Ardara's Michael Maloney is All-Ireland champions Limerick’s ‘go-to’ tunester 

Michael Maloney admits the last few days have been a bit of a whirlwind after he was thrust front and centre during Limerick hurlers’ All-Ireland winning celebrations. 

The Ardara singer/songwriter’s massive 2019 hit, ‘What do you want to know’, has accumulated over 5 million streams on Spotify. And it’s not the first time the catchy tune has been adopted by a major sports team either.

Last season, Derry City also used the song and following their 4-0 FAI Cup win over Shelbourne Maloney was invited into the dressing room at the Aviva Stadium to perform for the squad. 

What a crowd for the homecoming of the 4 in a row champions pic.twitter.com/7So9tIrON8

— Aisling O'Reilly (@ashoreilly) July 25, 2023

Maloney’s catchy number came on over the Croke Park tannoy at the weekend just as Limerick boss John Kiely was about to lift the Liam McCarthy Cup and that, Kiely explained after, was the reason he broke into an impromptu jig.

“What you don’t realise is that the tune that came on is our tune in the dressing room, Kiely told The Sunday Game’s Joanne Cantwell after.  “And when it goes off in the dressing room after we go off with it. So when it went off in Croke Park I just went off with it!”

On Monday night, the celebrations continued and Maloney admits an invitation to join the team on stage was just too good an opportunity to turn down. 

“They’re people sort of got in touch and I’d a very quick decision to make,” Maloney told Donegal Live. “I got down there as fast as I could on Monday. And to be fair, when I got there everything was laid out. I basically just had to get up on stage and sing. 

“When are you ever going to get a chance like that again? To see the Limerick fans there in their thousands was an experience. We’re predominantly a football county up here in Donegal but I’m a huge sports fan. 

“And no different to the Derry City thing at the time, if I’m asked to come along, in those circumstances, I’m more than likely to say yeah. They are great lads. And they explained that they loved the song - it was their 'go to' tune and that it gets them going!

“They’ve won four in a row and they’re now going for five. They’ve adopted it as their anthem and I couldn’t be happier. It’s given the song another wee bounce a few years after it first made an impact. That’s always nice”.

The common denominator, it seems, is that any team that does put Maloney at the top of their dressing room playlist list inevitably go on to win silverware.  

It’s put to him that he should perhaps start strumming in and around the vicinity of his old teammate’s down at Pearse Memorial Park in Ardara!  

“Aye, I never actually thought of that! When does Championship start?! Conor Classon and Paddy McGrath will be on the phone after they read this!”