Cover Story
As he faces into a summer without GAA for the first time, Marty Morrissey chats to Janice Butler from his garden shed about filling that void, his bromance with Bernard O’Shea and why he has turned down offers to go into politics
Marty Morrissey The genial broadcaster talks to Janice Butler about facing into a summer without GAA; working from his garden shed; and why he always embraces the positives in life
It’s a Monday a ernoon when I chat with Marty Morrissey. He’s in his famous shed at home in Quilty in west Clare with his RTÉ Guide Christmas caricature permanently in the corner. e family home where he grew up is on the Wild Atlantic Way and he remarks that it’s normally heaving with tourists from all over the world at this time of the year. Now though, it’s eerily quiet: “When I’m here normally during the summer on a day o , I can judge from the car ferry when it’s arrived into Killimer and the cars will pass by our door in convoy. But now you could play football out on the main road, it’s been so strangely subdued.”
Like most people in Ireland, even those with only a passing interest in GAA, I know of Marty Morrissey, but this was the rst time I’ve spoken to him properly. From the get-go, you can see why he’s so loved by the nation: he’s considerate, asking can I hear him OK as he has his phone plugged in and on speaker. He appreciates the job he does and the opportunities he gets. He is naturally inquisitive, asking where I’m from. We discover quite quickly that we have similar connections; family from
Cork (Mallow to be exact), childhoods spent in the US, him in the Bronx, me in Boston; with both of families eventually settling in the west. - “Jesus Janice! We could be related, we’ve a lot in common,” he laughs.
At the moment he’s spending most of his time at home in County Clare with his mother Peggy who he says is nding it hard to stay inside and is missing her friends. His dad passed away 15 years ago, and being an only child, Marty’s mother is one of the rocks in his life. Since lockdown began, his show on the RTÉ Player, Marty in the Shed has become an instant online hit as he chats to a host of well-known names via Zoom from his garden, including Chris O’Dowd, Nicky Byrne, Aidan O’Shea and Erika Fox.
“It was an idea I always had but I never thought it
To be honest with you, Dancing with the Stars was probably one of the best things I ever did
would see the light of day. Initially I thought we would do it on Instagram live but it went from there and took a life of its own and suddenly it’s got four programmes on the RTÉ Player and it seems to be getting a very positive response.” Marty Morrissey was born in Mallow and as mentioned earlier, he spent the rst ten years of his life in New York, before returning with his parents to his father’s native Clare, where his dad bought the local pub. “It was very strange as a young boy moving from somewhere as busy as New York to County Clare, but I wouldn’t be without it, it’s made me who I am today.” He wasn’t sure what he wanted to do with his life when he nished school. He initially studied medicine in UCC but switched a er a few years and went on to train to be a teacher in NUI Galway, a er which he took up a job in a school in Clare. “I didn’t know what I wanted to do a er my Leaving Cert. I always feel for students who have to ll out CAO forms and haven’t a clue. I certainly never thought I’d be involved in the media; I wouldn’t have even known how to get into it. It just wasn’t on my agenda. I realised quite quickly studying medicine that I needed to change courses and it was quite easy to do it back then,” he recalls. Even though he loved his time as a teacher, in 1984, he was lured into the world of sports reporting when he was asked to commentate on a local match from the back of a trailer. He was bitten by the bug and from then, his career completely changed. He had jobs in Clare FM, Lifestyle television in London and RTÉ Cork, but he never gave up on the idea of working in the sports department and he spent a long time “harassing” the powers that be for a job before eventually his e orts came good. “I got many letters of rejection, about three years of rejection, and the more they said no, the more I kept trying. ere was a thin line between me being a pain in the ass and being persuasive.” His parents were always encouraging of what he wanted to do, he says, “until I said I wanted to get a job in RTÉ and go to Dublin, then I got the speech about leaving a ‘ ne, permanent, pensionable job, would you ever cop on’. I did get those sermons”, he laughs.
He has no regrets “whatsoever” with how his career has turned out; in fact the last few years have seen it take a di erent turn with his appearance on Dancing with the Stars, an experience that has le a lasting e ect and a new bromance and TV show with fellow contestant Bernard O’Shea, Marty and Bernard - On the Road Again, a three-parter in which the duo go around the country and meet groups doing amazing things in the community.
“To be honest with you, Dancing with the Stars was probably one of the best things I ever did. “It was a challenge, it was a bit intimidating, it was frightening but in terms of the positives, I got to learn something. I wasn’t very good at it but I enjoyed it. But it was the friends I made that were key and from a career point of view, it exposed me to a di erent audience. I’m surprised, even to this day, if I walk down through a town, more people come up and talk to me about Dancing than the GAA.”
He credits Bernard O’Shea as one of his best friends, admitting that since DWTS ended, they talk on the phone almost every day. “Bernard and I have a common love of media and broadcasting but we also share the same sense of humour. We have great debates and talks, he entertains me. He’d be one of my closest friends at this stage.”
Marty keeps his personal life to himself. He’s in a relationship with Liz, who he met when working in Cork local radio in the early 1990s, but he respects her indi erence to the spotlight. He doesn’t consider himself a celebrity, despite his popularity. “I suppose, in all honesty, when I went looking for a job in RTÉ, all I wanted to do was what Michael O’Hehir and Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh did. Fame wasn’t part of it, I think I just diversify, I like doing something di erent.” He’s been asked to go into politics more than once, which doesn’t come as a big surprise considering his popularity, but he’s yet to accept the o er. “I don’t think politics and me would agree. It’s a very tough job and I think it would be very demanding. I’d probably have to give my own opinion, I would nd it hard to adhere to party politics. I don’t know if I would be brave enough to do it - but it would depend on what’s on o er.”
He’s more sensitive than people might realise and he admits that if he reads negative comments it a ects him more than he’d like to let on.
“If I’m being honest it would bother me a bit, even if the bravado answer to that question s to say no. I’ve come to realise that there’s always going to be someone who’s negative and gives out about what you do but if you get the majority in your corner and they like what you do; then you appreciate that.”
He’s been RTÉ’s Gaelic Games correspondent since 2013. For the rst time since 1888, we’re facing into a summer without the buzz and the glory of the Championship. “When we think of all the lives that have been lost and the families of those people, sport is pretty far down the pecking order. But if we are to return to things like sport, we need to keep the curve attened. It would be a disaster to have to go backwards to full lockdown again in late June or July.” He’s not sure we’ll see any action on the eld this summer even behind closed doors, but suggests we could be looking at an All Ireland Final around Christmas or St Patrick’s Day next year. How much is he missing the excitement of it all?
“It’s slightly bizarre in the sense that it’s only now it’s hitting me. As the GAA correspondent, I’ve been kept busy with various news bulletins but I found last Sunday a very long day. Having spent the last number of years preparing for the weekend games, now all that’s gone, so there’s a huge void.”
As someone who is always on the go, up and down the roads of Ireland and pressing the esh with the public, he admits he nds it hard to have so much time on his hands. He would like to volunteer his time n some way with the HSE. “ e shed and work have kept me going so it’s only really now that it’s slowing down and it’s dawned on me – what am I going to do? I’d like to, if I could somehow, help out with the HSE. I feel I could contribute in some small way, just not sure how yet.”
Our conversation ends as it began, chatting about places we both have family in. He jokes that he is hoping I’ll open the interview with “I really enjoyed my chat with my cousin Marty.” In a country as small as ours, you’d never know, but for now, cousin or not, I did really enjoyed my chat with the man himself.
It was very strange as a young boy moving from somewhere as busy as New York to County Clare, but I wouldn’t be without it, it’s made me who I am today