Joe Brolly was on Miriam O'Callaghan's morning programme yesterday alongside his niece, the singer Aine Brolly.
Joe held court for 40 minutes on his favourite subjects, namely, the GAA, the north, kidney donations, and the grand evil of political correctness.
He ridiculed 'Ireland's Call', attacked the proposal to abandon the playing of the national anthem, and once more addressed Gregory Campbell's objections to his GAA club.
According to Brolly, Campbell believes that Kevin Lynch's in Dungiven resembles North Korea, with young Catholic lads being trained in the use of small arms, as opposed to O'Neill's footballs.
Miriam was at pains to confirm that she wasn't what we might call a 'GAA-head' but she did make sure to ask Joe for the greatest player he'd ever seen. She even muttered "amazing" as Brolly waxed lyrical about Peter Canavan so full marks for effort.
Ultimately, Brolly settled on the Bomber Liston , the "most dominant" of them all. He relayed once more the story of the Bomber sinking around 35 pints in one marathon drinking session. In Joe's account, it ended with Liston pitching forward onto the table in front of him.
Probably, the most dominant footballer I've seen was the Bomber Liston. Who made me sing a song once. I can't remember the song. He had me under his oxter.
He says "Derryman, I head you can sing!" And he put me under his oxter and made me sing.
He's a huge man, he's like a bear. He had a pint of Guinness and it was like a thimble in his hand. And he went on to produce one of the most prodigious feats of drinking Guinness that I've ever seen. He drank for a day in a half.
And eventually, like the great scene in Indiana Jones, where Indiana's girlfriend drinks the big Siberian guy, and eventually he just falls off his stool, well in the Bomber's case, he just went forward onto the table. He must have drank 35 pints.
He was an absolute dominant force and I think the most dominant force in that Kerry team, which is, by common acclaim, the greatest team ever to play the game.
That same day, Bomber, obviously in high spirits, told Brolly that"most human beings are born with skin on their hands. I was born with silk."
