David O'Shea

@RobLooseCannon A girl from our school was on it and every time she was asked a question she had to confer. She became known as Confer for the rest of her time in school.

Blackboard Jungle was compulsory viewing for me when it started in 1991. Network 2 was the awkward younger sibling of RTE1, when it made the secondary school quiz show with a name borrowed from a 1955 American film about a teacher being terrorised by juvenile delinquents. Appropriate enough, as it turned out. Blackboard Jungle ran from 18 September 1991 until 31 July 1998, seven series and a remarkable 611 episodes, produced by Frontier Films out of Studio 2 in RTÉ's Donnybrook nepotistic cesspit. Two teams of three students from different secondary schools faced off over rounds of general knowledge, building toward a grand final at the end of each series. At its peak, the show aired three times a week, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 8pm. That is a lot of acne, brylcreem and closeted homosexuality on national television. The man in the middle of all this was Ray D'Arcy, a Tipperary Peter-Pan type who'd replaced Ian Dempsey as presenter of The Den in 1990. He was also, by all accounts, good craic and able to keep a straight face when a contestant, asked to identify the actor who played the title role in Malcolm X, confidently answered Mel Gibson. Another hopeful, asked to give the more accurate astronomical name for the Little Bear constellation, offered Morris Minor. These were the moments that made the show. Not the correct answers, but the innocently shite and often confidently incorrect ones. Getting onto the show involved a general knowledge test administered by RTÉ researchers who visited secondary schools around the country. Obviously many students sat the test purely to get out of class. I did similar for a test in 1st Year 1994 and ended up at a secret goverment facility for 3 weeks that summer, but thats another story. The prizes were savage at the time. Sony CD ghetto blasters, portable televisions, camcorders and if your school reached the final, an actual minibus. Transformative generational wealth for our underfunded educational system. This was event television, even if most Irish teenagers would have been mortified to admit it as the accepted position when talking about it to your mates was that Blackboard Jungle was for nerds. Incidentally my mates tell me I was a/am a geek rather than nerd, because geeks are also ugly. Friendship! Anyway the show ended in summer 1998, with D'Arcy moving on to 2Phat (love you Nora!) and eventually to Today FM. Blackboard Jungle was replaced by Gridlock, hosted by Derek Mooney. We'll leave it there. Incidentally during its run between The Den and Blackboard Jungle alone, Ray D'Arcy was racking up over sixteen hours of screen time a week. That's definitely the most a white Irish heterosexual Catholic male will ever be on Irish telly again! Buy the Dublin Time Machine a pint and support the DTM Book ko-fi.com/buchanandublin…

@conormckenna98 Or 7 times if AIF goes to a replay.

Cork and Limerick hurlers are set to meet for the fifth time this year in the Munster final. Could be 6 if both sides reach All-Ireland final. Senior footballers also met twice this year as well. Can’t remember two teams meeting 6 times in GAA history.

@tjmcgibnxy @OdohertyI64991 Just surprised that was what you took from it. I'm from Kilrush and I thought it was a very measured piece and it actually painted the town in a good light. Many people associate Kilrush with social problems and thankfully Rob's piece didn't.

@jackosham @OdohertyI64991 I did. Your point?

"My way or the highway", recent blow-in lectures country town.

@OdohertyI64991 @tjmcgibnxy Did you even read Rob's piece?

@tjmcgibnxy That'll end well I remember a Dublin journalist moved to a rural area about 20 years ago and wrote a piece about the backward locals and their silly country ways. There was a whole episode of Liveline of him trying to defend himself against his own neighbours. It was hilarious.

@pat_nolan @coilinduffy Liam and Kevin O'Neill. Anthony and Robert Finnerty.

Fathers and sons who have won provincial titles with different counties in different codes after Ollie and Senan/Tadhg Baker? Only ones that spring to mind straight off are Jackie and Ger Power (Limerick hurling and Kerry football). #GAA

@Jskehill01 On a scale of difficulty from 1 to 10. Where does that save fall?

👏👏👏

@bbarrymurphy @fotoole13 @Inphosports Thats what you got from the photo. Christ.

@fotoole13 @Inphosports The grass around the butt of the post is not a good look for the groundsman in an inter-county stadium it should not be like this

Great snap by @Inphosports of Mark Sheedy's penalty shootout save for Clare

@OdohertyI64991 @Glinner @rtenews He's not going to reply to you. He never does.

@Glinner fame at last. They just mentioned your Eurovision tweet on the @rtenews

@Liam816813 @SeanSheehanBA @johncrowle90108 Clare and Dublin beat Limerick in championship last year.

@SeanSheehanBA @johncrowle90108 You are completely wrong on both points here - Cork have been the only team to beat Limerick in the past 5 years. And I have never heard any Cork person suggest that they had the best squad.You need to be able to differentiate between media hype and reality

You'd love to have Cork's luck. Cian Lynch red, Waterford injuries and Sean Stack have them 3 from 3. Could be on the brink without that. In reality they look much poorer than last year. Which is natural under a new manager and losing a player like Hoggie.

Clare footballers could take a leaf out of Galways book. Kick the ball forward.

@madf6767 A rich tradition of losing finals. 11 of 12 national finals over a 20 year period. So please 🤫🤫🤫

@jackosham We dont have a sense of entitlement my friend,but we have a rich tradition. And when we go ahead by scoring a great goal with 10 minutes to go,we usually go ahead and win the game. Thats why it was disappointing. So please 🤫🤫🤫🤫

Cork hurlers,primarily at under age level are slowly but surely perfecting the art of losing games that they should be winning. We were dreadful at catching high ball off the air,had dreadful middle 8 workrate and Clare's physicality ,we simply couldnt handle. Worrying,no doubt.

Don't agree with the red card for Cian Lynch.... not great reffing #CorkvLimerick

@WestKerrylad @shocko_78 @TomasORuanaidh A deliberate body collision is a black card.

@shocko_78 @TomasORuanaidh Not a free on any occasion its called a screen fir a reason.

David Clifford effort for a point goes straight into the back of the net, Clare were calling for another screen as Brosnan got into Ugwueru’s path. Ref right there 🤷‍♂️ Job done for Clifford, black carded a few secs later for a foul on Ikem. Clare 1-13 2-19 Kerry - 63 mins #GAA

@DLynchSport More like a basketball game with the screening Kerry were doing. Clifford profited with 3pts in first half from his screening teammates.

Can anyone explain how this isn’t a free out? Definitely should have been dealt with better by the Clare defence; but the obstruction on Ikem surely should have been pulled??

@KillianM2 You'll have Ian O'Doherty onto you defending him to the hilt.

@AOShaughnessy36 @KildareFan2025 He was off field for 10 minutes getting stitched. There was blood coming out of back of his head.

@KildareFan2025 You don't need stitches for a dive.

Three match ban for diving would cut this out of the game pretty quickly. Review incidents on a Monday morning, if a player dives or pretends to be hurt then slap them with a ban.

@NoelMadden19 Sean was hoping he didn't see him

@jackosham Sean Brady would be able to tell you that. 🤣🤣

Test for all Galway GAA fans. If you're over 40, without checking the comments, you should remember this guy! #GalwayGAA #Galway

@OLBG Le tissier couldn't make an English team that won nothing but is considered world class.

🗣️ Roy Keane was NOT world class! Marc White plays world class or not with former footballers… Watch the full episode on the OLBG YouTube channel 📺 #olbg #roykeane #premierleague #marcwhite #mufc