Dunphy Mellow, not a pretty sight

Eamon Dunphy has a one-hour programme on RTE radio every Saturday morning where he interviews one subject and plays 3 or 4 pieces of music selected by his guest.

This is the mellow Dunphy, fully in touch with his feminine side, who never gets aggressive or even asks an awkward question. Many of these interviews sound like a meeting of a small mutual admiration society.

Last Saturday’s guest was Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary, another man noted for his robust and acerbic treatment of anyone who annoys or disagrees with him.

There wasn’t a raised voice or uncomfortable moment in the entire hour for the two boys. Here was a pair of chilled-out, laid-back, mellow lads just shooting the breeze. You couldn’t imagine butter melting in the mouth of either man.

It was hard to marry those images with earlier ones of Dunphy, the poisonous toad at the time of Saipan and his subsequent vilification of all things McCarthy, or O’Leary who has a well earned reputation as a mean-spirited and vindictive employer rather than just a PR motor-mouth on behalf of Ryanair.

Dunphy on football is a somewhat different animal, though he does seem to have calmed down a lot on his regular RTE football panel appearances. He’s calling for the departure of Steve Staunton, though that’s hardly a unique or surprising view. At the outset he was prepared to give Stan the benefit of the doubt, but that’s all changed now. He was previously a big fan of Brian Kerr‘s appointment until he too proved incapable of getting Ireland to any major championship.

Isn’t it gas to remember that the two managers he really hated all the time were Jack Charlton and Mick McCarthy. Yet Jack got us to World Cups in Italy (1990) and USA (1994), while Mick got us to Korea & Japan (2002). Perhaps we should ask Eamon to draw up a shortlist of definite non-runners for Irish manager and then pick one of those.