TG4 have been taking local rivalries to a national stage for 22 years and counting

TG4 have endured a difficult couple of seasons in the AIB club championships. Although the club schedules were the first reintroduced after the first lockdown in 2020 and the county championships were warmly (literally in the summer sun) received, there were no crowds permitted for many of the fixtures, giving an eerie silence for broadcast in which the replacements bench took the place of supporters.

Even last year had attendance limits and Covid protocols at various stages. So this season has been a return to normality in the coverage for the first time in three years.

They do however have to cope with the impact of the split season and the shortage of high-end matches during August.

The history of the station’s involvement in Gaelic games is one of innovation in terms of fixtures covered. For a long time, the assumption within RTE was that league fixtures were too niche for general viewing schedules and for nearly two decades TG4 took up the slack with terrestrial coverage of Sunday matches.

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Now, RTE cover the league on Saturday evenings, taking over the old subscription slots vacated by Setanta and latterly eir Sport.

The same has happened with club fixtures and the national broadcaster has shown county championship matches on Saturday evenings although not so far this year.

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Live coverage of county championships will be 22 years old next month, in September. At the time it added to TG4′s reputation as a significant broadcast partner of the GAA — and Gaelic games in general with the women’s football championship coverage now also in its 22nd year.

In his 2002 annual report, then DG Liam Mulvihill paid tribute to the Irish language broadcaster’s engagement.

“The increase in the coverage of our games on TG4 continued during the year, as a new arrangement was put in place under which TG4 were given a wider schedule of games as part of the overall package agreed with RTE.

“The games shown on TG4 are mostly the Allianz National Leagues, AIB club championships, county finals (as approved by the counties involved) and repeats of old games ... and the extra exposure has been immensely beneficial to us — in the off season in particular.”

After a number of years of broadcasting deferred coverage and extensive highlights of club matches, the first live fixture took place in Meath with the county final.

Mac Dara Mac Donnchadh has been involved as a presenter and match commentator since the coverage, which is delivered to TG4 by production company Nemeton, began.

“The Meath county final was the first one we ever did live in September 2000. Dunshaughlin were playing Kilmainhamwood and I decided to look up the official Government gazetteer, which gives the names of the places in Irish. We were a bit raw ourselves at the time.

“So we stuck up the two translations, which was wrong because the two club names were different to the placenames. That was our first mistake.”

The broadcasts proved popular and the station quickly earned kudos for the breadth of its coverage. They reckon they’ve covered finals in nearly every county and point out that although there is an obvious interest in Gaeltacht areas, that’s not a decisive factor in most situations.

“There’s no massive bias towards Gaeltacht counties,” according to Mac Donnchadh. “It may swing it if all else was equal. Generally you get a balance between hurling and football, a reference to how often a county has been done previously. History and geography come into it and if a Gaeltacht club is in a county final, that might decide it but not exclusively.”

In the early years, many counties had yet to be convinced of the merits of the coverage.

“I remember one PRO asking how many programmes we wanted. We needed them for the commentator and co-commentator and presenter and others so we said about 10. He ended up giving us four. It was on sufferance as if he was paying for them himself.”

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Concerns became principally about the impact on gate receipts. That worry subsided through better compensation payments and although counties occasionally refuse coverage, it’s now rare.

Ironically, in the pandemic summer of 2020 it was only through the TG4 and Nemeton coverage that locals got to see matches at all.

The station had already been experimenting with a YouTube channel for certain matches like the All-Ireland intermediate and junior club finals whereas Nemeton were involved with others in live streaming fixtures, an innovation which proved wildly popular with a range of matches available to local followers for five or 10 euro.

This year there was further innovation with the referee of the Kerry hurling final John O’Halloran mic-ed up during the broadcast. It proved popular except in Croke Park and had to be discontinued but may in time become a feature of coverage.

This weekend Mac Donnchadh, originally from Galway but long-time resident in Waterford, will be on familiar territory with TG4 broadcasting from Dungarvan.

“The season’s moving towards knockout and there’s two Waterford quarter-finals this weekend. That bit of bite will be there. Will Dan Shanahan be the oldest club player we’ve featured, at 45? I’m not sure but he could well be.”

For Mac Donnchadh, there is an enduring appeal about club matches that separates them from the polish of elite games.

“What I love about the club is that intercounty is nearly gone too perfect. In the club you’ll still get mistakes made and that lends excitement. You still see a fellah, a stone or two overweight, which you’re not going to at county level. In a way it’s more human.

“I remember Killererin playing in a (Galway) county final and our cameraman just asked could he access the dressingroom just as the last speech was being given before they went out. Jaysus, try to do that now and you’d be shot.”

*TG4 will broadcast live coverage of the Waterford quarter-finals from Fraher Field, Dungarvan, on Sunday. Mount Sion v Lismore is at 2.30pm and is followed by All-Ireland champions Ballygunner v Fourmilewater at 4.15pm.