Countdown dream comes true for biggest Galway fan

Galway man Liam Moloney is one of the biggest Countdown fans ever.

As soon as St Joseph’s ‘The Bish’ bell rang out signalling the end of school every afternoon, Liam would leg it home to Renmore to make it in time for the 4.30pm start of the popular letters and numbers quiz programme with the distinctive signature tune.

And so when the now 37-year-old city man made it onto the live shows of the Channel 4 game show over the past week, where he has stunned viewers with his performance, it was a “dream come true”.

Liam is well known as a friendly bar man in city pubs including Taffee’s, King’s Head and the former Living Room, where he worked for 16 years up until 2012.

Now employed at medical device company, Lake Region Medical in Parkmore, Liam’s face was on television screens in all of his former workplaces since last Wednesday, as the ‘regulars’ were glued to his Countdown performances.

Kennedy’s in Eyre Square have even been showing delayed screenings of his daily exploits at 9pm; and he’s on again the show today (Thursday) for his seventh appearance.

“Countdown was always a big one in our house . . . I’d stop short of saying I’m fanatical about it but there’s often been times I’d spend six or seven hours playing it on the phone,” says the affable Renmore native.

His siblings, like him, are all fans of the show, including sister Celia, who is in Dublin, and brothers Diarmuid, who is in Galway, and Conor and Fergal in New York, as are his parents, Geraldine and Dermot.

Diarmuid, he says, “is good at the numbers”, and Fergal, “he’s good with the conundrums”.

Liam, it seems, is good at all three conundrums, letters and letters, judging by his displays so far.

Yesterday (Wednesday), he won his sixth game, and since last week, Liam broke the highest score so far this season, with a tally of 118. He then went and broke his own record, with another season best of 121 points.

On several occasions he beat Susie Dent in the ‘dictionary corner’; and presenter Nick Hewer and his assistant Rachel Riley both remarked about his natural Countdown ability, particularly the numbers game.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.