Second Captains

thens for breakfast, Barcelona for brunch, Fairview for lunch. Ken is back from his Grand Tour of Continental Europe, traveling through the night to bring you his thoughts on Ireland's latest adventures in the Nations League. Joining us in the studio to reflect on an international window in which we actually won a game is Richie Sadlier. We also try to decipher just what Lee Carsley is actually sa...

This week we released a podcast on our world service - Sally Hayden, Irish Times Correspondent and author of  My Fourth Time, We Drowned , spoke to Ken about life in Beirut under fire from the Israeli army - and such was the reaction that we decided to release it to non members. Sally explains the religious mix in Beirut, how embedded Hezbollah is in Lebanese society, the huge number of Syria...

Ken has returned from the Land Of The Rising Sun, and he has stories to tell - of Shinto shrines (went to "one of" the most famous ones in Tokyo), Buddhist temples, and... storied sumo amphitheatres. We dominate the dojo in the company of our very own Alan Whicker.   Branno missed the most dramatic week in the HISTORY of the league of Ireland last week, as he was recuperating from i...

Ken is back from Japan and we take the opportunity to revisit some of the highlights he missed over the last two weeks.  We talk about the varying fortunes of Kai Haaland Havertz, Anthony Gordon, Cole Palmer and Ange Postecoglou before Mark Critchley joins us to talk about what we had mistakenly anticipated would be the game of the weekend at Villa Park.  Will this be the week when Manch...

This week on the Second Captains World Service we were joined by Lars Sivertsen and Glenn Evans from The Athletic and the 1874 Podcast to chat about last night’s incredible win for Villa, with some bonus Steve Bruce cabbage content thrown in for good measure. Closer to home, the League of Ireland title race has gone absolutely wild, with six teams out of a ten team league seemingly in contention f...

Less than a year ago the Irish women's rugby team had finished bottom of the Six Nations table, were playing the likes of Kazakhstan in the third tier of WXV, had not qualified for the previous World Cup and along with stories of interprovincial teams changing in front of wheelie bins and 7s players being taking in and out of the 15s camp, there was very little positivity about.  They have si...

The Manchester United content-creating machine trundles remorselessly on: another day, another humiliating home defeat. Jack Pitt-Brooke and Dion Fanning were watching, goggle-eyed at the latest United capitulation - this one with added red card drama.  Tottenham on the other hand had a delightful day at the office. It turns out the only thing a Premier League crisis club needs is a visi...

It's been another bumper week on the World Service and we want to serve you up a tempting slice of the action.  There was our chat with Dara Ó Briain live from London on the best summer of his sporting life, Barney Ronay and John Brewin on the still smouldering City-Arsenal discourse , and a sneak preview of our brilliant chat with legendary former League of Ireland player and manager Dermot...

The sport of rugby barely survived the Ken Early Rugby Special on Second Captains last week, but after a weekend deluge of tries, drama and upsets, it's back, baby! We do a quick series recap of "last season, in rugby" including a reminder that the international team did rather well in 2023/24, while the provinces struggled. Gerry Thornley joins us to discuss the 10-try interpro that wen...

We had been told that Manchester City/Arsenal games are guaranteed snooze-fests, but it turns out we had been misinformed. John Stones got the final goal of a 2-2 thriller in the eighth minute of injury time, and it was a game so rich in drama, so packed with shithousery, and so laden with meaning for this year's Premier League title race that we simply had to hear from Jonathan Wilson and Gavin C...

On this week's World Service roundup; Ken offers fresh perspective on Mikel Arteta's professional pickpocketer scheme, Eoin reopens a 34-year-old debate as to who was at fault for Toto Schillaci's goal that booted us out of Italia 90, and we share some of our chat with the great Katie McCabe live from the eartH Theatre in London last week. Join the party for a fiver a month – there’s no contracts,...

Rory McIlroy was 4 shots clear at the top of the leaderboard early in yesterday's final round of the Irish Open, was playing at his home-from-home course Royal County Down, against a field shy on world class golfers... nothing could possibly go wrong. Malachy Clerkin of the Irish Times wants to take away the stigma of choking in sport, thinks putting is the base issue and explains why he thinks Ro...

If Ange Postecoglou's set-up yesterday harked back to the days of Ossie Ardiles, Mikel Arteta's Arsenal paid tribute to the spirit of an even earlier time. The Basque has reconnected Arsenal with their roots - and what lies beneath.  We also talk about Heimir Hallgrimsson's blithe lack of concern for Optics. Jack Pitt-Brooke joins us to talk about the North London derby, the measure...

We welcomed Eddie Dunbar into studio last summer to talk about the impact that a series of devastating crashes had on his career and his health.  Since then he has had another run of injuries including in this year's Giro D'Italia, but with that bad luck finally behind him, Dunbar has just won 2 stages of the Vuelta España, the second of which is the biggest win of his life.  W...

You want it to be one way. You want it to be one way. You want it to be one way. But it's the other way.  Rice '11, Grealish '26 - a script written by an English sadist. Did we manifest this?  Damien Delaney and Richie Sadlier join us to sift through the wreckage. What didn't they like about Ireland's approach? What could we have done instead? And what should we do next?  We also he...

On this week's World Service tasting platter we drum up some excitement ahead of Saturday's Nations League showdown with England, Ken goes toe-to-toe with Stuart 'Psycho' Pearce on TalkSport and Craig Ray tells us why Ellis Park in Johannesburg is the toughest place to go in world rugby, And the brilliant Ellen Keane chats to us about seeing magic, introverted extroverts and seeking spontaneity. J...

There’s always a quote; “United's high-profile catastrophic start to the season has rightly brought every player under the microscope, but the purchase of a world-class holding midfielder could mark a change in fortunes at Old Trafford”. So read the Daily Mail in August 2022 - the world-class holding midfielder being paraded around Old Trafford before a match against Liverpool that day was... Case...

Welcome to your free weekly taster of the Second Captains World Service. This week we had non stop entertainment from Ken - from Alexander The Great to Oasis to train stories to strolls with Sean Fitz - he is a true song and dance and stories man. We also chatted to Rhasidat about the need for speed (but when) and her poor health at the Olympics. Plus there was Transfer Deadline Day nonsense, the...

Paul O'Donovan won yet another rowing world title this weekend, while Jakob Ingebrigtsen shattered one of the longest-standing track world records - but the man who stole the world's attention, and money, was pole vaulting charisma machine Mondo Duplantis. We chat to David Gillick and Gavin Cooney about Rhasidat's latest 4th place finish, her road to endurance, the anti doping issues in Bahrain, O...

Lars Sivertsen and Rich Jolly join us to talk through the weekend's football. What is happening at Everton, where we see Dyche, but not Dycheball? What kind of impression has Fabien Hürzeler already made after a couple of games in the Premier League? How are Norway managing not to qualify for international tournaments these days? And is it really true that any idiot can play Wonderwall? Hosted on...

Welcome to your weekly taster of the Second Captains World Service. This week we have Ken on the Chelsea cash elevator, Maresca's man management and football's great gamble. Plus there's Conor Niland in studio on Novak's secret sauce and Michael Darragh Macauley on his passion for his new role as CEO of Sanctuary Runners, a group that uses running as a way to bring together asylum seekers, refugee...

Branno went to Kerry this weekend to see the kingdom get taught a football lesson, but instead got an education in floats, parades, Roses and mass. Branno is now back in Dublin having seen some of the TEN DAYS of the Rose of Tralee festival.  Today’s show tries to answer important questions such as: what would Ken’s B-boy name be? Why are Australians so good at sport? Is it ok...

John Brewin and Dion Fanning join us to talk about the opening weekend of the Premier League season.  John was at Portman Road to see the debuts of Kieran McKenna and Arne Slot and reports on the respective animal magnetisms of the two up-and-coming coaches. We also talk about Chelsea and their offences against football.  Elsewhere, the latest instalment in the Perarnau-Guardiola series...

Welcome to your weekly taster of the Second Captains World Service. This week we have a Premier League preview show, Man Utd's nostalgia money, anatomy of a 4 x 400m Olympic final, and Steph Curry's GOAT status. Join the party for a fiver a month – there’s no contracts, no hidden fees and no ads. Go to secondcaptains.com/join for details. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information...

Ken came into this Olympics a doubter and left it a believer. Was this the greatest ever Games?  We chat to Cathal Dennehy and Gavin Cooney about the event, the Irish mentality, the 4th-place-a-thon, the drugs question, and how the future looks for us as an Olympic nation. Plus there's woozy Wiffen, sports tapas, pickleball rules and as ever Satan has his way with ceremonies and just Europe i...