Too many people still think that great radio and television depends primarily on the personality and voice of the presenter, writes An Fear Rua...

Yet, these are only a part of the story. For many television productions – particularly outside broadcasts of major sports occasions – success depends up on the teamwork of a veritable army of people in the background, whose faces, voices and names we never get to know. In fact, the presenter we see or hear is only the tip of a very deep iceberg, as the lookout of the RMS Titanic said to the insufferable Captain Smith on that fateful night in 1912.

A key lynchpin behind the scenes is the guy – and they usually are guys called the Floor Manager. ‘Floor Manager’. It sounds like a mundane enough job. After all, what could be simpler than managing a floor? The truth is that a good Floor Manager is at the heart of every great television production. He is the one who makes sure that presenters, guests, interviewees are in their place, ready to roll, at the appointed time. Without a Floor Manager, the chances are small of you getting to see Brian Cody lightly flambé Marty Morrissey after winning the four-in-a-row in senior hurling. The Floor Manager has to have eyes and ears for everything allied to the experience to recognise and spot someone who will make a good live TV item.

RTÉ has been blessed to have on it books over the years some of the very best Floor Managers in the world. I know, because I worked with them all. Now, the doyen – the Daddy of them all – has stepped out from behind the scenes and has given us a book that is - at times - hilarious, revealing, interesting and always enjoyable.

Tadhg de Brún has been Floor Manager on most of the major – and many of the minor – sports occasions in Irish life over the past forty years. Some of you may have spotted the thin, lanky guy with crispy, curly hair wearing an earphones headset grabbing the likes of Cody or Harte, always in the thick of things on big match days.

Tadhg de Brún has seen it all. He tells the inside stories about ...
GAA: Teams who take to the field on big match days before the appointed hour and teams who won’t come out until it suits them. All the excitement – good and bad – behind the scenes as the managers, teams, stewards and RTÉ prepare to go live on All-Ireland Final days.

SNOOKER: Dennis Taylor gets his knuckles rapped midmatch for complaining about facilities at Goffs after his chair collapsed from under him; Alex Higgins offers a spontaneous blow-by-blow commentary on his winning performance in 1989.

SOCCER: World Cup USA 94 and George Hamilton’s shortest-ever interview with Jack Charlton – it consisted of two words; watching Niall Quinn in the commentary box suffer through the Ireland v Italy match; the sideline incident during Ireland v Mexico involving FIFA’s own Mickey Mouse.

RUGBY: The day Ulster Said ‘Yes’ in Lansdowne Road to the European Heineken Cup;Munster’s imposssible win over Gloucester in 2003; Moss Keane’s inspired reaction to being offered a few lumps of sugar at half-time during a Five Nations match against England.

GOLF: The early days of Bernhard Langer, the refreshment needs of Sam Torrence, the charm of Olazabal, the short temper of Colin Montgomery and the betting coups of the RTÉ team! All the glory days of the Irish Golf Open – from Portmarnock to Druids Glen.
BOXING: The ups and downs, literally, of Bernard Dunne’s fighting career from a ringside point of view that was sometimes too close for comfort.

And the not-so-famous: the stewards, corner boys, car park attendants who all have a word for Tadhg as he hurries back and forth massaging egos, organising events and making sure that the show goes on.

If you’re interested in a different angle on the great sports occasions we’ve all celebrated in the recent decades, this is the book for you.

We hope this won’t be the last we’ve heard from Tadgh in print because he also worked on many major news and current affairs events for RTÉ. He definitely has at least one of political memories in him. His anecdotes of Charvet J Haughty alone would fill a good volume.

Tadhg has a vast reservoir of Irish sports anecdotes. In this great book, many are recalled and some are chosen.
- Jimmy Magee, RTÉ Sport


Tunnel Vision
Behind the Scenes at Great Irish Sports Events
New Non-Fiction
€16.99 978-1-84210-395-1
www.mentorbooks.ie November 2009