On this evening's Off The Ball, Joe Molloy was scheduled to speak with Skibbereen rower Mark O'Donovan about his gold medal alongside Shane O'Driscoll in the lightweight men's pair at the European Championships. Newstalk's airwaves were instead hijacked by a cacophony of Skibbereen accents, as O'Driscoll and the O'Donovan brothers joined the other O'Donovan - no relation - for a thoroughly superb four-way interview.
After initially failing to answer his phone, Mark O'Donovan regaled Off The Ball listeners with his version of events from Racice, Czech Republic yesterday, before another familiar voice chimed in, prompting presenter Molloy to ask if he actually had two people on the line.
"Oh, yeah, we've Gary here now. I'm Gary O'Donovan," came the response.
It suddenly transpired that not only had the elder O'Donovan brother joined Mark O'Donovan on the line, but younger brother Paul and Shane O'Driscoll were huddled around Mark's phone down in West Cork as well.
Molloy asked the Skibbereen massive of the bonfire celebrations on their return last night, to which Mark O'Donovan responded:
The amount of legal documents that got burnt was unbelievable.
Last year, it was all about burning beds and doors. This year, it was legal documents. Even the banks were out there getting rid of it - everyone's bank drafts.
Asked if the rumours were true that the Irish rowers didn't even get a chance to have a shower before getting on the plane yesterday, the response was equally priceless:
Shane O'Driscoll: We actually washed ourselves with a water bottle and a towel.
Gary O'Donovan: We drowned the towel in water and washed. It wasn't a great job - we'd no shampoo. But we're clean now, you can be sure of that.
Mark O'Donovan: We're probably due another one!
On being asked if they were sick of each other, Mark O'Donovan and O'Driscoll - whom it was revealed earlier in the show had once shared a room above a pub - broke down the dynamic of their relationship, with a new house providing a solution for some extremely personal matters:
O'Donovan: We're after moving into a new house there a good while ago, and we've separate rooms, so it's a great setup. The relationship only gets stronger that way, you know?
O'Driscoll: Keep the personal life separate!
O'Donovan: It was very funny when the woman used to be calling over, we'd have to pull Shane's matress out into the living room, and it was smaller than the bedroom itself. Shane would have to sleep in between couches and everything by the tv. He woke up to the tv being turned on and the bedsheets being torn off him!
O'Driscoll: I can't explain that one!
You can listen to O'Donovans Mark, Paul and Gary, along with Shane O'Driscoll, on Off The Ball below - and trust us, it's worth a few minutes of your time.
