Jim Carney (poet)

Jim Carney is an Irish poet, journalist and former presenter, best known for The Sunday Game.

A native of Parkroe, Milltown, Tuam, and a son of Thomas Carney, he was educated at Milltown National School and Tuam CBS. A member of the Tuam Theatre Guild and a journalist with The Tuam Herald - where he worked alongside subsequent RTÉ western editor Jim Fahy.[1] He was later appointed as a journalist and broadcaster with Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ), becoming the first presenter of the now landmark Gaelic games show, The Sunday Game in 1979.

Preferring to be behind the camera, Carney moved into commentary after two seasons, and remained a commentator and reporter for The Sunday Game until 2010, also working on the channel's live All-Ireland Hurling and Football Finals coverage as a reporter and interviewer, plus taking extra duties when regular season live coverage was introduced in 1995.[2]

During this time, Carney was also doubling as editor of The Tuam Herald for a period in the 1990s, and served as sports editor from 1985 up to his retirement in 2015. Since then, he writes a weekly sports column for the same newspaper.[3]

In 1971 he published his first book, Echoes From a Darkened Alley, a collection of poems. A brilliant reader of football, he played a key role in the management team for his club Milltown when they won their second and last Galway Senior Football Championship in 1981. He was also a selector of the Galway team that were beaten by Dublin in the 1983 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final by a scoreline of 1–10 to 1–8.

In 2020, Carney was presented with the “Services to Sport Award” by the Galway Sports Stars Awards.