Peter O' Mahony - "I had a chance to reflect on myself, how I minded people"
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Why was Peter O’Mahony the team’s media spokesperson after bad results?
Now, I could have my work cut out for me with my next guest today because he is the guy the Irish rugby team used to send out to Stonewall, the media, when they didn't play well. But he's also one of the greatest warriors this country has ever produced. He's a legend of the game. He's Captain Munster, Ireland and the Lions. And he's also a hell of a gardener. Peter O'Mahony, good morning. Morning, Brendan. How are you? Good. Why were you the one sent out to the media at awkward moments?
I suppose I found it easy to kind of say plenty, but at the same time to kind of say nothing at all. So, yeah, it normally came down to I knew it was coming if we had a bad one and it was a bad result. I knew I was up for media that day.
OK, yeah, yeah. You've given
nothing. Look, I always found it important to protect us and what we were doing and the lads. And, you know, we always endeavour to do our best. And there was days, you know, we didn't do that. But, you know, you never wanted to let others in at times and you wanted to protect people. And, you know, whether we won or lost, that was kind of the
always way I thought. Yeah. So I've been reading your book all in and it's great because there's all these kind of other sides to you that people won't know. Tell me about your granny. She sounds like some woman.
Yeah, she looked after me for a long time. I started with my grand-aunt, who's still alive, and my little brother came along, my middle brother came along then, and we were a bit of a handful for the two of us, so I went over to my mum's mum, Mrs Conroy, and... I think I was around two when she looked after me from that point up to until nearly I left home, really. She fed and watered me, looked after me. You know, I'd probably find it hard to argue that amongst the bones of the 30 grandkids she had, I was probably up there with number one, to be honest. Yeah. Yeah, she was very good to me.
It sounds like her house up on Richmond Hill there, people, Cork people will know Richmond Hill well. It was kind of like a second home for you, was it?
yeah it was you know I started she started looking after me when my mum and dad were working my mum worked in Heineken down the end of the hill so it was an easy place to drop me in the mornings and stuff and you know From there on, we kind of built an incredible bond and relationship over the years. And, you know, you talk about the typical Irish grandmother, food was at the forefront of everything she did. You know, there was every day that I was there, there was other people coming in and out, whether it was... few of the sons whether it was gardeners she had a great friend in one of the the furniture guys she looked at who looked after all in for grove at different times of the day
and
everyone
got fed whether everyone got fed and
yeah it used to wreck her head when she didn't get the notice like that they were on the way because it was she was ready to go with a brown bread or something to have ready to go to put into the oven um so it was always great smells and When I got into my teens, even when I was starting to play rugby more seriously, training a lot, you'd always be looking forward to picking up the phone and say, look, I'll be up for a bit of dinner or lunch, and inevitably she'd have something
ready to go. And she was an extraordinary woman herself. She'd had a hard enough life. She also then, on the other hand, was a student of pre-revolutionary Russian economics. She became a French scholar as well.
Yeah, she used to take, I remember her going to her French lessons initially and then they fizzled out. But she continued to drive it on as the kind of teacher then. They used to meet in Duns on Patrick Street and she'd give them assignments and correct their homework. And these were a group of people in their 20s. 60s, 70s, 80s like and they'd insist on speaking French if there was ever days I had to go along like I hadn't a clue because they would not speak in English.
Excellent. Only in Cork and Dunn's and Patrick Street. Yeah. And did she follow your career then over the years?
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Why was Peter O’Mahony the team’s media spokesperson after bad results?
0:00–4:19
2
What role did Peter’s grandmother play in his childhood and love of food?
4:19–8:05
3
How did Peter’s lifelong temper affect his early rugby career?
8:05–11:55
4
Why did Peter quit university to focus on professional rugby?
11:55–16:21
5
What was the culture like at Munster when Peter joined the squad?
16:21–20:50
6
How did Peter handle leadership and the decision to step down as captain?
20:50–25:28
7
What impact did the loss of Anthony ‘Axel’ Foley have on Peter and the team?
25:28–29:33
8
How is Peter adjusting to retirement, family life, and his new ventures?
29:33–33:02
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Brendan O'Connor
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