Ger Canning

Ger Canning is an Irish sports commentator with Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ).

Ger Canning
Born	(1951-05-10) 10 May 1951 (age 74) Cork, Ireland
Nationality	Irish
Occupation	Sports commentator
Employer	Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ)

Career

Ger Canning was born in Cork on 10 May 1951. He was a secondary school teacher at South Presentation school in Cork City when he began his broadcasting career with Cork Local Radio in 1978.^[1]

Two years later in 1980 he joined the national broadcaster, Radio Telefís Éireann, as a member of the station's sports department. As a fluent Irish-speaker his first All-Ireland final commentary was on RTÉ 2 in 1981, because the station then had a policy of using the two channels for commentaries in both English and Irish. After Michael O'Hehir's retirement due to ill-health in 1985, Canning became the main Gaelic games commentator on RTÉ television. Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh took over O'Hehir's duties as a radio commentator. To date Canning has broadcast nearly 75 All-Ireland finals (including three in Irish).

Canning commentated on every All-Ireland senior hurling final from 1985 to 2016.^[2]

Canning has worked on many sporting events for RTÉ, including:

• Soccer, including five World Cups
• Six Olympic Games
• Basketball
• International rules football
• Greyhound racing
• Olympic hockey qualifying^[3][4]
• League Of Ireland
• National Hurling League
• National Football League (Ireland)

He was assigned commentary duties for the 1985 European Cup Final, before which he witnessed the Heysel Stadium disaster.^[5] He was assigned commentary duties for the UEFA Euro 2020.^[6]

Other interests

Canning played association football for University College Cork A.F.C. and College Corinthians and played minor and junior Gaelic football for St Finbarr's.^[1]

He has lectured in Radio Broadcasting at Colaiste Stiofan Naofa in Cork.^{[citation needed]}