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Colin Sheridan: The BBC on Mayo football? Maybe not such a curse, after all

The Beeb turned its focus to a story close to home this week.

Mon, 11 Dec, 2023 - 06:57

Colin Sheridan is a writer and columnist. A former officer in the Irish Defence Forces he has extensive deployment experience as a peacekeeper with the United Nations, having lived and worked in the former Yugoslavia, West Africa, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Palestine.

I used to like the BBC. It was an exotic distraction from our sheltered upbringings in the West of Ireland. Jennie Bond’s hair. Des Lynam’s tash. Terry Wogan in brown corduroy. Kate Adie in Baghdad. Being allowed to stay up for Match of the Day was a formative expression of trust between parent and child in a time when communication was optional, not obligatory.

They’ve had their troubles in recent years, but I’ve always stood by them, from Martin Bashir to Gary Lineker. As a kid, I learned about existential comedy watching The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin. As an adult exiled abroad, the World Service entertained me with tales of the Hijras in the Indian subcontinent and mopane worms in Zimbabwe. I thought I was a lifer, until last week a friend texted me with a link to a BBC special. ‘You’ll enjoy this,’ the messenger said.

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