Ger Canning

Ger Canning
Born	(1951-08-01) 1 August 1951 Cork, Ireland
Residence	Tivoli, County Cork
Nationality	Irish
Occupation	Sports commentator
Employer	Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ)

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

Career

Born in Cork on August 1, 1951. Ger Canning was a secondary school teacher at South Presentation school in Cork City when he began his broadcasting career with Cork Local Radio in 1978.

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 50 All-Ireland finals (including three in Irish).

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

Other interests

Canning played soccer for University College Cork A.F.C. and College Corinthians and played minor and junior football for St. Finbarr's GAA.

He has lectured in Radio Broadcasting at Colaiste Stiofan Naofa in Cork.