The 42FM

Gavin Cooney dials in from Prague to chat to Sinead O’Carroll during a defining week for Irish football.Gav is optimistic but daunted on Ireland’s behalf, as they need five competitive wins in a row to make the World Cup finals in America.Sinead, informed by her data analyst sister, says, no - Ireland just need to win one game. And then win more. A more optimistic interpretation again suggests two draws and two penalty shootout victories will suffice, but neither can entertain the cardiac stress of such a turn of events.The pair also discuss why the men’s national football team moves the needle to the extent it does in the media as a consequence of the hold they have over the general population. Is it because the game is so widely played and easy to understand? Or is it, as Sinead suggests, because younger generations are desperate for their own Italy '90 or USA '94 moments?The bounty of those competitions was not spent well here. Can this be different? Do we now have a stronger foundation upon which to build a robust football edifice in Ireland? The odds will be enhanced with one win on Thursday, and then another on Tuesday. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Munster’s Edwin Edogbo made his Ireland debut during the 2026 Six Nations campaign, after which he was subject to vile, racist abuse on social media. On this week’s show, Sinéad and Gavin speak to Jonathan Sebire, co-founder of Signify, which monitors and reports online abuse of athletes. The IRFU are among Signify’s clients, and Jonathan explains how Signify worked to identify some of those who sent abuse to Edogbo, and how some people may now be held accountable. He also talks more widely about the social media abuse of sportspeople, explaining how it impacts sporting performance and why the solution is never as simple as telling sportspeople to get off social media entirely.Get in touch: sinead@thejournal.ie and gavincooney@the42.ie Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The planned merger of the GAA, the Ladies Gaelic Football Association and the Camogie Association is back in the news. The next president of the GAA, newly elected, has less ambitious timelines for the project than are currently in place. Sinéad is joined in studio by Senator Evanne Ní Chuilinn who is vice chair of the Oireachtas committee on sport and a GAA member. We talk to her about what any change to the proposed timeline could mean for the three organisations and wider society. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

RTÉ last week sold its 50% stake in GAA Plus née Go for €3 million. The news was met with a shrug, but Sinead's brow is furrowed.With Gav on leave, she's joined by technology and media professional Steve Dempsey to dig into the deal. Was €3 million a fair price for half of a profitable, growing streaming business, or did the GAA just walk away with a goldmine?Steve runs the numbers and builds a model showing what GAA Plus could become: a business generating €10 million in revenue and €6 million in profit within five years. They discuss why RTÉ may have been happy to trade away a headache for cash and political breathing room, and whether the GAA can now transform a broadcast app with a paywall into something closer to a super-app, folding in ticketing, merchandise and a direct line to the diaspora.What happens to the journalism when the GAA is covering itself? And should we expect more games behind the paywall as the rights deal nears its end in 2027? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sinead and Gavin take a look at a new policy that seeks to enhance the country’s international reputation through sport - while the government argues that a football game against Israel should not be politicised.Gav went along to the launch of the International Sports Diplomacy Framework on Tuesday to see what it was about, and to get answers on why the government seems to be speaking out of both sides of its mouth.Also up for discussion is how this policy extends Ireland’s ambition to host big events, such as the Ryder Cup and NFL games, while modest local facilities in the shadow of Croke Park are under threat. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sinead and Gavin discuss in-depth the pressing issue of this week, and one that will likely make headlines all year.The FAI have been placed in the unenviable position of having to navigate a path out of the crisis which began when Ireland were drawn to play Israel in the Nations League.Some 93% of the FAI’s General Assembly have previously voted to suspend Israel from international football, yet the FAI are committed to fulfilling the fixtures.Will the games go ahead? Where will they take place? What are the potential sanctions if Ireland boycott the fixtures?Can Ireland call Uefa’s bluff? What is the worst they can do to Ireland, for making a moral stand against a country that has breached its own rules? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sinead O’Carroll dials in from northern Italy to tell Niall Kelly about all of the sporting and political action in Milano Cortina.Several US athletes, including Amber Glenn and Hunter Hess, have spoken up against the Trump administration this week, which has led to an inevitable backlash from the US President and his Maga base. Sinead relays the atmosphere in Italy and assesses a week where Trump has been further angered at sporting occasions, his displeasure with the Bad Bunny half-time apparent to all with an internet connection. How does this bode for the rest of the Winter Olympics, and the World Cup in the summer?Also, Irish competitors have been flying the flag with honour in Italy. But is there one winter sport in which Ireland could go from zero to powerhouse status? If so, what could it be? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sinead is off to northern Italy for the Winter Olympics this week. Today she tells Gav about her lifelong fascination with figure skating: how it started, how it developed and what she expects to see over the coming days in Milano Cortina.Also, Sinead runs the rule over Ireland’s four Winter Olympians and rates their chances.We delve into the reduced representation of 13 Russian athletes, who compete as neutrals. Is the ban fair to apolitical sportspeople from Russia - or would the presence of the Russian flag validate the Putin regime? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

French rugby player Thibaud Flament last week announced that he would not be available to play Ireland in the Six Nations owing to his and his wife’s fertility treatment. On this week’s show, Sinéad and Gavin discuss Flament’s story in the context of how the media covers matters of pregnancy, fertility and parenthood in elite sport.They illustrate how things have moved on from the days a man would be expected to miss the birth of his child but ask if the conversation has evolved far enough, explaining how we still speak differently of fatherhood as opposed to motherhood and how this reinforces wider tropes.Get in touch - sinead@thejournal.ie and gavincooney@the42.ie Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Cyclists have become a nightmare in Dublin, according to one headline-making judge last week.And Judge James O’Donohoe is far from alone in Ireland in feeling comfortable criticising cyclists, despite the fact that 14 were killed in our roads last year, and 45 in the past five years.This week Gav and Sinead discuss why so many people have such a negative view of cyclists, and cycling itself. Why are the misdemeanors of cyclists talked up while those of drivers in powerful vehicles are overlooked? Why was there a furore over the runaway costs of a bike shed at Leinster House, when the far more expensive car parking facilities are rarely discussed?Is cycling seen in Ireland as an anachronism - more redolent of our rustic, poorer past and not in keeping with our modern view of ourselves? Or has cycling become part of the online battleground, with the seemingly neutral activity labelled as woke by some culture warriors?How is the Irish attitude to cycling so different from other northern Europeans, in the Netherlands and Denmark for Scandinavia for example? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why is the purported biggest club in British football in such a perpetual state of chaos? Gavin and Sinead delve into the reasons United have failed to adapt to a post Alex Ferguson world, and come to the conclusion that the club needs a powerful figure to oversee the empire, even if that figure is not always reasonable.We are living in a time of corporate committees running football clubs, with managers and head coaches relegated to the status of a replaceable cog in a wheel.Yet Gavin argues that this approach is unsuitable to the world of football, where the most successful Premier League clubs in recent seasons still have one dominant, talented figure in charge: Pep Guardiola at Manchester City, Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool and now Arsenal under Mikel Arteta.United, he argues, are afraid of talent, and need to stop investing huge responsibility in head coaches, while not giving them the requisite authority to do their job - which is to lead and do what it takes for the club to thrive at the elite and of the game. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In these uncertain times, getting even less certain by the hour, Sinead and Gavin take a look ahead to the summer’s World Cup in America and discuss how it will play out.Most fundamentally, will it take place against a backdrop of military activity? US co-hosts Mexico and Canada have already felt the chill of Donald Trump’s threatening rhetoric, which can, as recent events show, turn to action.Even if we are in times of peace by June, the World Cup could be beset by several issues. We discuss travel bans to fans of four competing nations and how these undermine the spirit of the competition.Will Trump follow through on his threat to move games out of certain cities? Will ICE agents arrest fans gathering to watch games? And how will Trump seek to make the most of the global attention that will be available to him during the World Cup? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Midway through the World Cup cycle, Sinead and Gav assess the health of the Ireland rugby team with an eye on the perennial question: Can we win a World Cup quarter final?Optimism levels in rugby country are more subdued than usual following a lacklustre Autumn series, while the provinces, especially Leinster, are not inspiring confidence.The pair discuss what needs to happen between now and October 2027 for Ireland to break through their glass ceiling.Can Ireland blood enough exciting players to freshen up the team? Can Andy Farrell settle on his best 10? Are the lineout and scrum fixable? Is the unwritten rule that Ireland’s internationals have to play club rugby here a help or a hindrance in the modern game? Is Irish rugby suffering a Lions hangover, or is this World Cup cycle one too many for some key players? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mo Salah’s outburst after being left on the bench during Liverpool’s draw with Leeds on Saturday means the legendary forward has probably kicked his last ball for the Reds.But is Salah right to suggest he has been thrown under the bus by the club he has served so well for eight years? Is it natural that he feels singled out when his drop in form has been replicated across Arne Slot’s expensively assembled squad?Or has the Egyptian gone too far in his comments, and failed to grasp the coldly transactional nature of professional football?Gav and Sinead get to grips with the biggest Premier League football story of the season, and in the process grapple with themes of loyalty, status, ego, envy and the challenge of succession planning in a game fraught with unforeseen and crazy events - some of which led to April’s free-scoring title-winning king of Anfield being deemed past it by September. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Fans across the world are eagerly anticipating the finale of the Formula 1 season this weekend, but how much of that is down to the sport, and how much is due to the dramatisation of everything that is F1 on the Netflix series Drive to Survive?This week Sinead and Gav marvel at how F1 has cracked America with the help of Netflix, and wonder what Irish sports and teams could benefit from a more open attitude towards documentary series makers.They discuss which behind-the-scenes shows have been a success, and which have left the viewers feeling short-changed as subjects, such as David Beckham and Wayne Rooney, control their own narrative.And, in the spirit of open access, Sinead and Gav consider how much they’d like it if a camera crew were given full access to The Journal and The 42 tomorrow. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After Scotland’s remarkable qualification for next year’s World Cup, captain Andy Robertson gave an emotional insight into his grief following the tragic death of his Liverpool team-mate, Diogo Jota.On this week’s podcast, Sinéad and Gavin discuss Robertson’s interview, and why it led to a wider media discussion about the continuing impact of Jota’s death on everyone at Liverpool.With Liverpool enduring a terrible run of results on the pitch, they explore how to discuss the players’ on-field underperformance in the context of this grief. Is Jota’s death and his family’s grief at risk of being trivialised by being used by pundits and journalists to explain poor results on a football pitch? Or are we doing a disservice to the players involved by not acknowledging it?And why do we not give space to our elite sportspeople to be human beings? Is this unfair on our behalf, or is it part of the contract between supporter and the well-paid football professional: that they are not allowed any room for escapism in what is our favourite form of escapism?Get in touch - sinead@thejournal.ie and gavincooney@the42.ie Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It is another gloriously happy day, as Sinéad and Gavin continue to bask with the rest of you in the beautiful afterglow of Ireland’s victory in Hungary. Gavin is back from Budapest and gives Sinéad the lowdown on how the whole, mad drama played out in the stadium. But truly it doesn’t matter where you watch Troy Parrott’s winning goal - what matters is that you are united with millions of Irish people in such total happiness.Sinéad and Gavin dig into why Ireland’s wins mean so much to so many people. Is this merely proof that we are Football Country, rather than Rugby Country? Or is there something deeper at play?How has the national football team become such a vital part of our national identity? Why is it so important that a whole generation of players and fans experienced this moment?Basically - why are we so ludicrously happy?Get in touch - gavincooney@the42.ie and sinead@thejournal.ie Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How many times has Sinéad asked Gav is it possible? Could we?... is there any way? She should have been asking Troy Parrott.Ireland's stunning 3-2 win over Hungary is all anyone wants to talk about today. Unfortunately, Gav and Sinéad record on Tuesdays and Gav, naturally, is a wanted man elsewhere today. But we wanted to give our loyal listeners an extra treat - free access to The 42's Football Family podcast. We will be back tomorrow to talk more football, and the impact of a week like we've just had. But until then, enjoy the insights from The 42's David Sneyd and Shane Keegan, alongside our own Gav. If you like what you hear, and honestly, how could you not? You can subscribe to The 42 on a trial basis for just 1 euro a month at the moment. What a no brainer. We're in for a busy year! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With the League of Ireland season over, clubs’ attention now turns to recruiting new players for next year, during which they will quickly run into the realities of Ireland’s housing crisis.On this week’s show, Sinéad and Gavin explain how the crisis affects professional sport in Ireland, how it has come to define certain sports and competitions, and how these impacts articulate the wider issues felt by a whole generation of Irish people. They then look at the reasons underpinning the crisis: do we simply not have enough houses? Or are there wider problems with the investment funds buying up the few houses that are put on the Irish market? They then point to the incipient triumph of Ireland’s hosting of the Ryder Cup and ask whether politicians really believe this is a housing crisis, and whether they are committed as they claim to be when it comes to addressing it.Get in touch - gavincooney@the42.ie and sinead@thejournal.ie Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Irish language and hurling should be accessible and a source of joy to many. Has this always been the case? Is it even the case now? Or are they ring-fenced? Taught in specific environments - school and GAA clubs that happen to offer hurling, which are not so plentiful in much of the country?But what could happen if the language and game of hurling were not restricted to these environments? How could they begin to thrive if attempts to make them more widely available were backed rather than thwarted?These are some of the questions tackled by Ciarán Murphy of the Second Captains in his new book, Old Parish, where he takes up hurling in his early 40s.Today, he chats with Sinead about the humbling effects of competitive hurling, and the life-affirming adventure of returning to his father’s club in the Waterford Gaeltacht to live, write and hurl. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.