RTÉ is the home of GAA this summer with 20 live televised GAA games and unrivaled national radio coverage

– 20 Live televised GAA games this summer 
– 14 games are exclusive to RTÉ television
– RTÉ Radio 1 has exclusive National Radio rights to GAA coverage
– Extensive free-to-air coverage across television, radio, RTÉ Player and RTÉ.ie
– Catch up on all the weekend’s action and reflective analysis each Sunday night on The Sunday Game

RTÉ’s spectacular Summer of Sport steps up a gear this weekend with the much-anticipated launch of the 2021 GAA Championship season. RTÉ Sport will bring viewers and listeners to every GAA championship match this summer with pre-match excitement and reflective post-match analysis. Insightful commentary will bring the action straight into homes all across the country. RTÉ Sport will provide extensive free-to-air coverage from the beginning to the end of the championship season and will continue into the autumn with club action from local communities from all four provinces. Who will Create the Future and be named champions for 2021?  Who will the breakout stars of this championship season be, securing their place in history?

RTÉ will broadcast 20 live televised games this summer, 14 of which are exclusively live and free-to-air. (please see notes to editors for full list of fixtures). Highlights include live coverage of all six provincial finals in football and hurling, as well as the All-Ireland semi-finals and finals in both codes, along with the Joe McDonagh Cup final.

Television coverage starts this Sunday, 27th June, as the Munster Hurling Championship begins with rivals Clare and Waterford facing each other once again in Semple Stadium, Thurles (Throw in 3.30pm) The Ulster GAA Senior Football Championship will see Down v Donegal (Throw in at 1pm.) 200 lucky supporters will be attendance at both games. RTÉ Radio 1 has the exclusive national radio rights to broadcast GAA and, this weekend alone, RTÉ Radio teams will broadcast from 15 matches across both Saturday and Sunday.  There will be live commentary from Croke Park on Saturday for both the Division 2 and Division 1 Ladies Football National League finals.

Joanne Cantwell will be in studio for the Sunday Game Live on each match day, along with a team of panellists for pre-match build up, comprehensive analysis at half time and after the final whistle has been blown. Match commentary will be provided by Marty Morrissey, Ger Canning and Darragh Moloney. Des Cahill will once again round up the weekend’s action each Sunday night on The Sunday Game.  Studio panellists will include, amongst many others, Henry Shefflin, Brendan Cummins, Donal Óg Cusack, Jackie Tyrell, Anthony Daly, Tomás Ó’ Sé, Colm Cooper, Pat Spillane, Éamonn Fitzmaurice, Ciarán Whelan, Colm O’ Rouke, Kevin McStay, Oisín McConville, Sean Cavanagh, Anna Geary, Noëlle Healy and Ursula Jacob.

On RTÉ Radio 1 every weekend, Jacqui Hurley, Darren Frehill, John Murray, Joanne Cantwell and Des Cahill will present Saturday Sport and Sunday Sport.  Pauric Lodge will be right there on the side-line bringing the noise and colour from the pitch straight to your home. John Mullane, Shane McGrath, Micheál Donoghue, Brian Carroll, Kate Kelly and Aoife Sheehan are amongst the radio panellists for hurling and camogie each weekend. Martin McHugh, Kyle Coney, John Casey, Eamon O’ Hara, Aidan O’ Rourke, Denise Masterson, Cora Staunton and Fiona McHale will cast a critical eye over Gaelic football.

Damian Lawlor will present a new programme on Friday night’s on RTÉ Radio 1 with all the latest news, interviews and previews ahead of the weekend’s Gaelic Games Championship action. Game On on RTÉ 2FM continues weekdays from 6pm throughout the summer with all the latest Championship reaction and analysis.

RTÉ will also be providing Irish Language commentary for the championship, which can be viewed on RTÉ News Channel, RTÉ Player and by changing your audio option on RTÉ TWO.   Commentary team includes Garry MacDonncha, Dara Ó Cinnéide, Pat Fleury, Cuán Ó Flatharta and Claire O’Connor

Commenting ahead of a massive weekend for RTÉ Sport, Declan McBennett, Group Head of Sport, RTÉ, says: “The Championship is an integral part of any sporting year regardless of timing and is central to RTÉ Sport across all platforms.  The thrill of championship clashes and the rivalries both local and across provinces is the stuff that memories are made of which each year producing new heroes for each generation. RTÉ Sport puts a huge value on being central to each and all of those stories on tv radio news and online.”

AND THERE’S MORE …

RTÉ2 & RTÉ Player

The Sunday Game Live will see Joanne Cantwell anchoring a comprehensive package of 20 live games in High Definition, across this summer’s GAA Championships starting at 12.55 PM on Sunday 27 June. Des Cahill will return that evening at 9.30 PM with the first Sunday Game evening highlights show of the year.

RTÉ will once again be providing Irish Language commentary in both football and hurling for this year’s Championship, your commentary team of Garry MacDonncha, Dara Ó Cinnéide and Pat Fleury will be bringing you all the action from this weekend onwards.

The RTÉ Player will have the rights to The Sunday Game Live and The Sunday Game for the island of Ireland only, 7 days, all platforms.
 
RTÉ Radio 1 & RTÉ 2FM

RTÉ Radio will this summer offer the very best action in hurling and football with a comprehensive range of commentary and analysis right through the GAA Championships. RTÉ Radio 1 has the full exclusive national coverage of every match in both hurling and football with commentaries featured on Saturday Sport and Sunday Sport which are the two most popular sports programmes on Irish radio (source JNLR).

The action begins this weekend on Saturday Sport and Sunday Sport with both National Football League Finals on Saturday, Leinster Senior Hurling Championship Quarter-Finals and the Connacht Senior Football Championship Quarter-Final as some of the headliners.

Our team of commentators will include Pauric Lodge, Ger Canning and Darragh Maloney as well as our GAA correspondent, Marty Morrissey who will be around the country in the RTÉ Radio 1 Roadcaster.

In addition to all the live action, Damian Lawlor presents a new programme The Throw-In on Friday nights at 10pm on RTÉ One. Damian will look ahead to the weekend’s fixtures and will bring any breaking team information.

Stay with RTÉ Radio 1 for bulletins throughout the day on Morning Ireland,  bulletins on News at One and regular preview material on Drivetime. Each programme will also have all the breaking news as it happens with extensive analysis and debate featuring also on RTÉ 2fm’s daily sports programme, Game On.

RTÉ News 

RTÉ’s GAA Correspondent Marty Morrissey will travel the length and breadth of the country during the summer meeting team captains and talking to county supporters as fever pitch excitement reaches a peak in August.  Marty will commentate on many matches for RTÉ Television this summer as well as providing all the latest updates in the RTÉ News bulletins.  RTÉ Radio will bring team news and breaking stories on their bulletins from dawn until well after dusk each day. 

RTÉ.ie

RTÉ.ie/sport will serve as the digital hub for all Championship coverage. Follow every game via our match trackers and live score service on RTÉ.ie/sport and the RTÉ News App, while keeping up to date on the latest news and staying informed with the best columnists in the business.

RTÉ Player will offer live streaming of all RTÉ’s live and highlights programming and the best of the Sunday Game’s expert analysis on the Football, Hurling and Camogie championships.

You can also watch the Sunday Game and Sunday Game Live on the RTÉ Player, on catch-up while the Sunday Game Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts will bring you the best of the panel discussions and analysis, as well as all the behind the scenes fun and games.

All this, as well as the RTÉ GAA Podcast, our interactive Facebook Lives and newly expanded analysis tools, which will provide the best reviews and previews of the Gaelic football and hurling action.

RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta  

RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta will be bringing listeners a bumper summer of sports coverage.  They have Irish-language radio rights to all GAA Championship matches, and will have live commentary, reporting and analysis on its sports shows, with coverage of up to twenty football matches, and fifteen hurling games.  Analysts will include Kevin Cassidy, Michael Rice, Lorcán Ó Máirtín, Tomás Ó Sé, Coman Goggins, Máire Ní Bhraonáin, Tomás Ó Flatharta, Joe Connolly, Cathal Moore, Pat Fleury, Gary Brennan, Stephen Joyce and Charlie Vernon.

RnaG is committed to coverage of club matches too, particularly those featuring Gaeltacht teams, and they will have extensive coverage of club games to the end of the year, including the club championships.

RTÉ RnaG weekend sports programmes start with Spórt an tSathairn at 2 pm on Saturdays, followed by Reacaireacht an Tráthnóna at 6.30 pm, and Spórt an Lae on Sundays from 1.50 pm.

GAAGO 

GAAGO are preparing for their second season of domestic live coverage ahead of this weekend’s beginning of Championship 2021 where they are scheduled to show 15 games in total – exclusively available on the service to viewers in Ireland and overseas. There are 6 on the service this coming weekend which feature; Wexford v Laois and Dublin v Antrim in Leinster Hurling, while in Football, the knockout Leinster Football Quarter-Finals between Offaly/Louth, Wicklow/Wexford, and Carlow/Longford will be shown. Limerick v Waterford in their Munster Football Quarter-Final completes the line-up for week 1

• GAAGO has 15 games in the All-Ireland Championships that are exclusively on the platform
• Dublin Footballers appearing on the service for the first time domestically – new experience for fans
• Individual games are €8 each, but you can get all 15 of GAAGO’s games for €25 – very attractive offer particularly for Leinster counties with 11 Leinster Championship games, plus 2 Hurling qualifiers
• Sign-up is via the GAAGO.ie website or the GAAGO iOS and Android apps. Supporters who download the app then have the option to cast the games to their TV

Where to find RTÉ’s GAA coverage:

Online: www.rte.ie/gaa
On mobile: RTÉ News Now / RTÉ Player
On Twitter: @rtegaa | @thesundaygame
On Facebook: www.facebook.com/thesundaygame
On Instagram: www.instagram.com/thesundaygame
On YouTube: www.youtube.com/rtesport
On Soundcloud: www.soundcloud.com/rtesport