The result of the vote was not the most interesting aspect of last night's episode of 'Ireland's Greatest Sporting Moment' on RTÉ Two. It was never in doubt that Ray Houghton's goal against England at Euro 88 would come out on top as the nation's best sports moment of the 1980s. Houghton putting the ball in the English net garnered 42 per cent of the public vote.
Rather, what most entertained was Joe Brolly's unambiguous dislike of Barry McGuigan and how much Eamon Dunphy just did not rate McGuigan's victory against Eusebio Pedroza as a great Irish sporting moment.
McGuigan's 1985 WBA featherweight title win against Pedroza at Loftus Road was one of the five moments shortlisted on last night's show which saw Brolly, Dunphy and Sonia O'Sullivan discuss the merits of each.
Des Cahill put it to Dunphy that it was McGuigan's 'boy next door' profile which appealed to people - it was a suggestion he swiftly rejected along with outlining why, for him, the title win does not rank.
Barney [Eastwood, McGuigan's manager] had lined up a succession of easy fights for him - I think 17 or 18 - to ensure that he became respected enough to become a contender.
Then he found Perdoza, who was over the hill, spent all the day in a sauna and really wasn't fit to fight. McGuigan went out and as Barney said, bitterly, to me afterwards, 'It took him 15 rounds to do something he should have done in five rounds.' That's the inside story and that's the true story.
Des Cahill countered that Pedroza had 19 successive title defences. "Yes, but he was finished," quipped Dunphy to the amusement of the audience. He also added that the narrative which told of McGuigan uniting the island was not authentic, "I think the whole McGuigan thing about uniting the country North and South - he came from Clones - all of that stuff was hype."
Joe Brolly agreed with Dunphy's assessment. Though he did add that McGuigan was an undeniably exciting presence in the ring.
"It wasn't the real thing. Sectarianism was at its height in the North in 1987. That was showbiz, the white dove on the shorts and all of that.
Barry, technically, was a very flat-footed fighter and he trailed his backfoot so anytime he came up against a skilled opponent, he was going to be in trouble. He very quickly lost his title to Stevie Cruz who was just maybe a bit more than a journeyman."
Dunphy concluded that the real hero of the McGuigan story was Barney Eastwood.
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
After listening to Brolly and Dunphy tear down McGuigan's achievement, Sonia O'Sullivan suggested that he should not be on the list; John Treacy's 1984 Olympic marathon silver should be listed instead.
Asked for his top three, Brolly could not help put further elaborate on his dislike of McGuigan.
"Anybody but McGuigan, I'd like to start with... I just don't like the man," said Brolly. "I am biased against him. I want to declare that just in the interest of honest discourse.
I meant what I said about him earlier, it was undeniably exciting, we all went crazy when Pedroza went down in the seventh round."
