Culture That Made Me: Rob Heffernan on Bruce Lee, Christy Moore and The Sopranos
Former athlete Rob Heffernan now has his own podcast. Picture: Denis Minihane
Rob Heffernan, 46, grew up in Turner’s Cross, Cork. In 2000, he competed in Sydney in the first of five Olympic Games. In 2012, he won a bronze medal at the London Olympics in the 50 km walk. In 2013, he won gold in the World Championships in Moscow. He’s co-host of the weekly Red Raw podcast along with stand-up comedian Laura O’Mahony. His wife Marian is also an Olympic athlete. Both their son, Cathal, and daughter, Meghan, have represented the Republic of Ireland at under-age international level in soccer.
I was born into flats in Togher, real working class. We moved from Togher when I was eight or nine out to Turner’s Cross, which was more middle class. My dad was a plasterer. My mam was a housewife, so there was no sporting influence in the family. It was other people externally who influenced me. Next door to me my road was Christy Ryan who had 11 county senior medals in Gaelic football and hurling. Charlie McCarthy, a Cork hurling great, was a couple of houses down. Marcus O’Sullivan was only 200-300 metres from me. Colin Corkery, one of Cork’s greatest ever Gaelic footballers, was down to the right. The influence and culture of sports people in that area was huge, unknown to myself at the time. It meant I became obsessed with sport.
As a kid, I loved Bruce Lee films. He was away ahead of his time. He thought outside the box. He was always evolving, bringing other elements into his preparation to make him better. He was a philosopher, the way he approached things, the way he trained, his mindset. I took a lot from his mentality when I was younger.
He was small and wiry. I’m only 5ft 8in; he was 5ft 8in. He had one of the best symmetrical bodies of all time but it was functional. Everything he did was for a reason. I believed in similar things when it came to my own life and my own sporting career – always be adding things. Never, ever make excuses. He was a phenomenal man.
A film I love is Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. I loved the colourful characters in it, and it showed the different roads that you can take in life. I love the mad side of people. You could see in Jack’s character that he was brilliant. He could have gone on and he could have done anything, but he ended up in a mental institution. We can all relate to that in some ways. You can take a little twist on the road and it’s all over. It’s a great show.
I’d be a huge Christy Moore fan. I have a Christy Moore facecloth framed in my kitchen, from his Graffiti Tongue album tour and the ticket from the show in 1997 when he gave it to me in Millstreet. I love his music. I love what he stands for as well. I always listened to him when I was abroad.
I loved The Sopranos. It was brilliant. It had such an array of brilliant actors in it t. There was a normality to it – you could see normal life going on it as well, and how guys were born into that environment, not necessarily bad guys, but that's the life that was laid down for them, the life they lived. There were no other options for them. Tony was a lovable character, but obviously very dangerous!
I didn’t watch Icarus [Netflix documentary on Russian doping in sport] during my career because I knew what the content of it was and my mentality during my career was, “OK, when you get to the crunch point in a race you need to have belief in yourself; if you come to the point and you know 100 percent of these guys [alongside you] are doping and cheating, you're going to break.
So I watched Icarus when I retired. I was shocked. It was sad. Ignorant bliss is fine as well. They could have all been doing it. It's none of my business. I have to do what I have to do. It was sad on many levels – not alone the support they got to cheat, but what Irish athletes have to fight to compete and to prepare as professional athletes is hard enough without seeing that. I was depressed watching it.
I read Roy Keane’s book by Eamon Dunphy when I was younger and it made a massive impact. It was brilliant because it had so many similarities with my life – where he came from in Cork, his family, his background.
It normalised a life in sport for me, giving me that belief, him obviously being from Cork – that I can do this. I enjoyed that one.
The Diary of a CEO with Steve Bartlett podcast is brilliant. Some guests he brings on, their stories are fascinating. I listened to an old one recently with Patrice Evra. He grew up in a really tough area in France, playing football in the streets. People think they have it tough, but what he came through to achieve what he did, I’ve just massive admiration for him – the shame [of experiencing sexual abuse], keeping that with him for years. It took him a long time to talk about it. Now he's out the other side, and he’s open talking about it.
I love The Tommy, Hector & Laurita Podcast. I look forward to listening to it every week. It's refreshing. After working in radio for a year and a half, I’m more drawn to people like those guys who have achieved, but they're normal. They’ve no agenda. They just speak their mind, and the lads are hilarious. Tommy Tiernan's an absolute genius.
Gerry Ryan was brilliant. I loved him on the radio. He had the human touch. He could chat to anyone – to Mary down the road, people from working class areas in Dublin, Cork, anywhere in Ireland, all the way up to the President. That's a good trait to have. I remember when he passed away, I was racing in San Giovanni, Italy. It was the first of May. I got disqualified in the race. Gerry’s death contributed to it because I was so upset. I put Gerry on every morning leaving home, listening to him on the way to training. I’d ring Marian. We used to have bets, “How long will it take before he starts talking about sex this morning?” He could do it in a funny way that wasn't sleazy. He was incredible, and a smart man as well.
