Dara is our Lineker with his pants on

IT was sad to see the passing of TG4’s Seo Sport into television history last week.

I know that I will be accused of bias here – and I appeared on it more than once – but I really thought it was one of the best sports programmes on Irish TV.

I appreciate that as a Gaelic speaker, it had an obvious appeal to that niche market, but that was not my main reason as to why I thought it was so good.

It stood on its own editorial merits as a show, it was clear, focused and devoid of bull manure, with interesting guests and forthright opinions.

Above all, it had Dara Ó Cinnéide (above) as anchor and, of course, I could be blinded here by loyalty and friendship, but I just think he is a great journalist.

He has a great grasp of language, English and Irish, and his knowledge could steer guests down interesting roads.

It would be a great pity if he was lost to our TV screens as he is such a rare talent.

It is rare to see former players graduate to the anchor chair in sports programming, but Dara showed he could make that leap.

He is our Gary Lineker only better.

For starters, he won’t ever shed his trousers to celebrate Kerry winning the All-Ireland.