We must sympathise with Eamon Dunphy at this difficult time as various colleagues on RTE failed to the grasp the nuance of his philosophical lament on the fading of Lionel Messi.
We must sympathise too with Dunphy’s RTE colleagues at this difficult time. They might have heard Dunphy describe the Messi we love as a Messi of memory, before wondering how much the player has left in the tank, and concluded that Dunphy was saying he was finished.
They might have been pushed towards this conclusion by previous comments of Dunphy’s that there were signs of decline in Messi, comments which were no less profound because they were made on a night when Messi would go on to score a hat-trick.
Angry Eamon Dunphy takes aim at RTÉ colleagues over Lionel Messi comments https://t.co/jagOBmZazA
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) April 25, 2017
This, after all, is the man who promised that the hotly anticipated second volume of his autobiography would be entitled Wrong About Everything. In that context, it is not too much of a leap to believe that he has now been wrong about Messi. And if not now, eventually.
On Monday on 2FM, Dunphy objected to the widespread view he had suggested Messi was finished. Dunphy took them all on referring to a moron who “will say you said something you never said”, before suggesting that “you should get a job on fucking Morning Ireland” when people persisted in pulling him on things he hadn’t said.
And it was possible to have some sympathy. Dunphy has never been afraid to call it. If anything, there is a fear of not calling it, a fear which perhaps reached a climax at the last World Cup when he went on to tip a number of countries in quick succession to win the tournament, calling it incessantly, seeing the good in everybody, while seeing the downside in everybody too.
So perhaps he is entitled to be attacked only for the many, many calls he has made, rather than the ones he hasn’t, even if that, clearly, is not the point of Eamon Dunphy.
As a young boy, Dunphy used to swipe the ping pong ball off the table in Stella Maris where the older boys like John Giles would be trying to play table tennis, and he has been essentially performing a similar role in Irish life ever since.
If Giles was always right, Dunphy would articulate a philosophy so beguiling it made it irrelevant if he was right or wrong, although he was usually wrong.
Dunphy can still do this, he can still articulate a point so persuasively that it seems ludicrous to object to it even while it is being disproved in front of our eyes.
Indeed, there may come a time when Dunphy is on the line talking to the same radio presenter he spoke with on Monday night telling that presenter how he was the first person to identify the signs of Messi’s decline. He may even go on to say that he was mocked for saying Messi was finished but he held his position despite the jibes.
The presenter may highlight these contradictions only to be reminded that a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds or he may let it slide.
Either way, it won’t matter, just as it doesn’t matter that Dunphy is being fact-checked on social media when he riffs magnificently if occasionally inaccurately on European football.
On Monday, when Dunphy went on the attack on 2FM, we were in essence witnessing a clash of civilisations.
Dunphy’s love of the grand statement was colliding with the infectious enthusiasm of Alan Cawley, while the presenter Damien O’Meara interjected a few times in an attempt to wind things up with the words “we could be here ’til 8 o’clock”, as if mesmerised by a thing of such impossible extravagance.
Some of us might be more familiar with the phrase “we could be here all night” rather than the more restrictive “8 o’clock”, but in this instance we couldn’t be here all night as there was a full evening of public service broadcasting ahead of us. In these interventions, there was a sense too there were other less interesting matters to be covered before 8 o’clock so the conversation was moved along to make room for these things, to cover all the subjects that needed to be covered in the time available.
In that world, a man who is wrong about everything becomes vital. In that context, it is possible to understand the point of Eamon Dunphy, even now when many would question his relevance.
Because if we know anything, we know that it is not Eamon Dunphy’s job to call things correctly. It has always been in his role in Irish life to call things in an interesting, intelligent, provocative, if ultimately, incorrect fashion. Just not this time.
