Jul 19, 2026 · 39 min · 11 segments
Special edition of Up All Night where Shane and Dominic chat with Irish broadcasting legend George Hamilton about his many World Cup memories and his early days starting off in the business. See…
George HamiltonGuest
Shane CaseyHost
Dominic MacHaleHost
Oh, well, my dad was a player back in the day for a team called Cliftonville in North Belfast.
But he managed in his debut to score a hat-trick, and that got him a mention on the front page of the local Pink, the sports paper that sadly no longer exists there on Saturday night.
So I was born into a football household, and I was an only child, still am, So football was kind of dad's outlet through his son.
But his reasoning behind taking me to Cliftonville was it was safe because they were a team that never won.
And I developed my love of football from that, from standing up close behind the goal, so close that I could almost smell the embrication off the goalkeeper.
And when the ball hit the net, as it inevitably did when Cliftonville conceded another goal, there was this rustling sound as it rippled down the netting.
And all of these things, you know, a bit like Marcel Proust and the Madeleine biscuit that took him back to his childhood.
When I hear a ball hit the net, I'm right back there at Solitude up the Clippable Road as a kid.
My mother would be out working in her father's bakery shop on a Saturday afternoon and I would be listening to the radio.
which was the late programme in those days in Belfast, which would have the second half commentary on a football match from the old First Division, and I'd be kicking a tennis ball up and down the hall.
But the interesting thing is that then it was five to four, second half commentary, and I actually got to do that for the BBC, which is what propelled me into the role that I had for so many years with RTE Sport, that it was...
The whole thing started in the hall in Rochester Avenue in Belfast with that little tennis ball going up and down as the commentary played on the radio set.
Oh, well, my dad was a player back in the day for a team called Cliftonville in North Belfast.
But he managed in his debut to score a hat-trick, and that got him a mention on the front page of the local Pink, the sports paper that sadly no longer exists there on Saturday night.
So I was born into a football household, and I was an only child, still am, So football was kind of dad's outlet through his son.
But his reasoning behind taking me to Cliftonville was it was safe because they were a team that never won.
And I developed my love of football from that, from standing up close behind the goal, so close that I could almost smell the embrication off the goalkeeper.
And when the ball hit the net, as it inevitably did when Cliftonville conceded another goal, there was this rustling sound as it rippled down the netting.
And all of these things, you know, a bit like Marcel Proust and the Madeleine biscuit that took him back to his childhood.
When I hear a ball hit the net, I'm right back there at Solitude up the Clippable Road as a kid.
My mother would be out working in her father's bakery shop on a Saturday afternoon and I would be listening to the radio.
which was the late programme in those days in Belfast, which would have the second half commentary on a football match from the old First Division, and I'd be kicking a tennis ball up and down the hall.
But the interesting thing is that then it was five to four, second half commentary, and I actually got to do that for the BBC, which is what propelled me into the role that I had for so many years with RTE Sport, that it was...
The whole thing started in the hall in Rochester Avenue in Belfast with that little tennis ball going up and down as the commentary played on the radio set.
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