The lesson here – do not visit England in the month of November unless you intend to wear a poppy. Somewhere in the past 10 to 12 years, wearing a poppy to remember civilian and military casualties of past wars has, perhaps unsurprisingly given its connections, become weaponised. This weekend, unbeknownst to himself, Paul Mescal […]

3 years ago

“Well, if I’m going to hell, I’m going there playing the piano!” Goodness, gracious, it’s JOE’s Big News Of The Day Quiz! A smorgasbord of TV, politics, pop culture and movies for you all today. Once again, we have put together a quiz of five questions based on some of the biggest news stories of […]

3 years ago

“Oh God! He must have seen his reflection! He’s not supposed to see his reflection! He doesn’t know he’s a priest!” Like a certain, fever-pitch TV priest, we are coming into this quiz with HIGH ENERGY!. Father Ted characters, sports and House of the Dragon are included in JOE’s Big News Of The Day Quiz. We have put together […]

3 years ago

“There have been jokes that I would have rather we not have done.” Seth McFarlane speaking for 99% of the planet there. His long-running TV show, celebrity feuds, sports and politics are included in JOE’s Big News Of The Day Quiz. We have put together a quiz of five questions based on some of the biggest news […]

3 years ago

“I’m dishonest, and a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest.” No, not some words from the recent political sphere. Rather, a great Captain Jack Sparrow line. Both politics and movies are included in JOE’s Big News Of The Day Quiz, though. We have put together a quiz of five questions based on some […]

3 years ago

We’ve got you covered. JOE’s Daily News Hub is kicking off today, and we are aiming to keep you on top of big news, entertainment, sporting, music, politics and lifestyle stories, and happenings. We will be keeping it lit all across the day, and evening, so do come back to check in and see what […]

3 years ago

“I’m not great at the advice. Can I interest you in a sarcastic comment?” The world moves at a rapid pace and we can’t keep track of the daily price for bread, socks or heating. Hopefully, JOE’s Big News Of The Day Quiz will help you make sense of at least some of what’s going […]

3 years ago

“He picked me up like I was a baby!” As a former Ireland Sevens player and an Olympian, Greg O’Shea would fancy his fitness chances against most comers. Coming off a two-week holiday though, and travelling by planes, trains and automobiles, though, he admits his fitness edge was not at its’ sharpest. When he was […]

3 years ago

Some gems in here, and a couple of almost forgotten faces. Following the success of our 1990s footballers quiz, we have devised a 2000s football quiz that should provide a decent test. 20 footballers to get and anything over 16 is great going. Best of luck.

3 years ago

“I had no idea. It was such a weird build-up. Over the last few years, with injuries and all that, I was really nervous.” Conor Murray making the British & Irish Lions squad – now that it has happened for a third time – is one of those occurrences that, in retrospect, seem inevitable. In […]

5 years ago

“Right now, no-one’s stepping in the ring with auld Sheamie. The world’s getting softer, mate, is all I’m saying!” Sitting proudly behind the WWE United States Championship belt and, just as proudly, in his Bohemians jersey, Sheamus is in his element. “Oh yes,” he says as the jersey is recognised. “Des Kelly carpets, too. Representing!” […]

5 years ago

“There’ll be one or two more headaches for Warren after that game.” After a tough start to this year’s Six Nations campaign, Ireland finished with three wins from three and, against England, had their best game for two and a half years. Not since the then world champions, New Zealand came to Dublin and were […]

5 years ago

“Why not say this is the time to use him?” Craig Casey would have been hardly able to sleep the night before Ireland played France. Named on the bench for that game, the Munster scrum-half would have been hoping for 20 or 30 minutes to show what he could do. As it transpired, Ireland head […]

5 years ago

“As a 10, you have moments when you’re a hero and you have moments when you’re a villain.” Johnny Sexton will know better than most how Billy Burns was feeling after his last kick error against Wales, on Sunday. With Ireland trailing their hosts 21-16, but awarded a penalty, deep in injury time, they were […]

5 years ago

“What a weapon to have coming on for that last 25 to 30 minutes.” Later this week, Ireland head coach Andy Farrell will name his starting XV for the 2021 Six Nations opener against Wales. Given that they have France and England at home, this year, an opening weekend win would set the Irish up […]

5 years ago

“I think it’s the first time I’ve ever been up for Munster in a rugby game!” Munster supporters were not the only ones gutted to see JJ Hanrahan and his teammates falling short against Leinster, on Saturday. With Ulster aiming to top Conference A in the Guinness PRO14, their players and fans were hoping for […]

5 years ago

“I always remember thinking, ‘Flip, that just shows the mark of the man’.” Paul O’Connell was earmarked for captaincy of Munster and Ireland from an early age. Although he did not succeed Anthony Foley as Munster captain until 2007, he had already led Ireland out in the Six Nations three years prior. The Limerick native […]

5 years ago

“There’s lots of quality there, but there’s no reason to think that he can’t offer something different.” Connacht went into their weekend Guinness PRO14 clash with reigning champions Leinster as 18-point underdogs. They left The RDS with an impressive scalp and they now have Munster in their sights. It was a commendable victory for Connacht […]

5 years ago

Kate Abdo, who was covering the fight for DAZN, brought the house down with an off-hand compliment to Henry Garcia, Ryan’s father

5 years ago

“So that’s the type of advice ROG gave JJ!” As Munster “kingpins” go, Ronan O’Gara had the longest and most successful reign. The Cork native was the province’s go-to man for 16 years (1997 to 2013) and saw off many competitors for the No.10 jersey. In his final season with Munster, O’Gara had both Ian […]

5 years ago

“It was incredible.” Nine wins from nine and looking good for top spot in their Champions Cup pool, with home quarter- and semi-finals a possibility, Munster are well set for a 2020/21 to remember. It is early doors yet in what has already been, and promises yet to be, a disrupted season but the southern […]

5 years ago

“Yeah. I mean, I wouldn’t mind having him in front of me, that’s for sure.” A cracking performance, lots of positive involvements and a try to emphatically seal victory in the closing moments. All that James Lowe was missing on his Ireland debut, last month, was his family in the crowd. Or any crowd, in […]

5 years ago

“I always treasured those All Blacks jerseys, because they never used to just give them out willy-nilly.” Springboks legend and former World Player of the Year, Schalk Burger joined hosts Ian Madigan and Eimear Considine on House of Rugby Ireland and delivered the goods in unabashed style. Burger was renowned for never taking a backward […]

5 years ago

“The bad thing with social media is that you get @-ed… and you’re notified every single time somebody says something.” Most of us told ourselves, over these difficult past year, that we would be more understanding and kind. Not so quick to judge. And then your favourite team loses or performs badly and it all […]

5 years ago

“It’s something that meant a huge amount to Callum and to his family.” A classy Johnny Sexton’s gesture after the recent win over Wales shows the bond that often exists between rugby players. According to House of Rugby Ireland host, and Ulster and Ireland out-half, Ian Madigan, Callum Sheedy’s father, Philip, is from Kildare and though […]

5 years ago

“The only way that you can make taboo topics non-taboo is by talking about it.” For Ugo Monye, making himself heard about racism and equality was something that felt natural to him. It felt right. What took him by surprise was how emotional he would get by sharing some of his experiences. Back in August, […]

5 years ago

“There’s a lot of stories I can tell, and a lot of people I could probably stitch up. But I don’t think I can do that!” Daniel Craig and the British & Irish Lions – a match made in rugby heaven. Next summer, all things going well, the Lions will travel to South Africa to […]

5 years ago

“Once upon a time, there were two farms… “ Say no more, Christopher Walken, we’re in! The Wild Mountain Thyme trailer has made it an impossible task for the actual movie to ever reach such insane heights but, by the Lord God, we’ll all be watching to find out. Ireland welcomed the gigantic distraction that […]

5 years ago

“Bond… James Bond.” Sean Connery, the actor that first brought James Bond to movie screens, has passed away at the age of 90. News about the death of the Scottish actor, who also starred in such moves as The Untouchables, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, The Hunt for Red October and Indiana Jones and the […]

5 years ago

“That was the worst presidential debate I’ve seen in my life.” Reacting to the first of the 2020 US presidential debates, George Stephanopoulos summed it up best. Stephanopoulos has been working in politics for four decades – trying to get Michael Dukakis elected as president in the late 1980s and successfully doing so with Bill […]

5 years ago

“Will you shut up, man! This is so unpresidential.” US President Donald Trump and Joe Biden clashed early and often during the first debate, of three planned, ahead of the 2020 presidential elections, at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio. The American public, and the wider world, watched on in their millions in the hopes […]

5 years ago

These men and women are traversing the country and seeing the good, bad, cruel and grim of Covid-19 in Ireland. For weeks, I did not leave my housing estate by foot. The supermarket back-and-forth was the only time our car was run out. From our back garden, you can very often catch the hum of […]

6 years ago

“It sounds like I am trying to play the violin there, but I’m not. That’s the new reality for so many.” The sun is shining on Tallaght and it has done resplendently for weeks now. The weather has been so good that they had to stage a mock rainy day at a Covid-19 testing centre […]

6 years ago

“It almost looked as if the airport had been shrank down. It definitely felt different to coming off any normal flight.” Dublin Airport’s Arrivals Hall is a sight to behold on most days. Tearful reunions, grandparents meeting grandchildren for the first time, holidaymakers eager to explore the best of what Ireland has to offer, weary […]

6 years ago

“My mum’s phrase – from a Kerrywoman – is, ‘You’ll be rewarded in heaven!’” There are an entirely different band of volunteers making a difference in Tallaght as Ireland takes small but steady steps forward. This weekend, had 2020 gone the way we were expecting it to go, staff at Tallaght Stadium would be gearing […]

6 years ago

“They’ve understood it. This needs to be done, so we’ll get on and do it.” While many of us stay at home and do our part to help stop the spread of the Coronavirus and Covid-19, essential workers leave their homes every day to join the frontlines of an ongoing, exhausting battle. Doctors and nurses […]

6 years ago

“Gerrup!” Francis Keane is taking us through a regular, 12-hour shift as an A&E porter at St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin when he is interrupted. Sitting in the front room of his home in North Dublin and wearing a Dublin GAA polo shirt, Keane had been enjoying the April sun when the call came. He […]

6 years ago

The penny has finally dropped for the US President. For the first time since he spoke on the Covid-19 outbreak in January, President Donald Trump bore the look of a man that was accepting how serious the matter was. President Trump and US Vice President Mike Pence fronted a press briefing at The White House […]

6 years ago

“Growing up, there was only rugby. Well, rugby and farming.” Rory Best still heads off to the far end of the dinner table, whenever he goes back to the family home, and enjoys nothing more than talking rugby with his brothers and his father, John. “You’d be out somewhere, when I was younger, and somebody […]

6 years ago

“It’s clear now, Joe Schmidt is Keyser Söze!” Ireland got one hell of a beating from England at Twickenham, on Saturday, and there are physical and psychological bruises. Barry Murphy and Andrew Trimble are joined on Baz & Andrew’s House of Rugby by former Munster and Ireland hooker Jerry Flannery to look back on that video-nasty Irish defeat […]

7 years ago

Many Irish fans may be watching the next few World Cup warm-up games from behind the nearest couch. Johnny Sexton best rest up in Portugal as it gets far too serious from the moment he lands in London, late next week. As a rugby nation awaits on reports on Joey Carbery’s ankle, attention will soon […]

7 years ago

Shakespeare, summer, show-stoppers and showers. 10 days out from opening night and it is bucketing down. The clouds have been threatening it for the past hour but there are still people caught unawares and under-dressed, ducking for cover and cursing this Irish summer. June 20 is the opening performance of A Midsummer’s Night Dream and […]

7 years ago

We saw one of these coming, but not the other one. Joe Schmidt has named a 44-man extended training squad with an eye to the World Cup in Japan. Two uncapped players – Jean Kleyn (pictured below) and Mike Haley of Munster – are both named in the squad but there is no room for […]

7 years ago

GLASGOW 15-18 LEINSTER Leinster were fortunate to end with 14 men but were deserving winners of the 2018/19 Guinness PRO14 final at Celtic Park. Tries from Garry Ringrose and Cian Healy, with Johnny Sexton kicking eight points, saw off Glasgow Warriors in front of 47,000 fans in their hometown. Leinster missed the chance to take […]

7 years ago

“25, yeah. I’m getting on now.” That comment from Dan Leavy – during his appearance at a live recording of Baz & Andrew’s House of Rugby – elicited little sympathy. The Leinster and Ireland flanker turned 25 on Thursday and reflected that he was not one of his teams’ young guns any more. There was plenty […]

7 years ago

Arriving at Munster Rugby’s High Performance Centre on Bank Holiday Monday, it is Rhys Marshall that lets us in. The centre, at University of Limerick, is as close to a ghost town as you are likely to see all season. It will fill up later this afternoon but it is just after 10am, the Treviso […]

7 years ago

“You’re only cheating yourself.” There was nothing Barry Murphy enjoyed more than going for speed training. Murphy would head along to track at University of Limerick with the likes of Keith Earls, Ian Dowling, David Wallace, Paul Warwick, Kieran Lewis, Doug Howlett and a few others. All the lads were intent on setting personal bests, […]

7 years ago

Listen to JOE’s brand new GOT reaction show, The North Awaits, with Michael Fry & Carl Kinsella right here. “Well, if they’re half as ferocious as their lady… “ You effing well said it Ser Davos. Lyanna Mormont, 13 years old and swinging heavy metal, went up higher in our already stratospheric estimations after The Battle of […]

7 years ago

Jack Carty could well have been lining out for Southampton with Shane Long at the weekend. Instead, he’s preparing for knock-out rugby up in Belfast. Modest enough as he may be, Jack Carty was a triple threat growing up. Carty played minor football for his county, Roscommon, and was only denied an All-Ireland by an […]

7 years ago

“Don’t lose faith; stick together.” It is not often that you get to sit with one of Ireland’s best players for 20 minutes and just pick his brains on the game. Conor Murray did not disappoint. As we walk into the basement room to set up for our interview, Conor Murray is crammed into a […]

7 years ago