What’s right in China may not necessarily be right in Ireland — So that’s not quite right mate, it’s wrong.
Who takes the title of greatest living Louthman now?
Right is right and wrong is wrong.
I think that’s definitely the case with me. I have fond memories of Jimmy commentating on some of the lesser 2006 and 2010 World Cup group games on weekend afternoons - probably from a studio in RTÉ. He was rambling away and talking awful shite, possibly in a Croatia-Japan match.
I obviously remember him from a good bit before that too. Know Your Sport, some Olympics events and the odd GAA commentary. Think he was a regular commentator for one of the main featured highlights games on The Sunday Game for a good few years probably in the 1990s (? cc @Sidney) but he rarely did the live game(s). Did he present The Game on Monday?
He was an anchor on Sunday Sport there on the radio in the last few years.
He had complete blind faith in Michelle Smith. I remember an interview he did where he was making the point she was simply a world class performer. He mentioned her getting her law exams and securing some of the best marks in Ireland. “Did she take anything for that?” 
He seemed nice and affable rather than being a good commentator though in my time listening to him. But the extent of the tributes from everyone in broadcast, print and online media circles, including from absolute no marks at the lowest levels who’ve been bouncing around sport desks at Off The Ball etc , show that he genuinely seemed to have time and a friendly word for everyone.
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My mother wouldn’t hear of any talk that Michelle Smith could have been a cheat because she finished first in Irish in the Leaving Cert.
RIP Jimmy. Obviously loved all sports which makes his stance on drug cheats all the more strange. I’ll put it down to being a bit seafoid in his later years.
You’ve never seen him perform.
Not particularly.
Stefan White.
Stephen Melia
Tommy Byrne.
Magee was a lower order commentator on GAA in the late 1980s/early 1990s. There was a bit of a changing of the guard around that time as regards GAA commentary with Michael O’Hehir and Mick Dunne departing and Micheal O’Muircheartaigh concentrating on radio. Jim Carney and Marty Morrissey, who was was brought in around 1988 I think, would have been ahead of him in the pecking order.
He commentated on the 1989 Leinster final between Dublin and Meath but I don’t recall him doing any other big GAA games for RTE.
He then got the gig as main commentator on UTV’s Ulster championship coverage from 1995 to 1997, before moving back to RTE ahead of the 1998 World Cup. I can’t remember if he was still allowed to present Know Your Sport when he went to UTV but I have a notion he didn’t and George Hamilton did it on his own in 1995/96 which was the final season of it. Magee did do some GAA commentaries for RTE when he went back (Dublin v Kilkenny at Parnell Park in the 1998 Leinster hurling championship was one) but they were infrequent.
I don’t recall him presenting the Game On Monday. Micheal O’Muircheartaigh did present for at least one year (1995) so perhaps that’s what you’re thinking of.
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What a post.
The memory man!
Those were some of the ‘crack’ Eastern European teams of the era
Wasn’t it Jimmy who spottedRoche coming back at Delgado from a helicopter picture?
My father was on Know Your Sport the first year it was broadcast (1987/88). He won his first round heat but lost out in the quarter-finals. My recollection is that he didn’t find Magee very affable but found George Hamilton to be a thorough gentleman.
I only met Magee once myself but found him a bit brusque.
Somebody earlier talked about how he’d list off a load of other facts when he was asked a question by the special guest on Know Your Sport and that’s exactly what he did. I recall Mick Lyons being one of the very few guests to catch him out with a question - which was “who captained Meath to beat Dublin in the 1975 National League final?” Magee listed off a load of Meath captains of All-Ireland winning teams, but didn’t know the answer. Even at nine years old, I could have told him it was goalkeeper Ronan Giles.
Strangely enough, around about April last year, a man I didn’t know knocked on my door in Galway, He was looking for his son who was a student and was apparently living on my road. The son hadn’t been in contact with his family for two months and they couldn’t get in contact with him so the father came down to Galway to look for him to check he was alright. I couldn’t help him out as I don’t fraternise with the students living on my road but I did have a very good chat with him for about half an hour and it turned out he was on the Meath panel when they won that 1975 National League. A very nice man altogether. Mick was his name, I can’t remember his surname.
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I met Jimmy Magee one night in Tesco in Ardkeen in Waterford. It was just after the release of his autobiography and he was sitting at a little fold up table just inside the front door with a few books in front of him. No one else near him. No posters up or nothing. It looked quite sad to be honest. I regret not talking with him more because he seemed a nice man from our brief pleasantries and me exclaiming surprise of seeing him there and in fairness like most on here would have grown up hearing him on TV. But it just seemed so out of place, on his own in a big grocery shop at around 9pm selling off his book.
Also recall one of the funnier bits on Know Your Sport. I cant recall the exact way it unfolded, but essentially it was “this sports person was born in Dublin”, contestant buzzes in and names some random sportstar and is right. The stupid fucker saw him earlier on in the lobby so guessed he would be the sportstar and shot his load way too early and was copped.
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