John Greene

100%.

People know what they're getting.

You know, they're not expecting the full analysis and the full shebang that you would get from a massive broadcast by the GA Plus or RT or whoever it happens to be.

But if they know that the game is going to be televised and it's only one camera shot, fair enough.

It's funny, you know, that clip is now 10 years old.

10 years old.

And a poignant thought struck me.

But imagine you had said to Gary O'Donovan then, you know, in 10 years' time, there's going to be an Oireachtas committee because of very serious complaints against Rowing Ireland, your complaints included.

Well, fair to say, Gary probably never saw all this coming.

But his mother, Trish, was present in the gallery yesterday, watching on.

Answering the questions were Rowing Ireland and Sport Ireland.

Now, later on, we're going to get some analysis from John Green.

John is the Sunday Independent sports editor, and the paper's troubled warders investigation brought the details of this case to light and largely prompted this Oireachtas committee.

The reporting is detailed and thorough, and the two articles by Paul Kimmage are on independent.ie, and they are well worth your time.

But for the purposes of this podcast...

Here is the very, very short version.

Between 2017 and 2024, so that's the Tokyo Games, the Paris Games, the rowing Ireland high performance director, their top man was Antonio Mauro Giovanni.

He was fresh from working with the Dutch rowers, where not everyone had loved his work or thought he was necessarily easy to work with.

But on the face of it, with Ireland all was well.

Rowing Ireland won lots of medals.