Richard Aldous
Richard Aldous
Born: Essex, England.
Occupation: Head of UCD School of History and Archives, Broadcaster, Author, Sunday Tribune Columnist.
Family: Married with one daughter.
Home: Dublin since 1995.
Career: Educated at London and Cambridge, after which took up a lectureship at UCD. Moved to Dublin with my wife. The brilliant thing about Ireland is that history is taken really seriously here. Where else can you imagine a history book like Great Irish Speeches being the no.1 bestseller at Christmas? That also gives me the opportunity to get involved in all kinds of other areas of Irish life. I have a column in the Sunday Tribune and write regularly for the Irish Times. I stand in for George Hook - a fantastic character - on the Right Hook on Newstalk 106-108FM and contribute to programmes such as Prime Time and Today with Pat Kenny.
Ambitions: More of the same please! I enjoy the variety.
Miss about the UK: Family obviously, but also the football - trips home give me plenty of chances to go and see my boyhood team, Ipswich Town.
Most Proud Of: I was chuffed that "Great Irish Speeches" went to number one, but I was also really pleased with the reaction to The Lion and the Unicorn: Gladstone vs. Disraeli, which came out in 2007. Who wouldn't like to be called 'riveting' by the New York Times?
Looking forward to: Completing a book on Margaret Thatcher - she's still so controversial.
Passions: History, politics, music (all sorts, especially with our 4 year olds influence!). My wife is in the RTE National Symphony Orchestra. Sport (I'm a keen swimmer).
Favourite Politician: Micheal Martin, for the smoking ban - a political act that made my life more enjoyable overnight. Nice to have a pint without coming home reeking like an ashtray.
Who will win the next British election? The Tories have a good chance under David Cameron, who is beginning to live up to that 'heir to Blair' tag. Gordon Brown might just be too gloomy to put up with.
Favourite Newspapers: Sunday Tribune, Irish Times, Financial Times & Wall Street Journal.
Fan of: Ipswich. I grew up going to Portman Road with my Dad to watch the Ipswich team of the late '70s and early '80s with Thyssen, Muhren, Gates, Mariner and the rest. I thought it was quite normal to have a great football team to watch every week. Little did I know...
Saipan - Keane or McCarthy? Keane might have handled it better but in the end he was right - he demanded the best for the Irish team and wouldn't accept second best.
ALDOUS ON CRICKET
The most remarkable cricketing action I ever saw live was the first day of the 2005 Ashes series at Lords. England had bowled Australia out for a modest total and were feeling quite pleased with themselves. They'd bullied the Australian batsmen, really putting it up to them. Then Glenn McGrath came on and destroyed the England top order, taking five wickets for 21 runs. I don't think I've seen anyone in sport dominate an opposition the way he did that day. I can enjoy it that bit more in retrospect, because England went on to win the series.
I used to watch cricket at Essex a fair bit and then at University at Fenners. These days, if I'm down at Trinity and there's a game on, I'd stop for a while and watch. That really has to be one of the prettiest cricket grounds around.
Irish cricket seems to be developing very well. The programme that the ICC brought in a few years ago with the Intercontinental Cup is paying dividends in terms of gearing nations up for Test cricket. Ireland, with their third victory in a row in that competition, are thriving on it. They certainly were competitive at the one-day World Cup. The win against Pakistan was overshadowed of course by the tragic death of Bob Woolmer, but it was an amazing performance.
Twenty20 cricket may be the way to go in the future - it's so exciting, fast, big hitting.... I can see one-day cricket getting squeezed between Test cricket and Twenty20...
I suppose it's still a minority sport in Ireland, but maybe that's a political hangover. Now the GAA have relaxed their rules on foreign games and with the political settlement in the North, cricket will just become another sport. You either like it or you don't - it won't be any kind of big statement to play it. There are some parallels in football. Everton were the Catholic club in Liverpool and Liverpool were the Protestant club - but there is obviously a huge Liverpool fan base in Ireland now...so these things are always changing, always evolving....
Richard Aldous in conversation with Liam Rooney
Copyright: Cover Point
