Aisling O’Reilly says leaving Newstalk’s Off The Ball was frightening, but setting up her own company has given her the busiest year of her career so far. The sports reporter rose to prominence in the Irish media landscape working for Off The Ball. But since leaving her role in 2024, Aisling’s freelance career has seen her work for various companies such as RTÉ, GAA+ and Premier Sports. The Meath native admits the unknown can be “frightening”, but so far, things have been working out very
well for her. Aisling told RSVP Live: “When I made the decision to leave Off The Ball, I had been with them for probably eight years. “I decided to set up my own company and just go for it. “So far, so good – it has probably been the busiest year I’ve ever had, which is amazing. “The unknown can be frightening, but it’s worked out well. “I have a preview show on GAA+ every Friday and I cover live games for the GAA Championship
. “I work with Premier Sports, covering the Europa League and the Europa Conference League, which is full on as well. “I do some corporate stuff during the week, too.” Growing up, Aisling always wanted to work in sport, but never envisioned going into broadcasting. She said: “I definitely thought about sport as a career, but more so on the pitch. “I played football, camogie and soccer so that has been a massive part of my life, and still is. “Growing up, I never thought
of going into media, because I never saw female broadcasters on TV. “So I didn’t think of being a broadcaster, but maybe doing something like physiotherapy because that is the other thing you can do if you’re not on the pitch.” As Aisling got older, she realised there were more opportunities in sport. She continued: “I lived in New York for a few years playing sports. “It was out there I saw how they covered sport in reporting and I thought I’d love to do
it back home. “I joined the 98FM events team for a foot in the door and, after years of trying, a few shadowing opportunities in sport would come up. “Eventually I got some roles on Off The Ball and got a full-time job – I was the first full-time female reporter for them. “It snowballed that way, but it was quite a long road to get to that point. “It’s been an amazing journey, I feel I’m only getting started.” It is no lie that
female pundits often get targeted by cruel trolls online. While Aisling thankfully hasn’t experienced anything too bad, she has seen her fair share of unkind messages. “The more you’re in the public eye or the main presenter on a show, that’s when you’re seen more and that’s when I’ve gotten a few more messages in recent times,” she explained. “It’s funny, because it’s definitely people who haven’t seen you on TV writing all of that stuff. “It might be a picture that goes up on
social media of me and three male pundits and they’ll say ‘three men and a woman who hasn’t got a clue’. “Thankfully there are people who defend me in the comments and that’s appreciated. “It’s only ever an odd comment, but you do have to develop a thick skin because it’s not easy. “Unfortunately, you see ten lovely comments and one horrible one, but it’s the horrible one that stays in your mind and it does affect you, as much as I’d love to say
it doesn’t. “You have to block those people out, concentrate on yourself and keep doing what you’re doing. “Those people are just haters, and it says more about them than it does about you.” Aisling is back on RTÉ this month for a brand new season of children’s TV series Total Football. Likening it to a children’s version of Sky’s Soccer AM, Aisling is excited for people to tune in. Explaining how it works, she said: “Each week we have a Team of the Week,
aged between 7 and 13, boys and girls, from everywhere around Ireland, who come into the studio. “We have challenges, and there are special guests of players and managers. “We do a lot of stuff off the pitch too, like what it’s like to work in sport across media, science or even fashion. “There’s a bit of everything to show that sport is for everybody, so hopefully people enjoy it.” The public’s reaction to the first season of Total Football was very positive, and Aisling
hopes season two will make a bigger impact. She said: “It was amazing, Total Football is totally different for me, because I’m used to covering games. “So for me, to get to work with kids and see their reactions to the show was brilliant. “After Total Football, children who saw me out and about would come up to me and ask me about it, and if it was coming back. “It was amazing to see the reaction and impact. “There hasn’t been anything like this
for kids for a long time, to encourage them to get involved with sport.” Total Football returns Tuesday June 9th at 5:30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Want to see more of the stories you love from RSVP ? To add RSVP as a preferred source of news on Google, simply click here
Aisling O'Reilly, Off The Ball, Newstalk, freelance, GAA+, GAA Championship, Premier Sports, Europa League, Europa Conference League, RTÉ, Total Football, RTÉ2, RTÉ Player, trolls, online harassment, children’s television