The 42FM

Living in Ireland since 2007, Matt Steerman made a pilgrimage to Wisconsin to see his beloved Milwaukee Brewers play in baseball’s World Series for the first time in 44 years. He hoped to see the Brewers finally win it all for the very first time. On Wednesday night last week, the Brewers did just that, clinching baseball’s holy grail with a 4-1 series win against the Tampa Bay Rays. Here, Matt te...

Niall ran his third Dublin Marathon on Sunday and when asked to describe it in a word, he said: slog. He tells Sinéad about the privilege of being one of nearly 20,000 runners to toe the start line on a special day when Dublin city is truly its best self; the pain of feeling his best-laid plans for the race quickly unravel; and the pride of getting to the finish line. Hosted on Acast. See acast.co...

Sinéad and Niall welcome Mark Horgan of the Second Captains/BBC podcast 'Where is George Gibney?' to reflect on the paedophile's criminal conviction and sentencing 33 years after he was first charged in a Dublin court. The trio talk about where journalism fits into the decades-long story and why the global nature of podcasting was a key feature in bringing it to a conclusion that previ...

Paul Howard joins Sinéad O’Carroll and Niall Kelly to talk about how sport would work in a united Ireland. This is a subject Paul has spent a lot of time thinking about during the research and writing for his new novel, A Nation Once Again. The book centres on a secretive civil service department tasked with preparing for a unified country. As sports fans know, the union of the Republic and North...

Sinead O’Carroll and Niall Kelly are joined by the much-admired sportswriter for a far-reaching chat. Vincent talks about the privilege and pressure of covering the Olympic games across the decades for the Irish Independent. And he explains how the GAA has changed - from being an organisation where a journalist such as himself could sit in a dug out for an All-Ireland final, to one where access is...

Sinéad O’Carroll is joined by David Sneyd, who has returned from a tumultuous few days in Debrecen with the Ireland football team. There is much to discuss, including the curious suggestion of this being a ‘media-created’ story. How will the team and Gavin Bazunu be received on Thursday night at the Aviva Stadium? Is there a chance that this Sunday’s game, Ireland’s ‘home’ tie with Israel in Serbi...

Ireland will play Israel twice in the coming weeks, despite widely articulated concern and protest over the fixtures. Niall Kelly and Sinead O’Carroll discuss the background to these games, how they came about, and why they will go ahead despite the misgivings of many supporters. The pair discuss previous stories that have been at the intersection of sport and news and politics and explain why thi...

Niall Kelly is back from Doonbeg to tell Sinéad O’Carroll about a golf tournament like few others. It was a bizarre weekend in Co Clare, which juxtaposed The US president and all of the associated security hardware and personnel with a run of four extraordinary rounds of golf from Shane Lowry. The Offaly man did not just defeat the field, he demolished it, 11 shots clear of second place. What will...

Declan Bogue joins Sinéad O’Carroll and Niall Kelly as the lure of Australia proves strong for many young footballers. The GAA, says Sinead, have been ‘getting their knickers in a twist’ about the prospect of yet more talented players swapping Ireland for a life of sunshine, flat whites and professionalism in Melbourne and other Australian cities. But should they? With Kobe McDonald signed up with...

Niall Kelly, Sinéad O'Carroll and Gavan Casey provide immediate reaction from Croke Park after one of the greatest nights in the history of Irish sport. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gavan Casey joins Sinead O’Carroll and Niall Kelly to discuss how Katie Taylor sold out Croke Park. At some point during the 20 years the Bray woman has been a public figure, she has gone from being widely respected to loved. But why is this the case for someone who has rarely bared her soul? Gavan makes the point that she has in fact done this time and again - in the ring. And in the process has...

Sinéad and Niall welcome The 42’s football correspondent David Sneyd to the show to reflect on arguably the biggest Irish transfer in years. With Parrott in line to make his Real Betis debut tonight, David charts the Dubliner’s path from Belvedere to Seville, and breaks down some of the key reasons why Betis won the race for the Irish star ahead of competition in England and beyond. Davd is also o...

With less than three weeks to go until Katie Taylor’s sold-out Croke Park homecoming, negotiations regarding the TV broadcast rights are still ongoing. Subscription broadcaster Dazn holds the exclusive rights for fight night – but could RTÉ or Virgin Media strike a late deal to ensure that this momentous night of Irish sport is broadcast free-to-air on terrestrial TV? Sinéad O’Carroll brings Niall...

Probably not, as Paul Fennessy tells Niall Kelly. But what is it about Premier League football clubs that make them so compelling to billionaires? Well, the eye-watering increase in value of Liverpool during the reign of FSG - where their 2010 investment of £300m is now worth around £4.5bn - is part of the appeal. As is the scope for further growth, where hyper-capitalist minds see much more finan...

On this week’s 42FM, Sinéad O’Carroll is joined by Ian Robertson, a neuroscientist and clinical psychologist, Professor of Psychology at Trinity College Dublin, and author of ‘The Winning Effect’. In a recent Irish Times article, Professor Robertson explained how Mayo’s approach to historical failures was in direct contrast to that of Thomas Tuchel’s England football team. But why were their respo...

Sinead O’Carroll and Niall Kelly are in reflective form after a highly-anticipated sporting weekend fell flat. The pair were left questioning their life choices after the All-Ireland hurling final, Open Championship and World Cup final, replete with half-time show, failed to deliver. The expected buoyant mood which would carry through the week on foot of Super Sunday did not materialise. And if yo...

‘The whole conversation is stupendously ridiculous’ says Sinead, who fears for football and hurling should video review be introduced. Sinead tells Niall that any embrace of technology beyond HawkEye and goal-line sensors would lead to decisions which are no less contentious, while making the overall player and fan experience ‘way less fun’. It’s a rocky road, says Sinead, and we need only look to...

David Sneyd dials in from America to chat to Sinead O’Carroll and Niall Kelly about the US President’s intervention in the World Cup. Our reporter on the ground thought he might get through the rest of the World Cup talking about just football - until Donald Trump decided to call his fellow president, Gianni Infantino, the Fifa version, to see about a review to overturn Folarin Balogun’s red...

Still the biggest name in Irish athletics, Rhasidat Adeleke is set to make her long-awaited return to 400m action in America this Friday night – a major step on the road to August’s European Championships in Birmingham. Former world indoor champion, Olympian and analyst Derval O’Rourke joins Niall Kelly to chart a frustrating two years in Adeleke’s young career, which has seen the 23-year-old larg...

Sinead O’Carroll is joined by Niall Kelly to tackle the footballing and lingering moral questions around the American World Cup Pre-competition concerns about swathes of empty seats and mismatches have not come to pass. Instead the World Cup has been the same vibrant and life-affirming festival of football it has nearly always been. The big stars have shone, the minnows have shown their mettle, th...

Sinéad and Gavin nail their colours to the mast as they debate their big sporting predictions for the rest of 2026 and beyond. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sinead and Gavin discuss the Fifa president: where did he come from and how long does he plan to stick around? Infantino was elected as Fifa president in February 2016. He showed a supposedly new, more humble version of Fifa when he flew EasyJet to an IFAB meeting in the UK, saying “We are normal people and we have to behave like normal people.” He now travels on a private jet provided to him by Q...

Sinéad O’Carroll is joined by Niall Kelly to discuss the fallout from Munster’s appointment of Roger Randle as attack coach, and the subsequent “mutual agreement” that the deal will not go ahead. Randle was accused of raping a woman in South Africa in 1997 when he was there as a player. Randle denied the allegation and has always maintained his innocence. He was initially charged with the crime, b...

Gavin and Sinéad discuss the inflation-busting prices of attending matches and other big sports events. Ryder Cup ticket prices for Adare Manor raised eyebrows, but are such levels now becoming the norm, especially for high-profile events which attract interest from the corporate and influencer world. If so, what does that do to the atmosphere at big occasions, when the committed supporters who ha...

In the aftermath of the fuel protests, Leo Varadkar decided it was time for urban Ireland to do some straight talking to rural Ireland, saying that “we are the ones paying the bills and you’re the ones in receipt of a lot of subsidies and tax benefits that other people don’t get.” The comments provoked a huge reaction, with Varadkar eventually apologising. He made the mistake of pressing his thumb...