{"id":558842,"date":"2026-07-20T10:39:28","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T10:39:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/558842\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T10:39:28","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T10:39:28","slug":"marty-morrissey-i-used-to-cry-when-wed-go-home-to-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/558842\/","title":{"rendered":"Marty Morrissey: ‘I used to cry when we’d go home to New York’"},"content":{"rendered":"

For many, he is the voice of the GAA they grew up with and as Marty Morrissey tells Darragh McManus on a visit to his family home in West Clare, there are always more stories to tell.<\/p>\n

Stories, stories and more stories: Marty Morrissey’s life is built around them, both past and present.<\/p>\n

As match commentator on RT\u00c9\u2019s Gaelic games coverage on radio and TV, he brings us the story, live, as it\u2019s unfolding in all its operatic drama. As GAA correspondent across all platforms, he covers breaking news stories and ferrets out the deeper stories behind the match day facts.<\/p>\n

On his self-titled Radio One shows every Bank Holiday, he broadens out from sport and hears the interesting stories of people across the country. And in conversation, he\u2019s a wealth of fantastic stories, both personal and professional. The man can, and literally does, talk for Ireland.<\/p>\n

Here he is, standing in the old family home in Quilty in beautiful West Clare, pointing across the road and reminiscing on childhood football matches with local lads who “would arrive on their bicycles and use pitchforks for goalposts”.<\/p>\n

\"Marty<\/p>\n

There\u2019s the story of how his Uncle Paddy was once asked to sell those fields for a proposed new airport \u2013 and decided not to, but dined out anyway on the fact that he could have “made a load of money” if they hadn\u2019t chosen to relocate the airport to Shannon.<\/p>\n

Marty tells a story of his father walking over a hill to the West Clare Railway to get to school in Ennistymon CBS and then selling single cigarettes to classmates, from his grandmother\u2019s “small shop with a half-door”, to “make a few bob for whatever was going on at the time”.<\/p>\n

Then, of course, there\u2019s the story of how the young Marty was born in Cork, spent early childhood in New York and later youth in Quilty: a place he now calls “home, and part of my soul. It means an awful lot to me”.<\/p>\n

Martin Sr had been teaching in Mallow where, in the Mousetrap Pub, “he met a girl called Peggy Twomey from Doneraile in North Cork, who was training as a hairdresser. They started dating and fell in love, and my father decided he wanted to go to America. My grandmother and mother said, ‘You\u2019re not going anywhere unless you get married!\u2019 So they got married and went to America.”<\/p>\n

\"Marty<\/p>\n

Mart\u2019s father set up a travel agency in The Bronx, where the family lived in a one-bedroom apartment. “I still remember the number,” Marty says, “4D, in Bainbridge Avenue. My parents had no money so the apartment was at the back, but you\u2019d see the city lights outside.<\/p>\n

“Then you come from that back to Quilty. There was a shaky light outside the local pub \u2013 which still shakes! \u2013 and my bedroom window looked across the Atlantic, over to the Aran Islands. Every 13 seconds the lighthouse would light up. I remember asking my dad, \u2018My God, what have you done to us?\u2019”<\/p>\n

Marty was 10 at the time, a few years from high school, and national service was coming in for American teens. “My father said, \u2018He might fight for Ireland, but he won\u2019t fight for the USA!\u2019 The Quilty Tavern came up for sale, he bought it, and I grew up over the pub.”<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t take him long to settle in, and sport played a large part in that. He\u2019d been to Ireland several times as a child, playing ball with neighbouring kids; psychologically, Marty says, “I had a base. It wasn\u2019t total culture shock. And I always loved Quilty. I used to cry when we\u2019d go home to New York.<\/p>\n

“I played baseball and basketball with my school, St Anne\u2019s, and swore my allegiance to the American flag every day. Then on Sundays, I\u2019d swear allegiance to the Irish flag at GAA matches in Gaelic Park. So it was a kind of dual nationality.” (He\u2019s a US citizen but always travels on his Irish passport.)<\/p>\n

\"Marty<\/p>\n

The story of how Marty got into broadcasting is equally colourful. First, after school, Marty studied medicine in UCC for three years. “I thought being a doctor would impress the nurses. But anatomy and me didn\u2019t agree \u2013 dissecting bodies! I decided to change courses (microbiology and physics) and did well, and I was on the college football team, playing with these top players from Cork and Kerry.”<\/p>\n

He brought home the football knowledge gleaned to local club Kilmurry-Ibrickane, coaching underage teams to success. This, in a roundabout way, led to three years teaching science and PE in Spanish Point secondary, and his first commentating gig.<\/p>\n

“I loved every minute of teaching, but couldn\u2019t see myself staying there until I was 65. I\u2019m an only child of only children; no aunts, uncles, first cousins. So while I loved Quilty, I also knew I needed to go do other things.<\/p>\n

“In October 1984, Patrick Galvin the postman rang and said, \u2018You know we\u2019re in the country final on Sunday? I\u2019ve decided to get a video done, will you do the commentary?\u2019 I said no, I didn\u2019t want to listen to my own voice. He tried other people who couldn\u2019t or wouldn\u2019t do it, so eventually I agreed.”<\/p>\n

\"Marty<\/p>\n

That broadcasting debut comes across almost like a D\u2019Unbelievables skit in real-life: Marty in his “sexy black raincoat” and massive mop of untameable hair, standing on the back of a tractor-trailer while wild Atlantic winds buffet the sheets of plastic and galvanised iron set up as a makeshift shelter.<\/p>\n

Still, small acorns and all that: three weeks later, he and the cameraman were asked to do the Munster Club hurling final in Thurles. “I was gone from the back of a trailer to a brand-new stadium. Clare club Sixmilebridge won, and I interviewed Sean Stack, who I greatly admired. And a Patrickswell player called David Punch: we became great friends, and for the last 25 years, Punchy has sat beside me at every game, doing the stats.”<\/p>\n

He remembers skipping out of school at morning break, ringing RT\u00c9 from a call-box a few miles away, pestering them for a job. Finally, they said, says Marty, “\u2018We\u2019re sick and tired of you applying, we\u2019ll give you a chance.\u2019 In spring 1989, after a few auditions, I got a match to do properly.”<\/p>\n

He did 13 games in total that year, the last being the legendary All-Ireland hurling semi-final between Antrim and Offaly. “I was so nervous. I\u2019d never seen Antrim play in my life, so I went up there and became friends with Sambo McNaughton, Olcan McFetridge and Niall Patterson.<\/p>\n

\"Marty<\/p>\n

“They gave me such a warm welcome, I just love Antrim. And they did me a massive favour by beating Offaly, one of the greatest shocks ever. Then Offaly formed a guard of honour for Antrim, a really classy move, and suddenly my voice was on the main evening news.”<\/p>\n

These days, Marty still does the same things to prepare before a commentary. A lot of work goes into making that off-the-cuff flow for which he\u2019s famous. He says, “Everybody in broadcasting has their own style, but I passionately believe in that Roy Keane thing about \u2018fail to prepare, prepare to fail\u2019. So, say, if someone goes down injured, I can say that they pulled a hamstring three years ago or whatever.<\/p>\n

“At the same time, you want to wear it lightly. You have to inform people, but you\u2019re there to entertain too. Too many stats are like painting only in magnolia; I like to bring a bit of colour. So I\u2019d probably only use a small percent of the research. The main thing is name recognition, which can be tricky with helmets in hurling. And very tricky if someone changes the colour of their helmet\u2026”<\/p>\n

\"Marty<\/p>\n

Radio is a medium he particularly loves. By definition, with no visual element, it\u2019s his voice painting the picture, enhancing it. Marty says, “It\u2019s a different skill-set. But the team is everything, for telly or radio: researchers, producers, sound, camera. It\u2019s a massive team effort every time.<\/p>\n

“I love doing my Monday Bank Holiday show on Radio One, several times a year. It\u2019s a great change of pace from sport, and sport-reporting. You\u2019re just having a chat with interesting people, and you can be yourself. When you\u2019re doing news, you\u2019ve a minute and 45 seconds to talk about something, get it all in there. On this show, you can have various stories, characters, whatever you like.”<\/p>\n

He\u2019s 68 this year \u2013 time to make plans for what comes after working-life? Marty winces and laughs. “No. Don\u2019t use the word retirement! I\u2019ve never heard of it. I love Clint Eastwood\u2019s great line, \u2018Don\u2019t let the old man in.\u2019 He\u2019s a man who doesn\u2019t know the meaning of the word retirement!”<\/p>\n

For now, Marty Morrissey intends to keep on rockin\u2019. And telling those great stories, his own and other people\u2019s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For many, he is the voice of the GAA they grew up with and as Marty Morrissey tells…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":558843,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[93,61,60],"class_list":["post-558842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=558842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}