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GEORGE HOOK HAS been speaking today about how his media work ‘saved his life’.
The notoriously contrary rugby pundit and media personality was Brendan O’Connor’s guest of honour on the John Murray show this morning on RTE radio following his retirement from rugby punditry after Ireland’s Six-Nations victory on Saturday.
When asked by O’Connor about whether he felt his TV work had been the turning point for him, the 73-year-old replied, “Of course, it saved my life.”
Hook came to the media quite late (in his early fifties) having been a businessman for many years, and not always a successful one (O’Connor went so far as to describe him as being ‘a waster’ for the first two thirds of his life).
When I got a call from RTE 20 years ago to do a match, the only other phone calls I was getting at the time were Irish Permanent wanting me in the High Court. My wife didn’t want me back any more, I had 11 banks daily saying ‘what about the money you owe us’.
But if I’m proud of one thing I’m proud I took the opportunity RTE gave me, and my kids are proud too. I never thought I’d have a pension, paying for groceries would be the maximum, so the prospect of a pension is extraordinary.
When asked about the low-key nature of his retirement, Cork native Hook was at pains to play down the significance of his leaving.
“At the end of the day it’s a TV guy going, not the Taoiseach,” he said.
I had Mark McKenna (RTE producer) put up against a wall and said ‘if there’s a big fandango your head is coming off’.
Hook maintains that his decision won’t be reversed. Although gone from our rugby screens, he’ll continue on his Newstalk radio show The Right Hook for the immediate future.
If you take a decision to retire and then you don’t, well then that’s some bad decision.
I worked it out two years ago and I’m utterly happy about it. I told my son George Jr., I’ll be really pissed off if I die before my new life plan has a chance to take place.
When asked what his plans are he said he wanted ‘to give something back to young people’s rugby’.
My wife has told me though, if I think I’m coming home for lunch I’m very much mistaken.
But look life in the media is very rewarding, it’s well paid, you have a public image, but it’s terribly demanding.
I’ve been working seven days a week for the last 20 years, now it’s time for a break.
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As much as I respect the English vote to leave the EU it’s hard to watch them marching towards self harm.
It’s not just self harm. If there’s a hard Brexit, Ireland is going to be seriously damaged. We need fight with them for a soft Brexit with relaxed borders
Back to school for you it wasn’t the English that voted but the British including the Shots,Welsh and the Northern Irish after living in the Republic for over thirty years I am never surprised by the geography of some people in Ireland
Always wanted to go Shotland myself.
I hate the Shots, they ruined Shotland!
@Peter Murphy:
The Scots voted for Brexit did they Peter? What was the outcome in Scotland again?
Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to remain. Funny, Britain had a major problem with geography as well, mainly relating to borders and sovereignty.
Peter I assume by your defensiveness that you are English and if you are you’re hardly in a position to be criticizing others on their geography. After all the English were so confused about geography at one stage that they though we were part of England. Some might say some of their confusion persists to this day.
Huh?
The English votes were the ones that made the difference.
Just go and ask any British individual about British geography and then you may critise the Irish knowledge.
Nearly 4 in 10 Scots voted against the EU, Fred. Just as almost half of English voters sided with Remain. Suddenly doesn’t look so wonderfully unambiguous, does it?
Were they, Desmodromic? You do realise that if every Scottish voter had voted Remain it would hve completely tilted the balance in favour of Remain, right? Clan Sturgeon hate being reminded of this.
tweets. It has to be a hard brexit. The brits don’t want poles crossing the border in great numbers. The EU don’t want brits crossing the border into our EU. so be it.
@Harry Whitehead:
63% remain Harry. Come on now, you’re a big fan of democracy, even you must admit that is a clearcut result and at odds with the English.
North of Ireland is not British it’s Irish perhaps you should check your geography!!!!
I love all this dramatic theatrics and raised expectations from the Brits about “negotiations”.
In order to negotiate, the British need a card to play. I would love to know what card they think they have to play. The EU have a market of 450 million. The British have 65 million. 45% of British exports go to the EU. Less than 10% of EU exports go to the UK. If they have to go to WTO rules on trade, the EU would do just fine. Sales of BMWs to the UK might dip slightly, but not much else. Meanwhile, the UK economy is utterly devastated as much of their industry relies on the EU wide market.
This is going to be hilarious. It might not take 10 years to “negotiate”, it might take 10 days. But the Brits won’t like the outcome.
@Fred Johnson:
“The EU have a market of 450 million. The British have 65 million”
You sure?
@Congress Tart:
Yes, i’m sure. Why don’t you STFU unless you’ve something constructive to say or add.
@Fred Johnson:
EU exports for 2013 were 2.188 TRILLION, you absolute goober.
http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/eu-position-in-world-trade/
“The EU have a market of 450 million.” lol – market of what? Clueless.
@Fred Johnson: your figures are literally 4,844 times off. What a goof.
I think Fred’s numbers relate to the number of citizens in the European Union (450 million excluding the UK which has a population of 65million). So I think Fred is pretty much spot on!
Tricia – Fred constantly spouts these disingenuous figures, but ask him to put the financial values of the respective markets down and you will see a very different picture. The trade deficit between Britain and the EU is vastly in the EU’s favour, especially for Germany and France. The current deficit listed below is over €100,000,000,000.
https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/nationalaccounts/balanceofpayments/bulletins/uktrade/apr2016
@Tricia Nolan: the population numbers are almost irrelevant, since not all countries are financially equal. It’s about trade numbers – not population.
India has over 1 billion people, but most live in poverty so that number is not an advantage when it comes to trade & economy. Fred just spat out numbers that are meaningless to this topic.
Tricia, quoting population sizes for market shares is about as disingenuous as quoting a country’s land area. By that logic, I could say “Indonesia has a market of 260 million, Japan has a market of 130 million” – sounds a lot more impressive, doesn’t it?
@Harry Whitehead:
Ok how about this one harry, the EU (excluding the UK) has a GDP five times larger than the UK.
Does that scale work sufficiently well for you?
Fred – oh dear, but you overlook the most important issue in the negotiation, the deficit ad it is over €100,000,000,000 per annum. You really think the utter financial basket case that is the EU is going to turn their back in this in addition to the €10,000,000,000 contribution the UK will no longer pay.
Should’ve gone for Kevin Spacey or Samuel L Jackson… This is becoming more of a circus than Hollywood so would probably be fitting if they chose one based on the movie! GREAT Britain is really losing its image as a together sort of place, even the ‘leave’ side are starting to turn on the ‘leave’ side! What a mess! Even Bozzo is doing his best to disappear for a while it seems. They said start negotiations by the end of March, but did they say a year… May be a crucial detail they can fall back on to save embarrassment, Ahem, further embarrassment!
Out of sheer curiosity, can he speak any French?
Backstabbing infighting typical Tories, and the likes of I.D.S, what a mess well done Dave Cameron.
Boris the blade has resigned!!!
Let’s hope this guy has the sense to keep his thoughts to himself and just say what he’s told to say
Eh. The judges will decide that! Mrs may!
may’s problem is that all the smart people in her party are “remain” people.
have your say