Joe Brolly says he has always regretted insulting Marty Morrissey while analysing an Ulster Championship game on RTÉ in 2015.
Prior to a game between Cavan and Monaghan, Brolly said that Cavan football was "as ugly as Marty Morrissey" and that "Maybe I should apologise to the people of Cavan". Later in the broadcast, he added that it was "said in the spirit of affection".
"I learned things as I was going along," the Derryman said on Virgin Media's Sport Stories: Joe Brolly, which airs this week.
"I made some mistakes. I made a very hurtful comment about Marty Morrissey once, which I've always regretted. I went to Marty personally, and apologised for it. Marty always says that I turned him into a sex symbol with that comment.
"That was a very good lesson for me. I'd just given the kidney [to my friend Shane Finnegan], and all of a sudden, I was a national saint. I think around that time I started to get a bit carried away with myself, even though I was thinking, 'Don't get carried away with yourself'. I was being treated almost like a saintly figure in the aftermath of that.
"It was something that I really regretted. I shouldn't have said it. It was off the cuff, and it was cruel. I made up with Marty. He's a great fella, great fun. My greatest regret is turning Marty Morrissey into a sex symbol."
“An orthodoxy started in the south that nationalists in the north were to blame. If they had just behaved & not worried about civil rights everything would’ve been fine.⁰⁰
“Completely ignoring the reality of soldiers machine gunning people to death."
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Brolly also addressed his exit as an RTÉ Gaelic football pundit in 2019.
Joe Brolly on RTÉ exit
"What happened ultimately was a new Head of Sport [Declan McBennett] came in who had a very prescriptive view of how it ought to be done and very quickly I was made to feel uncomfortable," said Brolly.
"The previous Heads of Sports, we have a great relationship and still keep in contact.
"I suppose some people are just allergic to other people. And I think he was allergic to me. I think it was a sense of 'this is only going one way'.
"It was very disappointing to me, and very hurtful to me as well. I was shocked. I mean, I was shocked."
Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile
Part One of Sport Stories: Joe Brolly airs on Tuesday 28 December with Part Two on Thursday 30 December on Virgin Media One.
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