It’s time for number 47 of JOE’s Irish Soccer’s Most Memorable Moments countdown. Today we take you back to 2002 and some comic relief.
Every summer we look forward to it nearly as much as the football.
Après Match starring Barry Murphy, Risteard Cooper and Gary Cooke has become a national institution over the years, satirizing the serious events on the pitch and reminding us it’s only a game of ball after all.
In the great McCarthy-Keane Schism of 2002, the entire country went bananas in a division not seen since the Civil War as Roy Keane left/was sent home from Saipan.
A couple of days later Keane outlined his position in an interview with RTE’s Tommy Gorman where everyone expected an apology that didn’t come.
One of the main characters in this drama was Eamon Dunphy who had recently ghost-written the Ireland and Man United captain’s autobiography.
The former Millwall man defended Keano aggressively against any criticism and even wore a Cameroon-coloured tie in protest at Keane’s treatment.
One day after a night out, Dunphy attended work in what he described as a “tired and emotional state” and was suspended by RTE “because he was unable to fulfil the terms of his contract.”
It was clearly a circus so why not send in the clowns?
While everyone in the country was going batsh*t-crazy Après Match managed to make us laugh at the ludicrousness of the whole business.
Après Match had irked Dunphy before.
This time though they reached a new level of satirical heights touching on a very topical and emotive subject and getting it just right.
They re-shot the Tommy Gorman interview with Keane being replaced by Gary Cooke’s perennially pursed lips version of Eamo, pretty much the day after it happened.
As Cooke said in this Hot Press interview they had matured as a comedic group “I suppose with Dunphy, in the beginning it was more affectionate parody in a way, and gradually the whole thing became more and more sort of hard edged, really instigated by his own, er, behavioural quirks.”
This sketch above was a new metre-stick by which all the other Après Match sketches are to be judged and made the country laugh again.
That’s why it belongs at number 47 of JOE’s Irish Soccer’s Most Memorable Moments countdown.
Today marks 47 days to go until the start of Euro 2012, so stick with us every day as we present another memorable Irish soccer moment.
