Most people experience sport not in a stadium, but on the sidelines of a local club. From fundraising committees to coaching under-10s, volunteers are the engine of Irish sport. But as Emma Richmond, managing partner of Whitney Moore, explains in this episode of Sports Matters, that passion comes with real responsibility.
Richmond outlines the unseen legal landscape of community sport: safeguarding obligations, data protection rules, trusteeship headaches, and the challenges of running staff with volunteer committees. She also discusses how mergers — like the planned integration of the GAA, LGFA and Camogie Association — will test constitutions and ownership structures across the country.
From finance committees to safeguarding officers, her message is clear: Understanding the legal framework isn’t optional. It’s what keeps clubs safe, solvent, and sustainable.
Waking the Feminists is acknowledged to have changed Irish theatre. Ten years on from the social media response, which became a powerful movement, Sarah Durcan, one of its organisers and co-author of a new book, talks to Dion Fanning about how it was done and why it couldn’t happen today.
What links Josh van der Flier, Kelly Harrington, Tadhg Furlong, and the O'Donovan brothers? Behind the scenes, it's David McHugh – advisor, strategist, and one of Irish sport’s most influential figures.
In this episode of Sports Matters, McHugh sits down with Ian Kehoe to talk through a career that’s taken him from Olympic hopeful to founder of Line Up Sports, and now to a leadership role at global agency Wasserman.
He reflects on building trust with athletes, why he avoids the word “agent,” and how commercial sport has evolved from sentiment to science. McHugh also shares how he identifies talent, the future of women’s sport, and what elite performers are really like when they’re not wearing the jersey. Sports Matters is sponsored by Whitney Moore.
In part two of Belfry, the fight continues. After agreeing on a courtroom settlement for 272 Belfry investors, AIB launches a broader redress scheme. A quarter billion euros is set aside by the bank in compensation. But all is not what it might be. Back in private hands and billions in profits later, hundreds of scorched investors still claim they are being shut out of redress by AIB’s shifting rules, opaque criteria, and an appeals process that rarely lets them be heard.
What do you do when an investment opportunity proves too good to be true? Fight back. Part one of Belfry tells the story of how AIB Bank sold a series of highly leveraged UK property funds, known as the Belfry funds, to thousands of their customers between 2001 and 2006. It follows the experiences of those investors who lost their pensions and life savings, and charts the years-long legal battle they waged to hold AIB to account.
In this episode of Sports Matters, former Dublin footballer Bernard Brogan joins Ian Kehoe to talk about his journey from GAA to entrepreneur — and what sport can teach business about culture, leadership, and performance.
Brogan, a seven-time All-Ireland winner and Footballer of the Year, hasn’t slowed down since hanging up the boots. He co-founded Legacy Communications, a fast-growing PR and marketing agency, and then turned his focus to PepTalk — a workplace culture platform now used by major engineering and construction firms across Europe and the US.
He talks candidly about raising venture capital, sleepless nights as a founder, and how lessons from his time under Jim Gavin and Pat Gilroy shape how he leads today.
Sports Matters is sponsored by the law firm Whitney Moore.
Twenty years ago, Sport Ireland launched its Women in Sport programme with a bold aim: to give women equal opportunities on the pitch. Two decades later, participation is up, sponsorships are stronger, and elite events are drawing record crowds. But stubborn challenges remain — from teenage dropout rates to a shortage of facilities and patchy media coverage.
In this episode of Sports Matters, Ian Kehoe sits down with two women at the forefront of change: Niamh Tallon, founder and CEO of Her Sport, and Emer O’Sullivan, corporate affairs director at Lidl Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Tallon talks about why she launched Her Sport and the mission that drives it: “Our vision is equal opportunity in sport, regardless of gender… Wwe have to be honest with ourselves when we look at the landscape and realise that the opportunity for girls and women is not the same.”
O’Sullivan explains Lidl’s long-running sponsorship of ladies' Gaelic football, from the controversial “Lady Ball” launch to grassroots investment in jerseys and equipment: “We want to do good, we want to be purpose-driven… but equally there are commercial reasons too. It has to work both ways.”
They discuss the barriers that still hold girls and women back — from lack of toilets at pitches to entrenched club cultures — and the power of visibility to change the game. “If girls have a positive experience, they have the facilities… They’ll tend to stay in sport,” O’Sullivan says.
Sports Matters is sponsored by the law firm Whitney Moore.
Charles Haughey and Garret Fitzgerald were the two big beasts of Irish politics in the 1980s. One a patrician born to rule, the other a northsider who assumed the wealth and airs of an aristocrat. But what is their legacy? On today’s podcast Eoin O’Malley talks to Dion Fanning about his new book on the two men and why his own father Des O’Malley might question some of the conclusions in the book.
Michael Kearney built and scaled a number of major businesses, including Snap Printing and Home Instead. However, he also had another career managing the Irish national rugby team. In this episode of Sports Matters, Kearney talks to Ian kehoe about what the boardroom can learn from the dressing room, and the importance of culture and honesty in any high-performance environment. He also talks about his own business, reflects on the coaches he worked with, and discusses his role mentoring international rugby players for their post-playing days. Sports Matters is sponsored by the law firm Whitney Moore.
The Guinness family have had a long and winding connection with Ireland, which persists to this day. In today’s podcast, Arthur Edward Guinness, the fourth Lord Iveagh, talks about why his father didn’t want his children to have anything to do with the family business.
In this episode of Sports Matters, world-renowned boxing coach Billy Walsh tells Ian Kehoe what it really takes to build a champion. Known for reshaping Ireland’s amateur boxing programme and now leading Team USA, Walsh speaks candidly about the demands of high performance, the cost of excellence, and why honesty is non-negotiable in the ring and in life. Speaking from home after a stop in Kazakhstan and ahead of another return to Colorado Springs, Walsh is candid about everything: the highs and lows of elite sport, the painful necessity of cutting talented athletes, and the brutal clarity the boxing ring delivers.
But underpinning it all is his belief in honesty, discipline and culture – and a relentless desire to learn. Sports Matters is sponsored by the law firm Whitney Moore.
