George Hamilton

The newspaper came in our door every night.

And I avidly read.

And that probably started me off wanting to become a sports reporter, commentator.

But that was where the World Cup started for me.

And then there was Chile in 1962, which was on the box.

There was the England World Cup.

And they think it's all over.

The wonderful Kenneth Wilson, who was my inspiration.

1970, the Gordon Banks saved.

1974, I'd lived in Germany as a student.

And now I was back there looking at the...

in my mind's eye I was back there but seeing it all on TV in the final where the kick-off was held up because they didn't have the flags on the halfway line you might recall Jack Taylor the Wolverhampton butcher was the referee and then 78 I was actually there my very first World Cup for RTE they were short a commentator they had two of their own Jimmy McGee

And Philip Green, they hired Billy George from what was then the Cork Examiner, and the late, great Mike Horgan, a very good friend of mine, sports editor at the time, said, we need a fourth commentator.

What about the guy who does it for BBC in Belfast?

That's where it all began.

Magic.

Magic is right.

What's your feelings when you get the call-up?

Well, it came in the form of a letter from Fred Cogley, who was the head of sport at the time, who was kind of,

Not really saying, please come with us to Argentina.