Ger Canning

Ger Canning is an Irish sports commentator with Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ).

Career

Born in Cork on August 1, 1951. Ger Canning was a secondary school teacher at South Presentation school in Cork City when he began his broadcasting career with Cork Local Radio in 1978.^[1]

Two years later in 1980 he joined the national broadcaster, Radio Telefís Éireann, as a member of the station's sports department. As a fluent Irish-speaker his first All-Ireland final commentary was on RTÉ 2 in 1981, because the station then had a policy of using the two channels for commentaries in both English and Irish. After Michael O'Hehir's retirement due to ill-health in 1985, Canning became the main Gaelic games commentator on RTÉ television. Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh took over O'Hehir's duties as a radio commentator. To date Canning has broadcast nearly 50 All-Ireland finals (including three in Irish).

Canning has worked on many sporting events for RTÉ, including:

• Soccer, including five World Cups
• Six Olympic Games
• Basketball
• International rules football
• Greyhound racing
• Olympic hockey qualifying^[2][3]

Other interests

Canning played soccer for UCC and College Corinthians and played minor and junior football for St.Finbarrs.^[1]

He has lectured in Radio Broadcasting at Colaiste Stiofan Naofa in Cork.^[4]

References