Welcome to our World Service taster which this week includes a chat about the life, death and ongoing political impact being made by one of hip hop’s most enduring icons; the author of a brilliant new book "Words for my Comrades: a Political History of Tupac Shakur", Dean Van Nguyen, joined us in studio.

We also previewed the hurling semi finals with Liam Rushe and Jamie Wall, covered the British and Irish Lions tour, the club world cup circus in USA and Ken and Dion Fanning reflected on the sudden and tragic death of Liverpool star Diogo Jota.

On Tuesday night news broke that former Irish Olympic swim coach George Gibney had been arrested in Florida. Mark Horgan, reporter and producer of the award winning Second Captains / BBC Sounds series ‘Where Is George Gibney?”, came in studio to give his reaction. We'd like to thank World Service subscribers again, as, without their support, we wouldn't be able to develop our longer-form work such as  ‘Where Is George Gibney?’ and more recently, Stakeknife.

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Murph and Mark headed off to Croke Park together yesterday for the MARPH derby. Murph's initial arrogance slowly curdled into horror as he and everyone else in the stadium witnessed the return of the Royals; Meath are back!

Mark is on the show today to celebrate on behalf of his people, but otherwise, it's wall-to-wall losers as Dublin and Armagh's Paul Flynn and Oisin McConville join Murph's Galway pity party. 

We chat about Kerry's classy, clever win over All-Ireland champions Armagh, Meath's miracle, the kick-out factor, Donegal depth, Dublin's limp display against Tyrone, and where they go now as Dessie Farrell steps down.

Plus there's octogenarian ecstasies, and Ken's preferred candidate for the Dublin job.

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Friend of the show David Sneyd sent US Soccer into a tailspin over the weekend with his exclusive report that Brentford interviewed Mauricio Pochettino for the job they ended up giving to Keith Andrews. But doesn’t Poch already have a job? In Ireland we can empathise with the American soul-searching.

Meanwhile, certain senior German grandees been engaging in the favourite activity of their kind: lighting up the feuilleton space with an exchange of controversial barbs. Jurgen Klopp described the Club World Cup as the worst idea ever implemented in football, just a week after Karl-Heinz Rummenigge hailed the genius of Johnny Infantino for coming up with the idea. We look into the competing claims.

Plus there's FIFA's NFTs, Sky Sports bites back, Ken's Cuban and eggs in Italy.

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Welcome to our weekly World Service taster menu which this week includes the voice of Saipan (trailer), the Joe Duffy era coming to a close and a new door opening, Tim Vickery on Brazilian footballers' ability to sin and win, Messi's secret to longevity, and Ken on the USA V Italy cuisine wars.

Plus there's Lions o'clock, climate change, ASMR, and the GAA football and hurling championships are red hot for the next few weeks.

For access to all our shows from Monday to Friday go to secondcaptains.com/join – its 5 euro a month with no sign-up fee, no minimum stay, no sneaky contracts, and no ads.

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14-man Dublin's win over Limerick on Saturday has been described as the greatest upset in championship history - is that hyperbolic or on the money? Is this the end of an era or can we expect to see a less dominant but still title-contending Limerick going forward? And what are Dublin capable of against Cork in two weeks' time? 

Jamie Wall and former Dublin hurler Liam Rushe are with us to answer those questions and more after an extraordinary weekend. 

It's probably for the best that Murph's away this week, because in the other preliminary quarter-final Galway rolled over against Tipperary, offering next to nothing. Now, Tipp take on Kilkenny in the semi-finals, with Jamie's prediction that Derek Lyng's men will go all the way this year still hanging in the balance. 

Plus there's the Chris Crummey debate ('debate') and the Second Captains slot Louth GAA never knew they needed. 

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Ken is back from holidays and so is Branno. Did they... go on vacation together?

Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened... is what Branno's Shels-supporting friends are claiming they are thinking the day after Damien Duff walked out of the club. 

Today's show is mainly about perhaps the last-ever Duff-LOI Bomba - although it was a different competition that dominated much of our weekend bandwidth. Eoin brings us up to speed.

David Sneyd joins Eoin, Ken and Branno to talk about Duff's exit. Why did he choose to go now? Is this an impulse decision, or one that's been coming for a while? Will the league be damaged by the loss of arguably its biggest star? And what next for Duff himself? 

Plus we've news of two new Stakeknife episodes, including a Q&A with Say Nothing author and New Yorker staff writer, Patrick Radden Keefe. 

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Welcome to our weekly World Service taster menu which this week includes Dion Fanning and Rory Smith on Trent, the Spurs killjoys, sacking Ange and hiring Thomas Frank.

Plus there's Gavin Cooney on the rights and wrongs of Ireland welcoming the Trump aligned NFL to Dublin, the wildly popular new slot "Lions Watch", all the best GAA and rugby coverage and a brilliant interview with former world champ and now one of the best boxing coaches in the world, Andy Lee.

For access to all our shows go to secondcaptains.com/join – its 5 euro a month with no sign-up fee, no minimum stay, no sneaky contracts, and no ads.

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Another insane weekend of Gaelic football, and finally we have some teams departing the scene - including, most chaotically of all, Mayo. They conceded a last-second score to a team who needed it not even a small little bit, and they, Derry, Roscommon and Clare are gone. 

Former Galway player Barry Cullinane is on the line to chart his old team's progress through the Group of Death, and he's joined by Wicklow manager Oisin McConville, fresh from beating Westmeath and blasting the Tailteann Cup wide open. 

There's also time to discuss Meath's insane hammering of Kerry, a score-fest between Down and Monaghan, and the preliminary quarter-final draw, which managed to keep all the big dogs away from each other.  

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Today's football show contains all the meats of the football stew, from local LOI beefs to the state of the world game.

First we chat to David Sneyd about where exactly things stand in the League of Ireland season, a season in which Damien Duff and Stephen Bradley are at each other's throats. Why? Because of Italian trance classic, Komodo by Mauro Picotto, of course. 

Then we speak to The Guardian's Barney Ronay, who's been on the ground in America for the opening weekend of the Club World Cup. We discuss Infantino's ICE World Cup, the dark mood in America and why the Saudi money and American marketing behind it all means it will probably succeed.

Plus there's Auckland amateurs, birthday shoutouts and the Kalimotxo King. 

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Welcome to our weekly World Service taster menu which this week includes Tim Vickery on South America's keen interest in Infantino's Club World Cup, Dion Fanning and David Sneyd on RTE's panel, Ire V Lux and Tuchel's tricky start to life as England coach.

We also discuss football midfielders' brain power requirements, transcendent tennis, we preview the URC final and next week we cover all the football, golf and GAA action.

For access to all our shows go to secondcaptains.com/join – its 5 euro a month with no sign-up fee, no minimum stay, no sneaky contracts, and no ads.

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Cork won a Munster final that "began at tea-time and didn't finish until bed-time", as Denis Walsh put it on Saturday night - a win on penalties over Limerick after a raucous, controversial, enthralling match that was perfect in its imperfection, as Jamie Wall explains to us.  

Kilkenny won a sixth Leinster title in a row, but the real headlines from Croke Park yesterday came from Kildare, who won the Joe McDonagh Cup with a bravura performance on their biggest day.  

We also discuss Murph's insatiable desire for TV appearances, Ken's hatred for "Freed From Desire", and a new documentary "Hell For Leather", coming up on RTE1 tonight. 

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The Nations League final four turned out to be pretty good but it's clear that what international football needs right now is to reverse the FIFA diktat to make every emotional stadium moment sound the exact same.

We talk about Ireland's draw with Senegal and look ahead to tomorrow's season-closing friendly in Luxembourg, before the PEN/Faulkner Award-winning author Joseph O'Neill joins us in studio to speak about his 2024 novel, Godwin, a New York Times Best Book of the Year. 

The novel, partly set in the world of football scouting and agency, explores both the exploitation of young African footballers and a particular brand of ineffective 21st century American liberalism, something Joseph has also written about in his essays for the New York Review of Books. 

And that is what you call a veritable smorgasbord of a football show.

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Welcome to our weekly World Service taster menu!

For access to all our shows go to secondcaptains.com/join – its 5 euro a month with no sign-up fee, no minimum stay, no sneaky contract, and no ads.

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PSG are the champions of Europe after crushing Inter 5-0 in the most one-sided final in European Cup history. 

The night was a complicated mix of emotions; awe at the sheer brilliance of PSG's performance, respect and affection for their charismatic coach Luis Enrique, sympathy for the hopelessly outclassed Inter, unease and foreboding at a second Champions League win in three seasons for a state-owned club, and, if you are into that kind of thing, maybe a little schadenfreude at the expense of Kylian Mbappe.

After the game, Ken caught up (in rapid succession) with Miguel Delaney, Jonathan Liew and Diego Torres to hear their thoughts on the slaughter.

Plus there's Ken scooting under the influence, Doue's abs and Dembele the destroyer.

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Bernie Sanders has been one of the most electrifying figures in American life for half a century, and is one of the most high-profile global political figures of the current moment. He joined us in our studio in Dublin this week for an exclusive interview, and we have a taster of the chat on today's best of show.

In what was a massive week for Second Captains, we also had former Ireland and Sheffield Utd captain John Egan at our live show in the Everyman Theatre in Cork,

Plus there's Ken's preview of the Champions League final, Oisin McConville and Paul Flynn on the GAA and Jonathan Wilson's football wedding plans.

For access to all our shows go to secondcaptains.com/join – its 5 euro a month with no sign-up fee, no minimum stay, no sneaky contract, and no ads.

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We're into the time of celebrations, drifting clouds of flare smoke, players grabbing mics and managers maybe dropping them. Palace, Liverpool and Tottenham all celebrated their big trophy wins in the last few days while Katie McCabe has been leading Arsenal's celebrations after winning the Women's Champions League. 

Spurs fans: we see you, we believe you. We address the concerns of some Tottenham fans who felt Thursday's pod was too focused on the wretchedness of the Europa League final losers, and talk about Daniel Levy's big call. 

Jonathan Wilson joins us to pour out his heart about newly promoted playoff champions Sunderland AFC, and reveal new information on the table plan for his upcoming wedding. 

And we hear from Ken and Branno on their big Bernie experience.

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We have our provincial hurling final pairings, but Cork didn't exactly roar into the Munster final, enduring a nervy second half before finally putting Waterford away in Páirc Úi Chaoimh.  They'll face Limerick in two weeks' time, and Jamie Wall and Liam Rushe say farewell to All-Ireland champions Clare, while looking ahead to Galway/Kilkenny in the Leinster final.  

Murph was in Parnell Park to see Dublin struggle under the new-found weight of expectation, and we also explore his new-found love for the New York Knicks... which we then pithily expose as lies and hypocrisy.   

We also reveal how Ken spent his Saturday - talking to Senator Bernie Sanders in our office! 

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Welcome to our weekly World Service taster menu which this week includes an in-depth look at a Europa League final result that's produced so many talking points for both Spurs and Man Utd, US Murph on the New York sports fan and Pope University, Paul Flynn on Dublin's (surprise?) win over Galway, and Timothee Chalamet being a good sport.

We also had an exclusive interview with former Ireland women's assistant coach Colin Healy. Last year, Colin’s wife, Kelly, sadly passed away after a long battle with leukaemia. After taking a few weeks off work, he returned to his job as assistant coach to Ireland manager, Eileen Gleeson. In December, the FAI announced they wouldn’t be renewing Colin’s contract. Just over a month later, Colin released a highly critical statement in which he said he’d been assured by then FAI Director of Football, Marc Canham that he would be kept on, something which Canham has consistently denied. Colin sat down with us this week to speak about what’s been an extremely difficult year in his personal and professional life.

For access to all our shows go to secondcaptains.com/join – its 5 euro a month with no sign-up fee, no minimum stay, no sneaky contract, and no ads.

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The FA Cup: good when the underdogs actually win. 

We look at some key moments of Palace's epic and emotional victory. Why didn't the VAR send Dean Henderson off? Why did Erling Haaland let Marmoush take the penalty? And did Oliver Glasner get in Pep Guardiola's head when he warned him, you play that system against us again and we will solve it? 

And in Europa League final week, we wonder: how did Oliver Glasner manage to come in mid-season, switch to 3-4-3, and win most of his remaining PL games, while certain other managers who have tried to do something similar have failed? 

Damien Delaney was over to watch his old club win their first ever major trophy - he joins us to talk about an incredible day at Wembley.

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Limerick and Cork has been the marquee hurling rivalry of the recent past - but yesterday in the Gaelic Grounds, Limerick sent out a fairly thundering message that they are the team to beat in this year's All-Ireland championship.  

Liam Rushe and Jamie Wall are in studio again to talk to us about Kyle Hayes' dominance, Cork's naive puck-out defence, why Waterford may worry Cork next weekend with a place in the Munster final at stake, and Dublin's 'moral victory' in Nowlan Park.  

There's also the arresting image of a former RTE GAA analyst climbing Everest in the nude, Aidan O'Shea, and more Cian Lynch magic.  

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