It's unique, this talent we have. We may not be better at football than the English, but we're certainly better at talking about it. It's a great Irish skill, to take something belonging to the English and better it. And having done it with the English language, in recent decades we've done it with their national sport.
England invented the sport and since spent decades in thrall to its inventors, with television coverage often painfully bland, inoffensive and reverential. Not so in Ireland. Caution around football has long since melted on RTE, as they realised that football is far too important a thing to take seriously. Instead, The Panel have used it as something to fall out over and tell some uncomfortable truths.
This has led to some spectacular, unforgettable arguments: be it Eamon Dunphy accusing Liam Brady of jumping over the fence, Eamon Dunphy tossing a pen in disgust, Eamon Dunphy attacking Rod Liddle, or, er, Eamon Dunphy defending Roy Keane as a rebel.
But there have been plenty more on-air ructions at Montrose, many of which have been underrated and lost to the mists of time. Here, we remember a few of those which have flown beneath the radar.
