry players who played in the 2009 All-Ireland final, nine have either had a newspaper or online column at some stage, including Ó Sé and captain Darran O'Sullivan. Since retiring in 2019, the Glenbeigh-Glencar man has worked with the likes of Kerry's Eye, and Off The Ball. He admits he struggles to avoid placing the same expectations on Kerry teams that he had of himself. 'It is one of those things that the longer that you have finished up, the easier it is to be more direct and honest because you don't know the players as much,' says the four-time All-Ireland SFC winner. 'I'm not sure if I am with other counties, with certainly Kerry at times I feel like I'm overcritical because I expect the highest standard of everything, which is unfair. 'When you see back in black and white what you've said or written, your reaction is, 'Ah, I was a bit harsh.' But a lot of that has to do with I as a player liked having that extra bit of pressure and people expecting that we had to do more than anybody else. That our style of football had to be better and I grew as a footballer in a dressing room environment when nothing was ever enough. If we won by 10 points, we'd find a flaw somewhere. 'It is tricky, the punditry, especially when it is your own. You are just putting on them the expectations we put on ourselves. There's always another gear.' For the life of him, O'Sullivan can't remember anything any of the Kerry golden years era that he might have taken exception to during his career. 'Most of what I got was when I was working in the bank and random people coming in with the sole purpose of telling me we were good or bad, that this fella shouldn't be on the team, that this fella should, all that type of stuff. 'Most of the media stuff you'd be aware of it but I would have never read it. I was good for avoiding that stuff. Social media wasn't as big then either so you could ignore things a lot easier.' Living among those he critiques and with the possibility of seeing them on the street is also something O'Sullivan has to consider. 'I try to be straight. If Kerry play badly, I will say they played poorly. I tried not to make it individual so if the defence are leaking scores, I will comment about them collectively. 'You would go as far as saying such and such had a tough afternoon but you wouldn't be thinking, 'Oh, I hope I don't bump into him.' By and large, they would have known they had a bad game and even though you're highlighting that, and they might be thinking 'f- him anyway', more often than not fellas accept it. 'You're going to be called out if you have a bad day. You just have to avoid getting personal or being too personal. At the end of the day, you're there to do a job and call it as you see it, and if you don't do that, you'll be called out yourself for bluffing it. 'There can be awkwardness but so long as you can stand over what you said or wrote that's enough. You're not doing it to hurt anybody; you're saying what you see.'
RTÉ News
08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- RTÉ News
The musical magic of Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy
Neansaí Ní Choisdealbha, Raidió na Gaeltachta's Music Editor and presenter of Ceol Binn ó na Beanna reflects on Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy and its evolution over five decades. I came to the Willie Clancy festival for the first time in 2010. I had heard so much about the festival and was always listening to the broadcasts on Raidió na Gaeltachta every year on Meaití Jó Shéamuis Ó Fátharta's (RIP) programme Lán a' Mhála. Meaití had been coming to the festival from the very first gathering and indeed had known and recorded Willie for RnaG in 1972. Along with the live broadcasts, the recitals were recorded, and the music was heard during the year on the music programmes. I was excited and a bit nervous to take over from Meaití in 2010. Listen: Ceiliúradh Ceoil live from Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy The first broadcasts for Ceol Binn ó na Beanna were in 2010. It was a bit daunting that first year because I was not used to outside broadcasts and the programme had only been on air since January of that year, so this was the first major outside broadcast for the programme. The friendly atmosphere and the willingness of everybody to come to the Ródaí (Raidió na Gaeltachta's roadcaster) and play their tunes live on air was wonderful, and it was also great to interact with the musicians and get to know them on a more personal level. The festival has evolved and now has more students than ever, but as the classes are spread out between Miltown Malbay itself and the surrounding nearby villages like Quilty, Mullagh and Spanish Point you don't get the sense of an overpacked festival. The recitals are sometimes the only events where you will get a sense of the amount of people attending the festival when the hall is packed to capacity and parking spaces become like golddust! Listen: Céilí House live from Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy The atmosphere in the Ródaí is always vibrant and exciting during the festival. The Ródaí is a familiar sight outside the hall and it is always lovely to have the budding young musicians come in and play a few tunes on the various programmes. Seeing the young musicians playing alongside the older musicians is lovely and it is such a privilege for those youngsters to get to know people who they might have heard of but never seen in person. The banter between the musical guests is always great and everybody is in a very relaxed mood - it is like one big musical party all week. It is great to invite the young musicians into the Ródaí. It is a very exciting event for them to come to the Ródaí and their first airplay, and it is always great to see the big smiles as they head off with their Raidió na Gaeltachta hats. The great thing about being in the centre of town with the Ródaí is that the youngsters come to see for themselves that Raidió na Gaeltachta and the programme Ceol Binn ó na Beanna is a platform for them to use to promote their music and to gain confidence. Many of them will return year after year to play for the programme and it is great to see the development in their music and styles. Over the years we have had full céilí bands play for the programme and that is quite a feat! Listen: The Rolling Wave previews this year's Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy The amount of young people that have become top class players since I started on Ceol Binn ó na Beanna is unbelievable. I remember in 2010 meeting some of the top players of today and it was lovely to see their development during their teenage years and seeing them now launching their own recordings and making their music a career. People like Elaine Reilly, Dáithí Gromley, Eimear Coughlan, Francis Cunningham, Órlaith & Brogan McAuliffe, Ademar O'Connor, Keelan McGrath, Róisín Broderick, Dylan Foley, Sorcha Costello, Catherine McHugh and many many more have appeared on Ceol Binn ó na Beanna as young teenagers and now are fast becoming the stars of Irish traditional music. It is particularly lovely to see Andrew Caden from Bethesda Maryland and Conor McDonagh from Sligo release their lovely new album Across the Atlantic at the Willie Clancy week this year. Conor and Andrew would have met through their shared passion for Irish Traditional Music and it's wonderful to see them produce their first album on Racket Records while this so young and they both got their first airplay on Ceol Binn ó na Beanna. We also have musicians from a lot of foreign places calling into the Ródaí to play. We've had musicians from Moscow, Brazil, Germany, Japan, France as well as American and English musicians and everybody is welcome to share their tunes! The relaxed friendly atmosphere is lovely. This may be because there is no competitive element during the Willie Clancy Week. All musicians come to teach, to learn or just to play and enjoy making new friends without the pressure of competitions. Everybody is welcome to join into the many, many sessions around the town and the surrounding towns and it is a great place to play or just to listen. Watch, via ITMA: Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy – A Reflection I have some lovely memories of playing a few sessions with Ben Lennon, Johnny Connolly, Seán Conway & Éamon Flynn, all now having sadly passed away, RIP, in the small room in the Central. Zoe Conway, Séamus Sands, Bobby Gardiner and many others were regulars in that tiny room - it was so homely and just the perfect atmosphere for a tune. My biggest tip for first-time visitors would be to just enjoy and soak up the atmosphere and don't be afraid to share your music, song or dance if the mood takes you!
