Eamon Dunphy

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Eamon Dunphy (born 3 August 1945) is a controversial Irish radio and TV personality and former professional football player. From 2004 to 2006 he presented the breakfast programme on Dublin's Newstalk 106 radio station, and then moved to RTE Radio 1, where he now presents a weekly programme.

Contents 1 Career 1.1 Football 1.2 Journalism 1.3 Broadcast 2 Controversy 3 Style 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Career

[edit] Football

Dunphy grew up in the northside Dublin suburb of Drumcondra. A promising footballer, he left Dublin while still a teenager to join Manchester United F.C. as an apprentice. Dunphy did not break into the first team at United and subsequently played for York City, Millwall, Charlton Athletic and Reading. It was at Millwall that Dunphy made the most impact, he was considered an intelligent and skilful player in Millwall's midfield. Dunphy played 23 times for the Republic of Ireland and remains Millwall's most capped international player. Dunphy was a member of "The Class of '71" Millwall side that lost out on promotion to the old Division One, by just one point. In 1977, he accompanied John Giles back to Ireland to join Shamrock Rovers FC. Giles wanted to make the club Ireland's first full time professional club and hoped to make Rovers into a force in European football by developing talented young players, who would otherwise go to England, at home. Dunphy was originally intended to be in charge of youth development. However, despite an FAI Cup winners medal in 1978 (his only medal in senior football), Dunphy became disillusioned with the Irish game and dropped out of football altogether to concentrate on a career in journalism.

[edit] Journalism

After retiring from football, Dunphy went into journalism, first writing on football for the Sunday Tribune and then contributing regular columns on both football and current events for the Sunday Independent. Most recently, Dunphy has been employed to write a column on football for the Daily Star's Irish edition.

Since the 1980s Dunphy has also written a number of books. His first and most widely praised book is Only a Game?: Diary of a Professional Footballer, which is an autobiographical account of his days playing for Millwall. Dunphy wrote a diary of his 1973-4 season which began well for him at second division Millwall but subsequently ended in disillusionment. He wrote a diary during the season, recording events from the dressing room. Following the phenomenal success of their album 'The Joshua Tree', he was commissioned by the rock band U2 to write the band's history. His book 'Unforgettable Fire - the story of U2' was published in 1988, although the band were not happy with some of its content. Dunphy has also written a biography of Manchester United legend Matt Busby and in 2002 ghostwrote the autobiography of Republic of Ireland and Manchester United footballing legend Roy Keane.

[edit] Broadcast

Since the mid 1980s, Dunphy has appeared as an analyst in RTÉ's football coverage. Since RTÉ acquired the rights to show English football, Dunphy has been a regular contributor to the The Premiership programme. After Roy Keane's departure from Manchester United in November 2005 he has since been known for constant criticism of the club, and in particular, Cristiano Ronaldo.

He has also had a prominent radio career, and was the original host of the popular current affairs show The Last Word on Today FM.

In 2002, Dunphy became the first male host of the quiz show The Weakest Link, which aired on TV3, for just one series. In 2003, Dunphy was hired again by TV3 to host their new Friday night chat show, entitled The Dunphy Show. Pitted head-to-head with RTÉ's The Late Late Show, Dunphy's show lost the highly publicised "ratings war", and was cancelled before its original run was to conclude.

In September 2004, Dunphy Breakfast show slot on the Dublin radio station NewsTalk 106 from David McWilliams. The show tried to court controversy and listeners in equal measure. He failed to attract the large listenership predicted, with only a few additional thousand tuning in. Attempts to attract disaffected morning listeners with controversial social commentators like Amanda Brunker failed to connect with listeners. In June 2006 Dunphy announced his intention to leave NewsTalk 106 citing an inability to sustain the demands of an early morning schedule. His decision to leave Newstalk coincided with the announcement that the station had won a national broadcasting licence. Subsequent to his departure from Newstalk 106 rumours circulated, confirmed by Dunphy in the Evening Herald, that he had been suffering a mystery illness for some time which had made keeping to an early morning schedule difficult.

In July 2006 RTÉ announced that Dunphy will present a new weekly programme as part of the new RTÉ Radio 1 autumn schedule. [1] Dunphy joined the digital age in 2006 as the first presenter of a made-for-mobile TV show on the 3 mobile network in Ireland. Dunphy's rants and Spoofer of the Week are watched by thousands of 3 customers, the show was awarded "Best Entertainment Show" at Ireland's Digital Media Awards. Dunphy readily admits he never uses a mobile himself but enjoys filming for a mobile audience from the comfort of his own living room in Ranelagh.

Dunphy is also impersonated, to some acclaim, in Irish comedy show Après Match.

[edit] Controversy

From the early 1980s, Dunphy made his name as a controversial and belligerent journalist. Among the targets of his disapproval were television figures such as Pat Kenny and a concept he called "Official Ireland" - by which he meant the liberal Irish media and cultural elite, epitomised by the Irish Times newspaper and the then President of Ireland, Mary Robinson. He argued at the time that people such as former Taoiseach Charles Haughey represented the "real people of Ireland", and were being attacked by the false left wing consensus of "Official Ireland".

Dunphy in his youth held far left wing Trotskyist political views, but in middle age he espoused what might be called "neo-liberal" values. He is also friendly with socialist activist Eamonn McCann, however. In the early 1990s, Dunphy, in line with the editorial line at the Sunday Independent, was a harsh critic of the Provisional IRA and Sinn Fein and their supporters. Dunphy described them as "morally diseased"^{[citation needed]} and argued that Irish nationalists in Northern Ireland had not been badly treated by the British state and that the use of violence by republicans was illegitimate.^{[citation needed]}

In the world of football, Dunphy attacked the League of Ireland, which he characterised as amateurish, Irish footballer Liam Brady, who he called a "bitter little man", successive Republic of Ireland national football team managers and even international stars such as Michel Platini. In 1987, Dunphy was almost alone in supporting the sale of the Shamrock Rovers' ground Glenmalure Park to property developers. Many people attributed this stance to Dunphy's friendship with the Kilcoyne family^{[citation needed]}, who profited financially from the sale. Most controversially of all, Dunphy was a harsh critic of Jack Charlton, Ireland's most successful national team manager. Dunphy accused Charlton of being a bully, of playing ugly football and of not making the best use of the players at his disposal. A deep personal enmity developed between the two men.^{[citation needed]}

In 1990, Dunphy caused huge controversy in Ireland by attacking the performance of the national team at that year's World Cup. After a 0-0 draw with Egypt, he called the team "a disgrace" and angrily threw his pen across the studio. This performance temporarily made Dunphy into a figure of public hatred in Ireland. Dunphy was sent to Italy to cover the remaining games, but Jack Charlton, the Irish team manger refused to speak to him or to answer his questions. Dunphy remained critical of Charlton for the remainder of his tenure as manager, but the public ostracism of Dunphy subsided within a few years.

Also in 2002, Dunphy aggressively defended Roy Keane, after he was dismissed by Mick McCarthy from the Irish team at the Fifa World Cup in Korea and Japan.

He is also Cristiano Ronaldo's harshest critic. He said on RTE after the Manchester United-SL Benfica UEFA Champions League game the way Ronaldo "clicks his heels", is the "most wicked thing in the game." In the same diatribe he branded Ronaldo "a simple cheat."

[edit] Style

Dunphy makes regular visceral attacks on players and managers he watches, for instance;

on 8 March 2006 when speaking on RTÉ television in the aftermath of Liverpool's exit from the Champions League at the hands of SL Benfica. In a characteristically harsh assessment of the Liverpool team, Dunphy said of their Spanish winger Luis García:

"They (Liverpool) should put Garcia where he belongs - in the dustbin."

In the same broadcast, when asked on his views of Chelsea's elimination from the same competition the previous night at the hands of FC Barcelona, Dunphy said of the Chelsea manager José Mourinho:

"We'll all see through Mourinho. We'll find out he's just a Bengal lancer ["Chancer" - Dublin slang word]!"

he also said:

"here we have Cisse, right wing, attempts to put in a cross, BANG...hits the full back, again BANG hits the full back, BANG...off the full back again, and once more, BANG...smacks the full back again.... Millions of euro and he can't clear the first man, I mean...what's he trying to do to the full back here, Kill him??"

He wasn't finished there though. When asked what he thought of Harry Kewell (who had also played for Liverpool that night) he was blunt:

"Fat and a clown. A fat clown for all to see."

During the coverage of Euro 2004, Dunphy told RTÉ viewers

""You need dictatorships and poverty to produce great footballers."

He also informed fellow pundit John Giles:

"Machiavelli was an Italian... Wasn't he, John? Who did he play for?"

After Ireland lost a two goal lead against Holland in 1983 Dunphy wrote about Liam Brady:

"" He is often looked on as a great player. He is nothing of the find. His performance on Wednesday was a disgrace, a monument to conceit adorned with vanity and self-indulgence, rendered all the more objectional by the swagger of his gait. He was deemed by many observers to have had a splendid game.""

Even after Liverpool went through to the quarter finals of the Champions League in March 2007 after knocking out the holders, Barcelona, (a result widely regarded as a fantastic achievement) Dunphy proceeded to launch a scathing attack on the Liverpool team and manager, Rafa Benitez. This particular outburst has lost any remaining credibility Dunphy may have had with Liverpool fans.

Dunphy's hyperbole is widely parodied in the media. RTÉ's Après Match team, who would broadcast skits after games, delivered a mock example of Dunphy-speak:

"No football team will win this tournament. This tournament will be won by the faceless empires of corporate greed. The Jules Rimet trophy has become hijacked by the world of big business bastards, sold to the TV networks of Satan. There will be a final on July 12th. It will have no soul. It will be Snickers versus Nike."

Dermot Morgan of Father Ted fame arguably did the finest Eamon Dunphy impression on the satirical radio show Scrap Saturday. Different sketches had him engaged in apparent inane and ridiculous arguments. They ranged from his criticism of Mother Teresa for not being a real nun to his attack on the weeks weather in which he said that recent snowfall was not real snow. Morgan incorporated the mannerisms of Dunphy so completely that it went beyond mere imitation. An unsuspecting listener could easily be fooled into thinking it really was him. Example:

"People come up to me and say, why am I criticising Mother Teresa? Mother Teresa is a nun. Well she is not a nun. A tea towel on your head and good works with India's lower class. That doesn't make you a nun."

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Google Video of Eamon's Outburst
• Video of Dunphy's outburst against Liverpool after knocking Barcelona out, March 2007

Radio Telefís Éireann presenters and hosts
Chat show hosts: Gay Byrne | Frank Hall | Pat Kenny | Mike Murphy | Ryan Tubridy
News & Current Affairs: Charlie Bird | John Bowman | Brian Cleeve | Barry Cowan | Donagh Diamond | Sean Duignan | Brian Farrell | Mark Little | John O'Donoghue | Bill O'Herlihy | Olivia O'Leary | Sean O'Rourke
Sports: Eamon Dunphy | Johnny Giles | George Hamilton | George Hook | Jimmy Magee | Michael O'Hehir | Tracey Piggott
Newsreaders and Announcers: Anne Doyle | Don Cockburn | Derek Davis | Bryan Dobson | Eileen Dunne | Charles Mitchel | Maurice O'Doherty | Emer O'Kelly | Vere Wynne-Jones
See also: List of programmes broadcast by RTÉ