The 42FM

Gavin Cooney and David Sneyd provide immediate reaction from the Fortuna Arena in Prague as Ireland fall to the cruelest of defeats in the World Cup semi-final play-off.

Gavin Cooney dials in from Prague to chat to Sinead O’Carroll during a defining week for Irish football.Gav is optimistic but daunted on Ireland’s behalf, as they need five competitive wins in a row to make the World Cup finals in America.Sinead, informed by her data analyst sister, says, no - Ireland just need to win one game. And then win more. A more optimistic interpretation again suggests two draws and two penalty shootout victories will suffice, but neither can entertain the cardiac stress of such a turn of events.The pair also discuss why the men’s national football team moves the needle to the extent it does in the media as a consequence of the hold they have over the general population. Is it because the game is so widely played and easy to understand? Or is it, as Sinead suggests, because younger generations are desperate for their own Italy '90 or USA '94 moments?The bounty of those competitions was not spent well here. Can this be different? Do we now have a stronger foundation upon which to build a robust football edifice in Ireland? The odds will be enhanced with one win on Thursday, and then another on Tuesday.

Munster’s Edwin Edogbo made his Ireland debut during the 2026 Six Nations campaign, after which he was subject to vile, racist abuse on social media. On this week’s show, Sinéad and Gavin speak to Jonathan Sebire, co-founder of Signify, which monitors and reports online abuse of athletes. The IRFU are among Signify’s clients, and Jonathan explains how Signify worked to identify some of those who sent abuse to Edogbo, and how some people may now be held accountable. He also talks more widely about the social media abuse of sportspeople, explaining how it impacts sporting performance and why the solution is never as simple as telling sportspeople to get off social media entirely.Get in touch: sinead@thejournal.ie and gavincooney@the42.ie

The planned merger of the GAA, the Ladies Gaelic Football Association and the Camogie Association is back in the news. The next president of the GAA, newly elected, has less ambitious timelines for the project than are currently in place. Sinéad is joined in studio by Senator Evanne Ní Chuilinn who is vice chair of the Oireachtas committee on sport and a GAA member. We talk to her about what any change to the proposed timeline could mean for the three organisations and wider society.

RTÉ last week sold its 50% stake in GAA Plus née Go for €3 million. The news was met with a shrug, but Sinead's brow is furrowed.With Gav on leave, she's joined by technology and media professional Steve Dempsey to dig into the deal. Was €3 million a fair price for half of a profitable, growing streaming business, or did the GAA just walk away with a goldmine?Steve runs the numbers and builds a model showing what GAA Plus could become: a business generating €10 million in revenue and €6 million in profit within five years. They discuss why RTÉ may have been happy to trade away a headache for cash and political breathing room, and whether the GAA can now transform a broadcast app with a paywall into something closer to a super-app, folding in ticketing, merchandise and a direct line to the diaspora.What happens to the journalism when the GAA is covering itself? And should we expect more games behind the paywall as the rights deal nears its end in 2027?

Sinead and Gavin take a look at a new policy that seeks to enhance the country’s international reputation through sport - while the government argues that a football game against Israel should not be politicised.Gav went along to the launch of the International Sports Diplomacy Framework on Tuesday to see what it was about, and to get answers on why the government seems to be speaking out of both sides of its mouth.Also up for discussion is how this policy extends Ireland’s ambition to host big events, such as the Ryder Cup and NFL games, while modest local facilities in the shadow of Croke Park are under threat.