Harp and the Fridge: Ireland's 1980s NFL flirtation

On 31 January 1986, an RTÉ News crew set off for Kilkenny College to sample the opinions of students in their 'Teenagers Point of View' slot.

Among the items under discussion were the Challenger space shuttle disaster, Alan Dukes' budget (no use apparently), the Stormont elections, the discovery of an arms dump in Sligo and... The Refrigerator!

One young lady took a very dim view, branding the entire Super Bowl transmission, carried live by RTÉ for the first time ever, as "four hours of media brainwashing from America" - though she did concede that paying a heap of lads a fortune to crash into one another did at least bring down the unemployment figures.

Another girl disagreed, saying she enjoyed the event thoroughly. The rules, she said, were difficult to understand at first but she insisted it was good once one keyed into it. "And the Refrigerator and people like that, they're great!"

It's testament to the NFL's popularity at the time that Mr William Perry - the aforementioned Refrigerator - had become such a household name in Ireland.

William Perry is on the left

One member of the RTÉ Sport News team, who hasn't watched a game of American Football in years, inquired on the recent NFC and AFC Championship game night as to whether "the Refrigerator was still playing?" (he wants it clarified here that he was joking).

Ostensibly a defensive lineman, Perry nonetheless scored a glut of touchdowns that season as the invincible 1985 Chicago Bears decided to employ his incredible bulk in offensive situations, using him to barrel over from close range.

Along with Joe Montana, Lawrence Taylor, et al, he was a major figure during the era of RTÉ's NFL coverage, which spanned from the mid-80s to the early 90s.

Many will have seen the