The 42FM

Gavin and Sinéad review the year by picking the moments from 2024 they believe they’ll still be talking about in 20 years. There’s naturally tales and reflections of Ireland’s many Olympic glories, but also a look back on couple of heartbreaks. Gavin also talks about a month on German trains, with a little bit of Euro 2024 football thrown in. There’s also why Rory McIlroy’s ongoing major heartbrea...

This week’s episode is all about sports books, as Sinéad quizzes Gavin about the process of co-writing  The Racket  with Conor Niland, which won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award for 2024. They delve into how the book came about and how the structure of the book was decided upon, along with discussing the process of writing it. Gavin and Sinéad also pick their favourite spor...

On this week’s show, Gavin and Sinéad are joined by The 42's GAA correspondent Declan Bogue to get into the details of Revenue’s audit of GAA county boards. Why are Revenue targeting the GAA, and what specifically are they looking at? Is this matter likely to extend to under-the-table payments to managers? How seriously is this being taken by the GAA at central level, and how worried are the vario...

On this week’s show, Gavin and Sinéad explore the controversy around the Premier League’s Rainbow Laces campaign, a long-running visibility and inclusivity campaign in support of the LGBTQ+ community which two Premier League captains and the Manchester United team chose not to support fully last week. Is the campaign doing more harm than good? Why is the men’s football so hostile to the LGBTQ+ com...

Is Gerry Hutch an exponent of sportswashing? Are Sinn Fein the FAI of politics, to Fianna Fáil’s GAA? And why do all count centres look like Ireland circa 1992? Gav, a “humble sports correspondent”, puts these and other questions to Sinead, who had led The Journal’s coverage of GE24, and must therefore be in a good place to offer some general election player ratings for the party leaders, and a lo...

On Friday, a jury found that Conor McGregor sexually assaulted Nikita Hand in a Dublin hotel in 2018. Gavin and Sinéad discuss the case on today’s show, and some of the reasons why the jury may have come to their decision. They also discuss the likelihood of McGregor being granted an appeal, and salute the astonishing strength and bravery of Nikita Hand. They also chart McGregor’s rise and fall: w...

Gavin and Sinead discuss what happens when a totemic leader reaches the end. Should they be kept close to the team, or even be given a bespoke role like Johnny Sexton? Or is a clean break as in the case of Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp or Bill Shankly preferable? Could Sexton be inhibiting the next wave of Irish out-halves, in the same manner that Alex Ferguson’s lingering presence at Old Trafford we...

Was Katie Taylor the just winner of last night’s fight for the ages with Amanda Serrano? Was the majesty of Taylor-Serrano II diminished by its staging as part of a farcical event featuring Jake Paul and Mike Tyson? Was the fight so good as to deem such concerns irrelevant? Might Netflix now seek to stage Taylor-Serrano III as a headlining event, minus the novelty sideshow involving a YouTube pers...

Why are Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano fighting on the undercard of the ‘freakshow’ that is Mike Tyson versus Jake Paul? Gavin Cooney and Sinead O’Carroll are joined from Dallas by Gavan Casey, and the trio discuss the rise of novelty ‘boxing’ events. They differ on whether Taylor is compromising her legacy by taking her place on such a card. Should the Bray fighter have turned her back on this s...

WITH IRELAND KICKING off their November rugby internationals against New Zealand on Friday night, Gav and Sinéad debate the extent to which Ireland can really be called Rugby Country. Is rugby really a national obsession? The popularity of the provinces and the Irish national team is beyond question, but how has that fanbase grown given so few people play the game? Given the fact the Irish team is...

AS THE LEAGUE of Ireland season draws towards its nerve-shredding final day, Gav and Sinead discuss the boom in popularity of domestic football. Why have crowds increased so significantly this decade? And can the rising numbers be leveraged into that most elusive and long-desired of things: a thriving football industry in Ireland. The pair talk about what needs to happen next to make that aspirati...

There is an election on the horizon - even though the government won’t tell us when it will be. Whenever the official election campaign swings into action, though, it’s a near-certainty that no politician will be asked about sport. Today Gavin and Sinéad wonder why that is the case: can we really be said to care about sport in any real way if it is never raised as an election topic? Gavin and Siné...

GAA president Jarlath Burns last weekend floated the possibility that inter-county GAA managers could be put under regularised contracts, which brought back to the surface a persistent talking point in GAA: payments to managers. Despite the GAA’s amateur status, successive presidents and directors-general of the Association have acknowledged that managers are paid at club and inter-county level. O...

Sinead O'Carroll and Gavin Cooney discuss whether Israel could face sporting sanctions. The pair examine why Israel has been judged differently than Russia by sporting bodies so far. They question where the moral and diplomatic lines sit - and detail how sport can be used for noble and nefarious purposes in an increasingly war-riven world. Hot Pepper by Alex-Productions | https://onsound.eu/ Music...

Gavin and Sinéad are back for the second episode of The 42FM and they aren't alone! This week, Murray Kinsella drops into the studio to discuss the journey that Irish women's rugby has taken to get to the point where they have managed to beat New Zealand. Sinéad, Gavin and Murray analyse the structures of women's rugby in Ireland, discuss the commercial and moral reasons behind the increased focus...

Today we launch a new podcast,  The 42FM  with Gavin Cooney and Sinéad O’Carroll. Building on the success of  Olympics Daily with Cooney & O’Carroll ,  The 42FM  will zoom out on the biggest sports story of the week, bringing the wider context and issues into play. Here, Sinéad and Gavin analyse and debate whether it is right that Limerick’s decorated wing-back Kyle Ha...

Cooney & O'Carroll are back! Off the back of their incredible success with Olympics Daily, Gavin Cooney and Sinéad O'Carroll are back with brand-new podcast The 42FM, an epic handshake between The Journal and The 42! Every Tuesday, they will zoom out on the biggest sports story of the week to explore the wider context and issues at play - it’s sports meets news, current affairs, society and po...

Here it is then, the final episode of of Olympics Daily: Paris 2024. Gavin and Sinead gather at the mics for one last time, mainly because the longer they talk the longer they can convince themselves that the Games haven’t actually ended. They chat through their favourite memories from the Games, and what we learned about our greatest sportspeople. They also reflect on today’s homecoming event for...

And it must come to an end. Gav and Sinéad report from Ireland's final two events at Paris 2024 - an incredible fifth Olympics for Fionnuala McCormack and a sensory blitzkrieg from the velodrome. They also run through their favourite moments of the past 16 days, from Irish gold medals to sport-changing performances. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

So close! The brilliant 4x400m women's relay team finished fourth in the Olympic final after running a national record. The quartet were devastated talking to journalists afterwards, and Sinéad and Gav give their view of that room. Earlier, Sinéad went weightlifting to watch a member of the Refugee Olympic Team while Gav dealt with the online fallout of his questioning of Bahraini athlete Salwa Ei...

The country watched on as Rhasidat Adeleke came fourth in a world final for the second time. Sinéad and Gav were in Stade de France to witness the 21-year-old's disappointment as she fell short of her podium dream. They discuss her future - from tomorrow night's relay final to future Olympic and world title chances. Earlier, Sinéad delighted in the 4x400m relay qualification while Gav enjoyed the...

Gavin bagged a media ticket to watch the USA’s star-spangled basketball team and reports back from their stunning comeback win against Serbia, which earned them a spot in Saturday’s gold medal match against France. Sinead, meanwhile, was at the Stade de France to watch Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone turn the 400m hurdles final into history’s fastest procession. They also discuss Noah Lyles’ revelation...

Rhasidat Adeleke has made history by qualifying for an Olympic sprint final, but she admitted afterwards it was a “messy race” that leaves a lot of things to fix for Friday’s final. Gavin reports from a curious night at the Stade de France and asks what her performance augurs for the final. Sinead spent a day at Taekwondo with Jack Woolley, and reports on an agonising near-miss after an agonising...

Kellie Harrington has done it: she has become the first Irish Olympian to successfully defend their title since, well, Friday. Let’s say she’s only the second to do it since 1932. Gav and Sinead were both in Roland-Garros to see the crowning moment of her farewell, and report on what it felt like in the moment and what it means to Kellie, who said that, “this one’s for me.” That was a happy sequel...

Gav and Sinead were both there to witness Rhasidat Adeleke’s comfortable victory in her first run at the Olympic Games. What does the time and result mean for her medal hopes? Is it time to get very excited? Meanwhile, there is live reaction to the breaking news of Ciara Mageean’s devastating, injury-enforced withdrawal from the Olympic Games. From Ireland’s point of view, it’s news to grey an Oly...