The 42FM

Gavin Cooney dials in from Augusta to look ahead to the 2026 Masters with Sinéad O'Carroll.Despite finally getting his hands on a green jacket last year, Rory McIlroy is still the talk of the town. How is he embracing his champion status? How will he perform this year with the pressure finally off to complete the Grand Slam? Will journalists ask him about The Daily Mail’s coverage of Alan Shipnuck's new McIlroy biography?Elsewhere, is Shane Lowry in with a chance of success? Is it Scottie Scheffler’s competition to lose? And what are the players and US journalists saying about Tiger Woods, LIV and Donald Trump?Also, Sinéad is slowly converting Irish football fans into figure skating enthusiasts. 

Sinead O’Carroll and Gavin Cooney discuss the rise and prolonged downfall of golf’s greatest ever player.From prodigious talent levels in childhood to dominating the sport in his 20s and 30s, to the slow and scandal-riven decline, Tiger Woods has rarely been away from the headlines.Is the near-constant scrutiny, overwhelming fame and atypical childhood enough to engender sympathy for Woods, despite his continued driving offences which put others as well as himself in grave danger?Or has perhaps the most recognisable athletes of the 20th century run out of chances with the public?

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.

Sinead and Gavin discuss in-depth the pressing issue of this week, and one that will likely make headlines all year.The FAI have been placed in the unenviable position of having to navigate a path out of the crisis which began when Ireland were drawn to play Israel in the Nations League.Some 93% of the FAI’s General Assembly have previously voted to suspend Israel from international football, yet the FAI are committed to fulfilling the fixtures.Will the games go ahead? Where will they take place? What are the potential sanctions if Ireland boycott the fixtures?Can Ireland call Uefa’s bluff? What is the worst they can do to Ireland, for making a moral stand against a country that has breached its own rules?