Remembering Manchan Magan; and unheard highlights from Roddy Collins and Conor Skehan'

0:00The Mario Rosenstock Podcast with On Ice. Ireland's premium ice skating experience where winter memories are made. visit onice.ie Go loud. Sounds better with us.

0:23Well, we have a different kind of episode for you this week on the Mario Rosenstock podcast. You see, I'll often have a very long conversation with a guest. And unfortunately, due to the constraints of time, I'll end up chopping out some really, really interesting bits. from the conversation. Not that the other bits weren't interesting, but you know yourself. You can't leave everything in all the time. So we'd occasionally chop it out, put it into a little folder in the Mario Rosenstock podcast vaults for safekeeping, and then dust it off and pop it into a special episode of unheard bits we had with popular guests who've been on recently.

0:56And we put them out when the time is right. And this is the time. So we've two such bonus bits from the vaults for you in this episode. One from former professional footballer and manager, Roddy Collins, who many of you were very impressed and entertained by when he appeared on my podcast a few months ago. And the other from housing expert and former chair of the housing agency, Connor Skeen, who had some very eclectic views and very kind of, I suppose you might call them controversial views or against the run of the grain views on the housing crisis. But we'll also be remembering the late, great Moncon McGann, someone that made a deep impression on me personally.

1:33I was a great admirer of Moncon. He appeared on the Sunday Roast a couple of times. And he also appeared on my podcast and I went to see his show in the pavilion in Dun Laoghaire and spoke to him afterwards. He was an incredible, incredible man. Brilliant, unique. He was a one off. And we will replay a lovely excerpt from the conversation Mon Con and I had on this podcast back in 2021. Here's a taster of what's to come. Am I right in saying you don't watch TV? No, I've never had a TV. You've never had a TV? No, no. and I started making TV programmes in 1996 so it's now 25 years So you actually in a sense don't know even what you're doing when you're making a TV programme, you're going what is that strange box I'm talking into?

2:15Why do you keep making me do this? That's the bliss of it I mean the poor crews who are looking at me still say do you not know how to present a camera how to walk along all those places? But you don't even know where it will appear. I don't care the last thing I want to know is how it appears All those countries we like to talk about in the, let's just call them the Scandis Yes they have these amazing social welfare systems, yes you pay tax until your nose bleeds, right, they also still have royal families. And what goes with that is a system of elites through politics, finance, public administration.

2:47That's how you get things done because somebody who is the right sort of person has told somebody who's the wrong sort of person to get back in your box, don't question that. I played in the charity game and I come off a night out in Reinaards and it was in Tolka Park and it was a full house for charity and I met Paul McGrath, he was playing it and we were in the Gresham Hotel waiting for the coach to bring us and Paul gave me a brandy in port and we said no, he said drink it and I drank it, I scored the best goal he ever scored and I won a big magnum of champagne I said Paul, I paid the major 20 years ago, I'd have been playing with my man you know already All of that coming up very shortly but first, it was Budget Week and who's our budget man?

3:25That's right, the big podcast, the big man David McWilliams Okay David, ready to go? Ready to rock John It's the budget so Yep, my sweet spot John, don't worry about that We're going to get big listens on this one David John, we're playing at home So let's keep it nice and clean and simple David, okay? It's the budget John, safe hands Okay How you doing? It's David here and John How are you? And this week John, what are we talking about? I thought we might talk about the budget David Oh the budget, of course, of course And I'm crunching the numbers, John, as we speak. Well, only you can do that, David.

4:01You're the master. Yes, I have a very eclectic theory on what Pascal Donoghue was attempting to achieve in this budget. I just love your eclectic theories, really do. John, I think the ordinary working people, that is to say, Joe and Josephine, so live in Mull, have been severely compromised, John. Have they? Why, why you ask it? I was looking at it, John, in the detailed numbers. What are the details? And I was looking at it over and I thought to myself, Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Sorry, David. They's after putting 50 cent on the bleeding vapes. And, John, another 50 cent, a little scuttering scumbag on the smokes.

4:43Are they trying to cripple us all together, John? That's not you. The fucking toadag, don't you? That's not you. 18 euro for a pack of tabs. You don't smoke. If I want the fucking lung dart, How am I supposed to afford that? What? And then, no fucking cash taken off the two litre at Linden Village. You don't drink Linden Village. What do I fucking smoke in me Johnny Blair Blue in me Linden Village? What the fuck is left out of me doll? He's put 10 euro on me doll, that little scuzzbucket. David, you're not working class. I fucking break him, John. I'm broke, so I am. Broke back mountain, John.

5:17And it's Pascal Dunne who is riding me. You're schizophrenic. John? and exclusive comedy every week on the Mario Rosenstock podcast and of course you can contact me personally mariorosenstock at gmail.com about anything I'm on tour at the moment if you want to come and see me I'm in the gaiety 16th, 17th, 18th of October please come and see me if you want to see me in action watch what I do if you want to contact me about the podcast please do suggested guests suggested sketches and new characters constructive criticism or just downright sheer compliments I take them all. And of course, this podcast wouldn't happen without our new and returned sponsor, On Ice, Ireland's premium ice skating experience.

6:00It returns and is bringing back the magic of ice skating nationwide this festive season with locations in Dundrum and Swords, Dublin, the Marina Market in Cork, as well as locations in Waterford and Limerick. Enjoy Ireland's number one festive and family entertainment this Christmas. I'm heading along. I'm bringing five kids, not my five kids, I'm not Miriam O 'Callaghan, five and we're on a play date so I'm bringing the five kids who are going to be mad for this I'm going to take some pictures do some instas and hopefully some of you will see it it's really really cool grab your tickets now at onice.ie so let's get right into the first part of this special episode of the Mario Rosenstock podcast Mon Con of course Mon Con McGann died recently he was an incredible person I got to know him a little bit over the last few years I'll never forget how youthful and vibrant he looked.

6:52He was 55 years of age, but he could have passed for 40. He was a unique conversationalist. He had a unique outlook on life. He had a unique way of living his life, uncompromising, but yet kind and always forgiving and intellectually so gifted and so deep. And when I say that, I mean intellectually, he was able to understand other people's point of view and he was non-judgmental. He was a kind, graceful, beautiful human being. And we all regret his passing. Those of you who know Moncon McGann out there will know what I'm talking about. But he was so prolific in his work and how he tried successfully to bring Irish language and culture alive to a whole new generation.

7:35But the other fascinating and impressive thing about Moncon was the completely unique and unconformist way in which he lived his life day to day. When he joined me back in 2021, it was in the midst of the COVID lockdowns and we were talking about how we'd love to live out in the field somewhere in the beautiful countryside, away from all the pointless distractions of technology and day to day life. Well, that's how Moncon had been long before it was cool. Moncon, welcome to the podcast. Thank you, Mario. Now, ostensibly, Moncon, you live very differently to the vast majority of the population.

8:10Sketch it out for us. Where do you live? what kind of a house do you live what do you do every day paint a picture i love it like you know i was the sort of waster the dropout that people used to be embarrassed by you know i went to gonzaga school and all my other friends have done well in the world and i was like i live on whatever my you know whatever pittance i can earn and um that was an embarrassment and now we're changed into the world where now people like you are asking me what i do so as you said i live in You've become an exotic. Exactly. I live in the Midlands in Westmeath because at some point in my life, I decided when I was young, I thought, I can't do that real world.

8:47I can't have a mortgage and go in and out of a job and have, you know, people relying on me. I just thought I need to be independent. So at some point, my granny died. My granny was this Republican revolutionary and she died and left me 10 grand. And so I was able to buy 10 acres in Westmeath in 97 onto this land. and the first thing I did was put shelter up because that's sort of important. What kind of shelter? Well, like I had lived at the time in India, in Africa and South America and like in Bolivia, people were making their house out of reeds because that was surrounding reeds. In Tibet, they were making their house out of stones because they'd be round river washed stones that had come down from the Himalayas.

9:24In Africa, it was all mud. So I looked around me in Westmeath and there was good enough barley and oats being grown and the people had bales, the square bales. So I just went to a neighbor and I got 200 bales of good two-year-old dried barley straw. And I built a house out of that. I just used those as massive Lego blocks. Even though you didn't know how to build, per se? No. Well, I mean, when you're living, when I'd spent my time, you know, in South America and in all those travels, you're meeting other people who live simply, who live their own, you know, who make their own houses. They never have a mortgage.

9:55When they want, they build it. And so I'd seen that. And then I'd been up in Canada, up in British Columbia, where there was a group of people growing cannabis, organic cannabis legally at the time. And they were sort of building out of bales of straws. That's how I got the idea. And at the time, I mean, I was so innocent and naive. So I rang up Westmead County Council and said, like, I want to build this house, but you don't know what the house is. So how about I just go ahead and build it? And then you and the fire officer and all can come out and we can have a talk. And then maybe I can build this.

10:21At the straw bale house. Yeah, exactly. With the fire officer. Yeah, yeah. So they just said, just leave us alone. Like it was a Friday afternoon, Westmead County Council. The last thing they want is some over-educated idealist, dropout idealist. So just say, go away. Just leave us the hell alone. Like, pretend this phone call never happened and they dropped the phone. So you still live there? I still live there. I mean, that house. In the straw bale house? Not really. No, I proved that was built in 97. And I like, because I didn't know how to build. The house would have stayed, but I didn't know about foundations.

10:48I used to take books out of the library, out of the Ranelan, the Rat Mines and Pembroke Library. But the foundations book wasn't there. So I had just put a little bit of concrete around the edge. and so that began there was subsidence in one corner so it cracked so about six years after in 2002 I built a slightly bigger house again maybe 20 foot by about 12 foot or 14 foot but you built that as well I started building that but I didn't have the courage Westmead had given me permission for a straw bale but I used concrete block in that and I did the plumbing and the electricity and everything in the first house second house the concrete blocks became very wavy as I was building them so I got some help but it meant that that house was built in 2002 and it's still standing today it's just cosy it's just a one room house with grass on the roof and mud and straw on the outside.

11:28And you live alone. I live absolutely blissfully alone. Exactly. And there's not much noise. No noise whatsoever. So I've been at 10 acres and I live, it's down from the hill. It's sort of, it's a drumlin I bought and then I surrounded my house entirely with oak trees that I planted 20 years ago. And they're massive now. Are they? So 20 years they grew a lot. Yeah, they're about like 30 foot high. And they're going to be, some of them like are big thick ones. And in about, I planted whatever, 12 ,000 trees. In another part, 30 years or 40 years, maybe 50, they're going to be worth a grand each.

12:00So whatever, like oak is amazing. We forget that. Our trees grow better in Ireland than anywhere else. So if I planted 9 ,000 trees, you know, each one, each tree cost me about 10 cents when you planted them. Definitely in 100 years from now, I'm about to have been there 20 years. 100 years are going to be worth three grand each. But now, probably in about 50, 40, 50 years, they'll be worth a grand. So they heat me, the little, the saplings, because I don't want them all to grow. I cut down. And yeah, I have my hens there, I have my bees there I have my vegetables I have my polytone I have my grapes and some years I have pigs I don't have pigs at the moment So you are to a certain extent or fully self-sufficient?

12:34Yeah to a certain I mean I'm still buying I suppose my grain I'm going to try this year I tried to grow oats but there's a thing called a naked oat a note without the husk which you don't need but just every every magpie and crow came from miles around but I'm going to do I expand So without being necessarily facetious Moncon try and tell the public who are listening to this what you wouldn't have or do that we would all be accustomed to do. So, for example, am I right in saying you don't watch TV? No, I've never had a TV. You've never had a TV? No, no. And I mean, I started making TV programs in 1996.

13:06So it's now 25 years. So you actually, in a sense, don't know even what you're doing when you're making a TV program. You're going, what is that strange box I'm talking into? Why do you keep making me do this? That's the bliss of it. I mean, the poor crews who are looking at me still say, do you not know how to present a camera, how to walk along? But you don't even know where it will appear. I don't care. The last thing I want to know is how to be here. So you don't have a TV? No, I don't. So it's pointless asking you about Love Island. Exactly, exactly. No. I mean, I try and find out what these things are.

13:35And I have a girlfriend who lives in Dublin and she knows even less. At least I try. I'll read papers. So I will know some, I will have read something about Love Island, but I will never have read it. So you will read newspapers? Yeah, I will. Yeah, exactly. But you are, let's say you are not, do you have a smartphone? I do. You do? Yeah, I do. And I like that. Yeah. And I mean, I've now got onto like social media slowly. In January, I got onto, I started collecting loads of words for the sea, for the ocean. Really rare words. I met with these fishermen and the words were so beautiful. The insights they were giving me in Galway and Mayo and Donegal.

14:07I thought I need to give these words to the world some way. And like last year, COVID, there was no way of meeting with people, no way of giving the words. So I finally relented and got on Instagram where you put a photo and a word up. And that has done very well. So now I have 15 ,000 followers, which is probably nothing compared to what you have. But for me, living in my little straw mill house, putting up Irish words, I thought, Jesus, you can put up words to do with a fishing practice that has gone for years, said by local fishermen who are, you know, who haven't said the words for 40 years and put them out on those social media and engage with people.

14:41But how ironic, Monk, on that in the last year and a half, in the very moment that our world has plunged into a pandemic, that your style of life has suddenly, did suddenly become uber trendy. In other words, half the idiots of the world, myself included, went, oh, I'd love to live in an old clay and wattle made cabin in the middle of nowhere in Castle Pollard with absolutely nothing there and just stray and bales. And am I self-sufficient? I'd love to do that. And you've been doing it. And how do you reflect on that, that the whole world kind of, I suppose, in a way in the last year and a half, wanted to kind of, in a way, become what you are presently living?

15:22Have you thought about that? Yeah. Have you thought about the way the world has turned in your direction almost? Yeah. We have become more, for example, I mean, at least we have nodded our head to it, the whole world of environmentalism. And I know that, you know, you are an environmentalist. Yeah. And, you know, solitude, peace and quiet, mental health. This is, of course, your life. have you reflected on that? I have and so one could look at it in both ways we could either say I'm now on the pig's back because everyone is wanting the things that were so unfashionable or you could look at the loneliness of the last what I'm as you say 51 now of the last 30 years where I was the oddball and where everyone was so interested in you know consumerism and sort of capitalism and growth and I just thought I don't fit in in this world so you have that isolation and particularly like in the early years when you're 20, 24, 28, and you think, I don't want to do that.

16:13That doesn't, it's not feeding me that constant engagement and social life. When did you first know that? Like I would have known that when I was six or seven. Like, I mean, no, I was in a sacred heart school with me and Samantha Power and a girl called Lucy Masterson, Samantha Power, who went on to the UN in America and all, and we were just best friends. So we just spent our whole times under a hedge. So when you're up until you're six or seven, you can live that idealistic life. But then you go to a boys school and then it's just competition and, you know, who's going to win and who's got the best boast.

16:43So that was the age I thought, oh, right, I actually don't fit into this world. But you can just about hide out in school. So I just had my herb garden and I was just talking to, like, I think when we're born into the world, I believe, or at least the likes of me, some have guidance, some have those voices guiding you still. So I was able to tune into that. But then the moment it really kicks in is you're 18 and you're 19. This is, okay buckle up now go out and get a job so from then on in at least until tg car set up in 96 so from 19 when i was 18 1988 to now uh to then to 96 i was just the lonely isolated weirdo thinking i'm never going to get a job i'm never going to do anything which is why i'd ended up up in the himalayas in india like a dropout um and then i thought no i'm going to find a way of fitting in and what was your way of fitting in tell everybody tell us tell me what you do So, I mean, it's all by accident.

17:33So I was, as I said, I had spent a lot of time wandering, which, you know, you get a lot of those sort of lost dreamers who do. They go off traveling forever, you know, backwacking different places. But the weird thing is back then in the 90s, if you were white, you suddenly were given positions. Like I was in South America. I ended up getting rabies. I got bitten by a rabid dog and had to find shelter in this place on the Ecuadorian-Peruvian border. And so when I was there, I realized, okay, I have no money and I have rabies. I've finally found a rabies vaccine after like enormous danger and scale.

18:05But I had to keep the other vaccine in the fridge. So I just settled somewhere. So I settled in this place, in this hostel, an organic farm in the Ecuadorian-Peruvian border. And I was there for three weeks where the owner, she was Canadian, her mum was sick back in Canada. So she has to go back to Canada. So she leaves me in charge of the hostel on this organic farm with 24 acres. And I had about 18 staff. So I was 22. I was still living at home in my mom's house in Donnybrook, still sleeping in my Paddington duvet. And yet now I was in charge of whatever, 12 to 18 campesinos, you know, local farmers.

18:37And every Friday I'd put out a table on the front lawn. and you know cada persona viene y says yo tengo necesito un poquito mas dinero para un problema con la familia they all explain why they need extra money from me and I'd have to start the rake of of pesos out on the table and at my age totally innocent which is hey here's another bit for you no you can't have any more money and I know you have a new child and you know I know your your uncle's in prison but I'm not going to help you and all went well with that until reasonably well as much as an innocent naive Donnybrook boy could handle that until Ecuador and Peru suddenly went to war with each other when I was there.

19:14And my hostel was on the border. So suddenly the local Ecuadorian militia come down to me and they say, we're going to need some things from you. We're going to need five grand from you. We're going to need you to drain the swimming pool so that we can requisition it and put missiles in it for storage. And we're going to need you to pick six of your laborers and offer them for the army. So like in utter innocence, I just thought, which am I going to go for? Which six am I going to put in danger? But I remembered something that the O 'Reilly, that my great grand uncle, Michael O 'Reilly, had done in the GPO in 1916.

19:49It is said, Gareth Fitzgerald's dad, Desmond Fitzgerald, was in the GPO with him. They were both upstairs. So the O 'Reilly had tried to call off the 19th to the rising. He didn't believe he knew he was going to fail. So he tried to call it off. So eventually he comes when Pearson and Connolly go ahead with it, right? Now, Pearson and Connolly are not happy to see the O 'Reilly in the GPO because he screwed all their plans up. Only a half or a quarter of the people who were meant to come out have mobilized. So he sends them upstairs. O 'Reilly's up there and Desmond Fitzgerald's up there. And eventually, you know, day Thursday or Friday of Easter week, the roof's on fire, the GPO.

20:24They're going to have to evacuate. So the O 'Reilly says, don't worry, I'll evacuate the people. I'll go out with the white flag. And he says, OK, I'm going to need, because Connolly at this time had given power to the O 'Reilly, to my great-granduncle, because Connolly couldn't stand up. And he says, I'm going to evacuate from the Henry Street side, out the side door. but I need a group. I'm going to lead the charge with a silver sword out in front of me. The lads are going to be behind you. Whoever is going to volunteer. And they all said, yeah, we'll come out. We'll lead the charge, evacuating out to break through the barricade on Moore Street.

20:53But Desmond Fitzgerald said that the O 'Rahali said, OK, Irish speakers to the rear, English speakers to the fore. Thinking that, OK, if anyone's going to be milled down for us, let the English speakers go. So I decided the same with the poor Ecuadorian people. I said, the people who were of mestizo birth who were of Spanish colonial birth I thought they could be the ones to go and the indigenous people could stay behind and at least it would do some justice because they'd been there longer And there we are the wonderful voice and wisdom of Moncon McGann there and if you'd like to listen back to that episode in full scroll back a few inches on your podcast feed to September 2021 and you'll find it all there Okay former professional footballer and manager Roddy Collins joined me here on the pod a few months ago for another great chat he'd be in in a couple of years previously to that, but it was high time for a catch-up.

21:42He's such a tonic, is Roddy Collins, and I highly recommend that you listen back to it if you didn't catch it the first time around. But towards the end of our chat, I hit him with a few rapid-fire questions. Things like, the best player he's ever played with, the best player he's ever managed, and who is his all-time favourite band? His answers were, as usual, brilliant. So we held this part back from the edit, and we're unleashing it here now on this episode. Enjoy! So, who's the greatest Irish player you've ever seen? Paul McGrath yeah played against him when he was starting off and I remember I was playing for a ball against St.

22:14Pats and he marked me and I remember going home saying to my girlfriend who's now my wife I'm at the plane against a fella who's like a Rolls Royce and he definitely got a trial in England I thought a trial trial yeah and he played in a game the following Wednesday in Tolka and I said to Carl I want to bring you down and show you this fella and he was just brilliant and I played against Gardie Pallister or Tony Mobley I've been around Rodney Marsh George Best didn't we but he for me the greatest greatest player and forget about the background stuff people say imagine if he didn't have a drink no that was him forget about that because everything makes up your personality that is who he was I played in a charity game and I come off a night out in Reynards and it was in Tolka Park and it was a full house for charity and I met Paul McGrath he was playing and we were in the Gresham Hotel waiting for the coach to bring us and Paul gave me a brandy in port and we said no he's a drinker and I drank it I scored the best goal I ever scored and I won a big magnum of champagne I said Paul I paid the major 20 years ago I'd have been playing with my man United two of us would have been locked locked locked athletic but not the greatest 100 % who's the greatest player to ever play the game George Best that's incorrect my opinion oh nobody asked you for your opinion means nothing it's my opinion that counts on this Maradona Diego Maradona Diego Maradona but you put George Best into Brazil or into the Argentinian team you know oh absolutely put Diego well Diego wasn't I don't think Diego was in a great Argentinian team no he carried them he carried them yeah yeah but he was you know he was well he was well souped up as well he was yeah well he'd had the brandy in ports he was brilliant he was and he was brilliant do you ever see the video la la la la life Life is life Many of my listeners If you want to enjoy some If you want to enjoy What genius looks like Before it actually Goes to the pitch There is a warm up video On YouTube And it's Diego Maradona And he's just on the pitch Warming up for Napoli He's warming up So he's got his tracksuit top on And he's playing with a ball With the cameras on him All the other players Are warming up as well And over the speakers This song is playing Life is life La la la la la La la la la la life But Maradona is warming up with the ball and the tings the tings the boots aren't even laced and the tings he is doing with the ball defy belief Gary Lineker Gary Lineker tells a story about him playing in a World Eleven with Maradona and he tells it beautifully because of the enthusiasm that Lineker so he says he says I won't do Lineker now it's no point because I've written the story but he says the first thing I noticed was we're in the dressing room and there he is and what's he doing?

25:04he's seated on the bench and he rolls up his sock into a ball and he juggles his sock with his foot about 30, 40 times and we're all just going this is different gravy now we go on to the pitch and he says what I'm going to describe to you next is hard to describe especially for people who don't play football but if you do or even play at any level even kids football you'll understand what he did Maradona gets the ball he goes out to the centre circle and he juggles it. He doesn't touch it with, he just touches it with every part of his body. His shoulders, his nose, his head, his neck. He's juggling it.

25:41The ball doesn't touch the ground. Puts it onto his knee, puts it onto his foot and he just tips it up and he volleys the ball as hard as he can pretty much up into the air straight. And we all look and the ball is coming down again. When the ball comes down without letting the ball bounce, he re-volleys the ball back into the air. 13 times he said he didn't move more than one or two steps to the right. Anybody who's ever played football to even imagine doing that more than twice is impossible. Is impossible. That was Diego Maradona. And he had the strength of a bull as well. El Toro. Well the goal he got against England I know he had the hand of God but the other one he got was just strength, skill determination it was hacked down there's a goal he scored against them in that World Cup as well there's a beautiful score in a group game against Italy where the ball is played through and there's no way he can reach it but he flicks it with the outside of his with the inside of his left foot past the keeper but the keeper's just standing there going he's left standing there going but I didn't even know he could get it and the goal against Belgium the dribble against Belgium and that lovely photograph do you remember the photograph do you remember the famous photograph which one?