There are loads of young lads having the craic on the side of the GAA pitch about my stint on Total Football... Aisling O'Reilly from GAA+ on her unusual fanbase from rival sports

Published: 23:08, 6 July 2026 | Updated: 23:08, 6 July 2026 Summer weddings may be out the window, but at least sports presenter Aisling O’Reilly has a new army of young fans to cheer her through busy Championship weekends. The versatile presenter has spoken of the sacrifices required to host a summer of GAA action – and her new–found fame among the children of Ireland. O’Reilly hosts football coverage on Premier Sports and is co–presenter of the kids’ soccer show Total Football – the second season of which is airing on RTÉ 2. But Gaelic games take over during the summer months, with her presenting work for GAA+ taking her all around Ireland most weekends – and there are ‘definitely’ major sacrifices involved. She told the Mail: ‘You’re constantly missing christenings and birthdays and summer events – weddings is a big one as well – and it’s just so unfortunate, because you want to be a good friend, you want to be a good sister, you want to be a good auntie.’ The former Newstalk reporter’s working week peaks when most of us are winding down, beginning with a review/preview show recorded in Croke Park every Friday – which itself takes days to prepare. Then it’s off to whatever town or city they’ll broadcast from on Saturday. ‘A lot of the time we do double–headers, so I’ll do two games in one day from one location, and then we’ll probably drive to the next location for the next day and do it again. So it’s normally four games a weekend and a good bit of travel in there. We stay in a hotel close by, and then on to the next day.’ The Co. Meath woman is usually ‘buzzing’ by the time the games come around – and well enough prepared to stay composed. ‘I like to go for runs and keep my mind right as well,’ she said. ‘If my energy is high after that, I think you’re going to do a better job on screen. ‘My friends and family are great. They get it. They know that’s the way it is, and they know it’s like that for a period of time in the year, and then I have my quieter times,’ she said. ‘So I try to make up for it then, and bring my nieces and nephews out places and look after them.’ Her husband Colm Maginn still plays club football in Co. Down, meaning the couple are working around his own training and match schedule as often as hers. ‘We’re not going anywhere, really, from… well we don’t go anywhere probably the whole summer,’ she said, adding that her husband often joins her now at weekends. ‘He’ll do a lot of the driving and comes to the games when he can. But he’s doing quite a bit now this year, which is lovely because then we’re obviously getting to spend more time together.’ He joined her on a recent trip to New York when GAA+ was covering New York versus Roscommon in the Connacht Championship, and to Budapest for the Champions League final last month, for Premier Sports. The presenter also has support on her travels from football–mad children, who know her from the Total Football programme, which debuted last year. She recalled: ‘I was down in Semple Stadium [in Thurles] recently and there was a group of kids in front of us as we were on air, and I could hear them all chanting “Total Football, Total Football”.’ Aisling O'Reilly in Croke Park: ‘I was down in Semple Stadium recently and there was a group of kids in front of us as we were on air, and I could hear them all chanting “Total Football, Total Football”.’ During the now common sight of children storming the pitch after GAA games to meet their heroes, ‘the odd one is for me’, she said. ‘The majority of them are for the likes of [former Tipperary hurler John] Bubbles O’Dwyer or [former Kilkenny hurler] Tommy Walsh – but I have an odd one.’ O’Reilly said her new Total Football co–presenter, YouTube creator DavidMC, is as big a star for children as the Premier League players interviewed on the RTÉ show. She said: ‘They were obsessed. They’d be queueing up to get his autograph and pictures. That’s the way it’s gone today for kids. Famous people and celebrities to them are YouTubers or social media stars.’ A keen follower of women’s soccer, O’Reilly said it would be ‘only right’ to see the national team at the World Cup in Brazil next year – despite the Girls in Green having missed a chance to qualify directly with a loss to France recently. Sorry we are not currently accepting comments on this article.