Ireland has produced a lot of sporting greats, but none quite like Roy Keane. He’s not just a footballer, or a pundit, or even a national obsession at this stage, he’s practically a genre of Irish conversation. And he’s someone that has been a big part of my career for many years, in particular with Radio Roy on Gift Grub.

Dave Hannigan has just published new book called We Need To Talk About Roy in which he takes a fresh and fascinating look at Keane - not just the man himself, but what he tells us about Ireland, ambition, class, celebrity, masculinity, football, and fame. And this isn’t just a great piece of journalism – Dave is from the same part of Cork as Roy, they are roughly the same age, and they even played against each other a few times!!!

In this chat Dave and I chat about Roy’s early days in Cork, why Saipan still has such a grip on people, how Roy became such a huge media figure, and why he may actually be more culturally relevant now than he was in his playing days.

COMEDY - its Michael O’Leary’s birthday this week – he’s decided to throw himself a big birthday bash, in true Ryanair style…

Produced by Patrick Haughey, AudioBrand

I am a huge football fan, and I love the history of football too. I’m fascinated by the best players we’ve had the privilege of watching over the years, my all-time favourite being Diego Maradona , and also by the great managers like Alex Fergusson and Jose Mourinho – many of whom I’ve caricatured on Gift Grub over the years.

And that’s why I was delighted when I received a copy of a new book about one of the most interesting and successful football managers of all time - and you’ve probably never heard of him! I certainly hadn’t anyway. His name was Helenio Herrera , also known as HH, and what a life story he has. Born into poverty, he went to become an ok football player but incredibly accomplished, wealthy and famous football manager - he’s also credited with inventing the modern style of football management.

Barcelona-based Irish football writer Richard Fitzpatrick has just published a fascinating profile of this man – its called HH: Helenio Herrera – Football's Original Master of the Dark Arts, and he joins me on this episode of the Mario Rosenstock Podcast to tell me all about it.

COMEDY - As this episode is all about great football management, we put a call in to some of the great footballers and managers, and asked them to reveal which manager they most admire…

Produced by Patrick Haughey, AudioBrand

Larissa Nolan, who you may know from previous episodes of the show, got in touch the other day about a story that she really wanted to talk about, and she wanted Karl Deeter , another friend of the show, to join the conversation too.

The story was about an incident that happened at the recent BAFTA awards on the BBC, where an actor with Tourette’s syndrome, whose life story inspired the award winning film ‘I Swear’, shouted out the N-word when black actors Michael B Jordan and Delroy Lindo were on stage to present an award. Naturally this caused a major stir - but the reaction was actually quite nuanced, with some very different viewpoints emerging.

So Larissa, who has OCD, and Karl Deeter, who has Tourette’s, joined me to get into this issue. We chat about what it’s like to live with Tourette’s and OCD and how both conditions are actually quite similar in some ways. They also give a great explainer about this BAFTA’s story and the nuanced outcry it has caused, and they share their own opinions about it.

Produced by Patrick Haughey, AudioBrand