Loi Weekly

Recorded over Skype, much to the chagrin of our perfectionist Professor of Sound, we soldier on through the arctic conditions. With the lack of bread affecting Johnny's mental sharpness and Dan huddled over a three bar SuperSer the comparisons with '82 are unavoidable. Be prepared for a polar affected pod where we ask Is Roddy Collins still at Athlone? Is Sean Connor back in the league? and are Snowballs at linesmen allowed under FIFA rules? We have Kenny Shiels dropping grenades, The Brandywell reopening, and our very first breaking news story. If you're sick of those bread videos on 'WhatsApp' then this won't help a bit...

A dead horse, a taxi driver with an unimportant name, a worst injuries competition, and a prodigal son. No, it’s not the script for the new Coen Brothers movie it’s just what happens when the two Johnnys are in studio. Joining Messers. McDonnell and Ward this week in our studio are Johnny Dunleavy of Cork City, and, only one letter short of a millionaire thriller writer, we have Tim Clancy, who’s one of the youngest managers in the league up in Drogheda. We have an interview with ex Cork City hero Sean Maguire and our long awaited preview of the first division. All this and some anthem whistling to boot!

We're back! An extended season opener featuring Ger O'Brien from Saint Pats in the original studio. We also have interviews with Shane Keegan, Raff Cretaro and Stephen McGuinness from the league launch on Tuesday. So, expect predictions, in depth analysis, steak house recommendations and lower level mathematics as well as a brand new theme tune all the way from Washington DC! Game on.

Remember when Roy of the Rovers Annuals gave you the chance to see what black and white weekly characters like Hot Shot Hamish and Johnny Dexter looked like in glossy colour? Well we've brought back two old favourites for the festive season. Glossy Paul Corry, ex-Shamrock Rovers, drops in to give us his 2c while the ever colourful James Chambers jets in from Philly to chip in his festive bon mots. It's all about the opening fixtures, the ins and outs of transfer deals and the greatest league in the world. Happy Christmas!

"Don't Look Back" screamed the Nobel Laureate back in 1965. Corks Crocked Captain Johnny Dunleavy didn't pay any attention as he swaggers into studio to take Johnny Ward to task for the sins of the past. Joined by Dan and Bohemian goalkeeper Shane Supple for a nostalgic look back at the season that was and a look at your votes for the team of the season. Shane also found time to push team mate Dinny Corcoran on his penchant for Dutch Gold and it took us only 38 episodes to work a Dylan reference into the description.

As Johnny sings the relegation blues in G minor, Ger O'Brien ex captain of Saint Pat's drops in to relive the great escape. He also regales us with tales of Owen Garvan's dressing room hopping and lack of singing ability. There's Dan's week of press trips, Kenny Shiels' bag of cans, and who's going to win the cup? We've got twenty quids worth of tickets to give away if you still care.....

In an attempt to curb the enthusiasm of Johnny and stem the 'Galway United Weekly' movement, Dan invited Dundalk manager Stephen Kenny into the pod this week. Dundalk's last game of the league season is proving crucial to Galway's season and it all makes for a pretty pretty pretty good show. Oh, and it sounds fantastic too!

Even after Ophelia toasted our studio, our equipment and our sound engineer we managed to rustle up two tin cans and an iString to record a highly entertaining if somewhat retro sounding Brian Kerr chat. Johnny McDonnell dropped in as well, so we went all out to recreate a Faroe Island commentary box audio feel. Apologies for the poor sound quality. Blame the wind....

In an unashamedly honest reflection on an injury blighted career, Shamrock Rovers' Paul Corry joins Dan and Johnny in studio to talk about his decision to retire from football at the age of 26. There's also a look back on Tuesday nights epic FAI Cup semi final replay and that Stephen Bradley incident, as well as predictions, impromptu host auditions and Johnny's explanation of Dan's genealogy.

As we near the "end of the line" for this season, ex Limerick manager Martin Russell drops by to see if "even the losers" will get lucky sometime and run down Johnny's Galway dreams. Lending a media trained "Southern Accent" to this weeks show while celebrating his miscellaneous birthday is Cork City's Alan Bennett, who plagiarises Alanis Morissette, and reveals that "The Waiting" is the hardest part. We have our say on the Kevin Doyle concussion debate as well as a feisty predictions round and a look back on the FAI Cup "Big Weekend". That's more than enough Tom Petty titles for one week, but he was definitely one of the good guys...

After an Italian honeymoon Dan is reunited with Johnny who comes up with some terrible excuses to explain away his unfaithfulness. Ironically this weeks liaison is recorded at an unnamed hotel as Dan’s first dalliance away from married life includes an illicit rendezvous with old team mates Raf Cretaro of Sligo and Gavin Peers of St.Pat’s to discuss the relegation battle and a certain memoir. Meanwhile Johnny plays away with Kieran Sadlier who is almost a champion with Cork City. Also up for discussion is the weekends semi finals, the expected attendances at the FAI cup final, Vietnamese cuisine, FIFA 18, and if anyone has any spare LCD Soundsystem tickets…..

The standard of men’s attire might be down this week but the quality of guests is pure Armani seersucker as the voice of eir sport, Des Curran, stands in for the sunbed roulette playing Dan McDonnell, who we think might be in Capri. We’ve got Brendan Clarke, the safest hands in Limerick, in studio to talk about their upcoming Munster derbies and relegation battles. On the phone from Dundalk we have a very happy cup winner in Sean Gannon, oh yeah and there’s a 99c sandwich that just won’t go away.

LOI Weekly - Episode 30 by LOI Central

It's all very 'Dude' in Dan's prenuptial show. "Laid Back" Johnny Mc (Donnell) returns to bring his own brand of Sam Elliot knowledge to the relegation battle, the future of the International team, reverse defections from the USA to ex eastern bloc countries and his own brand of human trafficking. There's Johnny Ward's full on Lebowski impression and the usual analysis, previews and shameless plugging of mens outfitters. This is not 'nam, it's episode 29, there are rules....

"Guess who's back? Damo's back..." and while we're talking back, let's talk full backs. Because the debate will rage over who was better, Damien Lynch or San Fransisco born Neal Horgan, who's also back. Despite his best efforts Neal ends up talking again about crisis clubs and this time it's Athlone Town. Johnny gets all fanboy with Galway United's Ronan Murray who talks about their cup run and working with Roy Keane at Ipswich. There's the usual random degrees of separation from the Hitler Youth comparisons with Social Media to mass defections of Bray Wanderers players in Inverness....but the main thing is that Damo's back and he's got 1600 emails to answer!

On this week's show we welcome Ger 'Buzzer' Rowe from Crumlin to talk about their upcoming cup match against the reigning champions, and his fond memories of Shelbourne legend Ollie Byrne on the tenth anniversary of his passing. He also offers expert opinion on which ex pros make the best taxi drivers, little people kicking in his door in Mosney and how five a sides in the flats honed his skills from a very early age. If this wasn't enough for you, we have Shane Keegan from Galway Utd on the phone and the results of the piano man poll are in as to whether it's gonna be Ollie Horgan or Ollie Horgan who tinkles the ivories at Dan's Wedding! Goodness Gracious, Great balls of....

In between selecting Dan's Wedding Songs and appraising Dublin's formal menswear retailers, 'Smooth' Johnny Ward and 'Dynamic' Dan McDonnell, play host to Longford Town manager Neale Fenn, who tells us about his love of the job and his career to date. Ollie Horgan is back on the phone from 'Harps to talk through the end of season run in, we don't discover what Alan Cawley cooked for Johnny, and Johnny takes ten minutes to to come up with a pun for 'Chambers'! All this and more....Because you just keep giving us 5 star reviews!

This week we welcomed Bohs Duo Oscar Brennan and Shane Supple to the studio...well almost! Our transition year sound engineer insisted on recording the first half of Oscar's contribution in a corrugated iron roofed shed for effect. We abandoned this experiment after about ten minutes and instead focused on Bohs beating Cork, Stephen Kenny's new contract and The Shawshank Redemption - Gypsy Style

The boy genius Johnny Dunleavy takes the train to our studio just north of North Korea where he joins a stag weary Dan and a Galway Races weary Johnny for a humdinger of a show that tackles head injuries, the obvious observations of middle aged cork men, amnesia, Aaron Lennon's driving position, going Hurling with Hunt, and "How The Simpson's would do press releases". It's so good that this weeks episode would get 12 A's in it's Inter Cert, including Latin!

Dan returns to accompany Johnny after an 'Oh-So-Short' European adventure to analyze what went wrong for the LOI teams. Luke Byrne from Shamrock Rovers drops in to preview the upcoming Bohs-Rovers game and Alan Reynolds from Waterford talks hurling, tenors, and the cup run. Oh, and Vincent Browne somehow gets a look in.