SBB – a man never stuck for words yet

Date Published: 16-Aug-2012

He wasn’t down to participate in any sport, but Seán Bán Breathnach turned out to be one of the unexpected Irish heroes of the London Olympics after his tearful and emotional eulogy to Katie Taylor as she secured our only gold.

And yet, for anyone who knows him or who listens to him on RnaG, this sort of passion is nothing new from a man who loves sport from deep inside his heart.

To illustrate the point, there was an occasion in London back in the Eighties when another Connemara legend, Seán Mannion, was boxing a British fighter called Herol Graham on top of the bill at the Alexander Palace.

I was lucky enough to be there and SBB was doing live commentary on RnaG with his sidekick, MeaitÍ Joe Shéamais as his producer. The problem was that someone somewhere thought this justified at least three hours’ airtime and there was but one Irish speaking boxer in the venue with other things on his mind.

So MeaitÍ scanned the hall and found every ex-pat with a cúpla focal, and all of them were duly interviewed ringside by SBB on topics that all had one thing in common – they had little or nothing to do with boxing.

When they ran out of gaeilgeoirÍ before the big fight, SBB doorstepped the bikini-clad girl carrying the sign that told the hall what round was coming up.

Turned out she was a Starbird with her portfolio of pictures close at hand and – in the manner of Dinjo bringing dancing to RTÉ radio during the 1960s for his céilí programme Take to the Floor – SBB could only describe what he could see.

All the while the BBC technician grew more and more amazed at what was unfolding, gazing slackjawed at this force of nature talking in foreign tongues.

“Oi,” he said to me. “Is he a friend of yours?”

“He is,” I replied.

“Well I ain’t got a clue what he’s saying but I’ll tell ya one thing – he don’t half effin’ go.”

And thanks be to God, he hasn’t stopped since.