The 42FM

Sinead and Gavin take a look at a new policy that seeks to enhance the country’s international reputation through sport - while the government argues that a football game against Israel should not be politicised.

Gav went along to the launch of the International Sports Diplomacy Framework on Tuesday to see what it was about, and to get answers on why the government seems to be speaking out of both sides of its mouth.

Also up for discussion is how this policy extends Ireland’s ambition to host big events, such as the Ryder Cup and NFL games, while modest local facilities in the shadow of Croke Park are under threat.
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Sinead and Gavin discuss in-depth the pressing issue of this week, and one that will likely make headlines all year.

The FAI have been placed in the unenviable position of having to navigate a path out of the crisis which began when Ireland were drawn to play Israel in the Nations League.

Some 93% of the FAI’s General Assembly have previously voted to suspend Israel from international football, yet the FAI are committed to fulfilling the fixtures.

Will the games go ahead? Where will they take place? What are the potential sanctions if Ireland boycott the fixtures?

Can Ireland call Uefa’s bluff? What is the worst they can do to Ireland, for making a moral stand against a country that has breached its own rules?
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Sinead O’Carroll dials in from northern Italy to tell Niall Kelly about all of the sporting and political action in Milano Cortina.

Several US athletes, including Amber Glenn and Hunter Hess, have spoken up against the Trump administration this week, which has led to an inevitable backlash from the US President and his Maga base. Sinead relays the atmosphere in Italy and assesses a week where Trump has been further angered at sporting occasions, his displeasure with the Bad Bunny half-time apparent to all with an internet connection. How does this bode for the rest of the Winter Olympics, and the World Cup in the summer?

Also, Irish competitors have been flying the flag with honour in Italy. But is there one winter sport in which Ireland could go from zero to powerhouse status? If so, what could it be?
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Sinead is off to northern Italy for the Winter Olympics this week. Today she tells Gav about her lifelong fascination with figure skating: how it started, how it developed and what she expects to see over the coming days in Milano Cortina.

Also, Sinead runs the rule over Ireland’s four Winter Olympians and rates their chances.

We delve into the reduced representation of 13 Russian athletes, who compete as neutrals. Is the ban fair to apolitical sportspeople from Russia - or would the presence of the Russian flag validate the Putin regime?
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French rugby player Thibaud Flament last week announced that he would not be available to play Ireland in the Six Nations owing to his and his wife’s fertility treatment. On this week’s show, Sinéad and Gavin discuss Flament’s story in the context of how the media covers matters of pregnancy, fertility and parenthood in elite sport.

They illustrate how things have moved on from the days a man would be expected to miss the birth of his child but ask if the conversation has evolved far enough, explaining how we still speak differently of fatherhood as opposed to motherhood and how this reinforces wider tropes.

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