Tony O'Donoghue

Tony O'Donoghue is an Irish Sports commentator and Group Soccer Correspondent for RTÉ, Ireland's national radio and television broadcaster. He reports on Republic of Ireland, League of Ireland, Champions League and English Premier League games and occasionally presents RTÉ's Monday Night Soccer programme, MNS, as well as presenting and reporting on various live games for RTÉ Television.

Reputation

He became known for his reports on the events in Saipan that saw Ireland captain Roy Keane leave the Republic of Ireland camp before the World Cup in Japan and Korea. In an interview with Keane, the Manchester United player outlined his frustrations with the manager, the FAI and the mysterious circumstances surrounding the departure of Stephen Ireland from the Ireland squad during the Steve Staunton era. He has covered all the main stories involving the FAI since the ticket scandals of the mid nineties.

Columnist

He also writes a regular column for the RTÉ Sports website on football related matters, "The Inside Track", the same title used for a Drivetime music and sports radio show he hosted for RTÉ Cork 89FM in the 1990s and a sports column he wrote for the Irish Examiner newspaper for a number of years beginning in 1996.

Career

Before becoming the station's first ever Group Soccer Correspondent he was previously Sports News Correspondent and later Sports Editor for RTÉ Television News.

Prior to his move to the RTÉ Newsroom he was a commentator and presenter of RTÉ's main radio sports shows, Saturday Two to Five and Sunday Sport.

He specialised in Gaelic Games, Athletics and Football and covered each All Ireland hurling and Football championship since 1987 as well as the Olympics in Barcelona (1992), Atlanta(1996), where his emotional trackside interview with Sonia O'Sullivan is remembered, Sydney (2000) and Athens (2004).

O'Donoghue also contributed to the music magazine Hot Press during the 1980s, and acted as manager of Cypress, Mine!, a rock group from his native Cork.^[1] As a sports commentator his first major broadcast was the Cork County Senior Hurling championship final between Sarsfields and Glen Rovers in 1989 and he went on to commentate on major intercounty championship matches for RTÉ radio including Munster hurling and football games, Connacht finals and one of the four famous Dublin v Meath clashes in 1991.

As a freelance he commentated on many Cork City Football club games for RTÉ local and national radio including Cork City v Torpedo Moscow in 1989 and Cork City v Bayern Munich in 1991.Tony has supported Spurs since childhood.

Documentary

RTÉ television History Documentary, Black Sheep was a pilot made by O'Donoghue on the life and times of his grandfather, William O'Sullivan, a sailor in the British Navy who was aboard the RMS Leinster in 1918 when it was torpedoed by a German U Boat. O'Sullivan, it transpired, was a hero who saved the lives of a family who had been on board. The programme was later aired as the first of a series in 2006.

References