The Marty Party: How Marty Morrissey turned a slagging into a stage-show

It began as an Oliver Callan sketch and a bit of gentle banter on Dancing with the Stars – but Marty Morrissey has turned his ‘Marty Party’ into a stage show. He chats to Nicole Glennon as he wraps up his debut run

Marty Morrissey: "can we have a bit of fun with this?" Pics: Moya Nolan

Marty Morrissey has many redeeming qualities. But one of his most enviable, and perhaps most quintessentially Irish, is his ability to take a slagging.

Many an Irish personality has surely been wounded by satirist Oliver Callan’s often less-than-kind impressions over the years but Marty Morrissey has embraced it to such an extent, he’s turned it into his selling point

“I remember being in a bar in Mullagh in West Clare on a Friday night,” he says, recalling the first time Callan impersonated him on The Late Late Show.

“We’d done an opening of a local pitch and we were in a bar until about three in the morning. I’d no signal [in the bar], and when I came out, I got about 200 texts telling me how well I was looking on the Late Late,” he says with a laugh.

“He was taking the piss out of me, my white teeth, my hair all over the place ... and instead of signing off as ‘Marty Morrissey, Croke Park, RTÉ News,’ he said, ‘I am Marty and I like to party’.”

The Marty/Party association stuck – when he took part in Dancing With the Stars five years ago, Anna Geary made the group chat for that year’s contestants and named it ‘The Marty Party’. When he turned up to MC an event, kids and adults alike would say “hey, it’s Marty, the Marty party”.

“I started thinking – can we have a bit of fun with this?” he says.

And have a bit of fun he has. The GAA broadcaster is currently in the middle of a run of variety shows up and down the country, with a sold-out date in University Limerick’s Concert Hall just behind him, and a date in Galway’s Leisureland tonight, followed by one in Letterkenny’s Clanree Hotel on Friday, March 31.

Marty Morrissey: "I have learned that life is very short, and you never know what's around the corner." Photograph Moya Nolan

'LIFE IS VERY SHORT'

Special guests vary from night to night, but comedian, former Dancing With the Stars peer and Irish Examiner columnist Bernard O’Shea is his partner in crime throughout the run, with Eurovision winners, Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan, and viral TikTok sensation, Irish dancers Cairde, also there to impress.

“I wanted to do something different,” Morrissey says of his motivations for the shows. “And I’ve been saying I’d do it for the last couple of years ... and I told mum I was going to do it.”

His mother Peggy, who died tragically in a road traffic accident near Milltown Malbay, in December 2021, was the type of woman who would have “danced all night” he tells me. He’s certain she would have loved it.

“I have learned that life is very short,” he says, “and you never know what’s around the corner.”

“You know you say it, but until it comes to your doorstep, you don’t realise how short it is.

“People have suffered far greater tragedies in their lives than what I have and I’m thankful I had my mum for so long. But I think we need to celebrate the ability to come together, to enjoy music, to enjoy dance, to enjoy having a bit of a laugh together. That’s what this is about. It is just having a bit of fun.”

Marty Morrissey with his mother Peggy, in 2017. Pic: RTÉ

The passing of his beloved mother taught Morrissey something else too – just how loved he is by the Irish public.

“The support of people locally and nationally [following my mother’s death] was overwhelming,” he says. “I was really ... I still can’t get over it, to be honest with you.

“I am very privileged to do what I do,” he says, “broadcasting ... you’re in people’s homes, and the fact that people seem to like what I do is a great compliment because I am in their homes whether they like it or not,” he laughs.

“Sometimes you’re thinking, is there anybody listening?” he admits, “but when you get the reaction that I got when I lost my mum, it really ... it kind of sustained me, it inspired me. It was a huge support.

“I can’t even describe in words. To get all the mass cards that I got ... it was just something else, I never expected it, but by God do I appreciate it. Every day I appreciate it.”

Marty Morrissey: "My love for the games has never diluted in any way shape or form."

'ISN'T IT A GREAT HONOUR?'

The 64-year-old is genuine and effusive – and the sense of gratitude he has for the career and fanbase he has managed to amass over the past three decades only comes across more when he starts to chat about his love for the game – and the microphone.

“My love for the games has never diluted in any way shape or form,” he says, “I love them as much today as I did when I was eight years of age, and I love what I do as much today as I did when I started on the back of a tractor.

“I’ve never taken what I do for granted, and every game is important. Whether it’s a league game in January or the All Ireland final. And I believe in the Roy Keane mantra [‘fail to prepare, prepare to fail’] – I do all my homework as much as I did when I started. I only use 10% of it, but if someone gets injured, I want to be able to say something intelligent about them.”

For Morrissey, who spent his formative years in New York City before being brought home to Clare, the privilege of holding the microphone on All-Ireland Final Days is something that still effects him and you get the sense, it always will.

“I remember seeing my father crying on a fire escape in New York trying to get the radio to work to hear Michael O’ Hehir [on All-Ireland final day] because he missed home.

“[When the whistle goes], and you hear the noise of 82,300 people, being listened to by millions around the world ... isn’t it a great honour to have the microphone?”

• This article was originally published on March 25, 2022