Some years ago, after playing a Sunday evening challenge game down the country, we all found our way back to the local GAA pub (every town and village has one of these) and settled in nice and snug. The banter was top class and the slagging was near to the bone at times but it kept you on your toes. Lost drinking time was been made up for at a rate of knots as the dreaded drinking ban was lifted for that night only.

The packets of Tayto and bags of peanuts were on the menu as we waited for the appearance of plates of sandwiches which less than an hour earlier had been promised to us by the Chairman of our hosts.

The red faced portly gentleman had entered our dressing room and he was met with instant silence as we waited in hope that this was the reason he had ventured in to steamy lynx smelling den of scantily clad men of all shapes and sizes as word had filtered through from the captain that we were to be let off the leash and sandwiches, among their many other beneficial points, have great soakage and nobody likes being lied to, especially about something as important as these gems.

When they did arrive they were well worth the wait and there were plenty of them too.

Salad, ham, cheese, chicken, ham and cheese and tuna, apple tart and chocolate digestives were joined by the custard creams and the fellows we had jousted with for an hour earlier in the day were now happy to stand back and let us have the run of the room and we were well up for it now. We showed more hunger and desire for the next 10 minutes than we did at any time in that or any other season, savages.

A return game with these boys died there and then as the only way we could better or match this spread would be to get caterers in and this would lead to the chairman moaning about lotto tickets having to be sold to cover the cost and some things simply aren't worth the hassle. Easier to never play them again.

We would travel down again the following year but our full back left his elbow dangling once too often and the portly man never appeared and the showers were cold, bridges incinerated.

After they had been devoured some of the designated drivers were getting anxious to move, as were the hardcore seven or eight fans who travelled most days and the majority of the crowd had left just before the 9pm news.

Seven or eight of us stuck it out and the locals seemed nice enough too and happy with our company. All was to change however sometime around 9.28pm that night.

Loud laughter and even louder cheers at the pool table as the shark was taken down a peg or two on a Sunday night in that small room was frowned upon just the same as if it were to happen at 11am mass; the look over the shoulder from some of the diehards present often led to a lad drinking up and heading up the road with the head bowed.

It is, of course, the Sunday Game time on RTE and knowing when to sit down and shut up is a good trait to have when that music is the only sound that many want to hear. We did just that.

Just how and why this programme is held in such high esteem by the mulitudes who watch every week from early May to late September is hard for people not immersed in the GAA to grasp.

Many a standoff was had over the last few years just before 9.30pm due to the rise in popularity of golf and soccer being readily available to watch now almost 24 hours a day and the 'auld lads' have been seen to leave establishments just before the first trumpet blast of James Last's most famous piece of music on this Island.

These men work on the three strikes ruling and they don't forget if you choose the foreign game over our national offering, and golf is now seen as the biggest threat to their total domination of the airwaves for those couple of hours on a Sunday.

First broadcast on July 8, 1979, and presented by Galway man Jim Carney, it certainly took off in a way that even RTE were surprised by.

Ladies football and camogie apart, I would say she is probably the only lady to offer her views on the panel, and indeed when she analysed the Leinster final between Offaly and Dublin on July 29, she questioned the sending off of Dublin legend Jimmy Keaveney which led to her appearing at his unsuccessful appeal to Leinster council.

Carney was replaced the following year by Sean Og O Ceallachain who had played for Dublin in hurling and football and was also a respected referee.

My own memories of him are sitting around until after the news at 11am on a Sunday night listening intently to see who had won the local games.

Sadly, back in the early 80s Wicklow rarely appeared on screen, although I do recall an appearance in 1983 in Croke Park for a replay against Wexford after a draw in Dr Cullen Park. This game sticks in the memory for what was described as on the night as "careless use of the boot" by a Wicklow player resulting in him being sent off and Wicklow losing after extra time after leading at half time by 2 7 to 0 5.

That Wexford player who was on the receiving end found it hard to sit down for a few days after the game such was the force and positioning of the Wicklow players boot.

By now, Galway native Carney was back and had done another two years as anchor but would be replaced in 1984 by another Galway man in Michael Lyster, who was also a rally driver of note.

He held court on a Sunday night until 2004 when Kerry legend Pat Spillane took the chair.

Lyster took charge of the live shows and it was a seamless transition for the talented presenter who is always able to keep his sidekicks in line, although Joe Brolly makes him earn his money, his rant, and the attack on Sean Kavanagh quickly became a popular YouTube video.

In the Association's 125th year Des Cahill was summoned to action and he still fronts the show and has proved to be knowledgeable and insightful and a popular host, that is until last Sunday, as some of the ire from Wicklow supporters about lack of coverage was directed at him via social media.

But back to the past. Wicklow, by now, were regularly appearing on the highlights reel as they appeared in semi finals in 85 and 86 with the Laois game in Aughrim getting plenty of minutes that night.

They were out and about in Aughrim scene setting down around Lawless hotel on a beautiful sunny day and a game that was filled with plenty of controversy certainly caught the public's imagination.

We were sitting in our own chairs that night looking at players we knew personally appearing on television and that would be up training in our own pitch the following day or two and to see players from your own club was as near as we were going to get at that time to superstars.

The programme that night carried an interview with a fresh faced youngster who had announced his arrival to the GAA world with a haul of 2 3 and we would be treated to plenty of Kevin O'Brien in the following years as he soldiered for Baltinglass in a club final, Wicklow, and Ireland with distinction.

A father of one of the Laois players once told me a story about that day that showed how important the Sunday Game was at that time in Ireland.