Joe Brolly hits out at RTÉ’s ‘false apology’ to ‘wee s****’ Barry McGuigan
Joe Brolly has criticised RTÉ’s apology to Barry McGuigan over the “robust views” expressed by the football pundit and Eamon Dunphy, .
The duo appeared last month on the ‘Ireland’s Greatest Sporting Moment’ series to discuss the 1980s and both were dismissive of McGuigan’s achievement of becoming world champion and its significance.
Host Des Cahill apologised “to Barry and his legion of supporters” at the top of the following week’s show. He said: “the conversations strayed somewhat from the great moment that we set out to mark… and it wasn't in the spirit of what the programme was designed to do”.
Brolly admitted he was “biased against” the Clones Cyclone on the broadcast, adding that McGuigan’s draw both sides of the border “wasn't the real thing”, but was “showbiz, the white dove on the shorts and all of that”.
Dunphy agreed with Brolly that much of that was “hype”.
Eamon Dunphy: "Barney Eastwood was the real hero of the Barry McGuigan success story" #irelandsgreatest pic.twitter.com/DR7XySvuz4
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) November 9, 2017
Speaking on Dunphy’s ‘The Stand’ podcast, Brolly returned to the topic.
“The world has increasingly become like the Rose of Tralee. You can’t even say that Barry McGuigan was a mediocre fighter,” he said early in the chat.
He then circled back to the McGuigan-Rose of Tralee comparison before the end of the podcast.
“We’re either interested in the truth and in the facts of things or we’re in Rose of Tralee world where no-one says anything and where, for example, RTÉ apologise because you and I took an entirely fair, but robust view of Barry McGuigan.”
“I mean, apologising? And, of course, everybody knows the apology is false as well.
“Everybody knows, ‘Well that’s a false apology, obviously McGuigan has rung up to complain about this, the wee shite that he is’.”
You can listen to their full conversation below…
