Adventures of a Music Nerd: 1 Guy, 2 World Cups Crane Lane, Cork

DJ and entertainer, Ronan Leonard, is an amiable and low-key host as he deconstructs some well-known and not so well-known soccer songs that were released for Italia ’90 and USA ’94.

In true nerdish style he has trawled through the back catalogue of Irish World Cup songs, playing them on his phone and pressing the pause button to make observations. Leonard must have superior hearing powers because it’s quite difficult to decipher the lyrics of the songs. We’re all familiar with the choruses of anthems such as ‘Put Them Under Pressure’ but the lines of some of the songs are often submerged beneath the instrumentation.

What preoccupies Leonard is the lazy rhyming sequences in many of the songs, the inaccuracies and the sheer badness of them. In the song, ‘Give it a Lash Jack,’ there’s a line that says “give a sermon to the Germans.” Leonard wonders if the Irish could teach the Germans — World Cup winners three times — a thing or two about the beautiful game. Such examples of folly and hubris amuse Leonard, who also looks at inconsistencies in some of the songs.

And it triggers memories of being a ten year old during Italia ’90 when he took it as ‘gospel’ that Ireland had a superior team. Four years later, he was more astute. A greater emphasis on Leonard’s childlike perspective and enthusiasm during Italia ’90 and his awakening in 1994 would make the show more personalised.