Former President of Ireland Mary McAleese told Patrick Kielty on Friday's Late Late Show that she was banned from the sidelines by her daughter - a coach of a GAA under-10s' team - but is now "a reformed character".
The laughs about tempers fraying came when the host asked his guest if she was "still a wild woman on the sideline".
"No, I'm a completely reformed character!" Mrs McAleese replied.
"My daughter, who's a GAA coach now and coaches the under-10s out in the Northside in Dublin - she's banned me! Banned me from the sidelines in perpetuity!
"I remember talking to JP McManus' wife once about this, because we kind of shared a common bond as people who stood on the side - when our children were playing under-six - and shouting at the referee! At one stage, JP told me when Noreen was roaring at the referee, he came off the pitch, took the whistle and said, 'Here, missus, do you want the whistle?'! So JP apparently immortalised that event by calling one of his horses Do You Want the Whistle?"
"So I've decided I don't want in perpetuity my grandchildren to think of me as the raving maniac on the sidelines!" Mrs McAleese continued. "And anyway, we've got to stop all that stuff, I do know that."
"You do know that - but are you doing it? That's the thing!" said the Late Late presenter.
"No, I'm doing it!" Mrs McAleese replied.
"I think there has to be some level of abuse you're allowed level at refs!" said fellow guest Tommy Tiernan.
"Well, I'm not allowed do any of that anymore!" said Mrs McAleese.
Patrick Kielty brings a fresh spin to the Late Late Show
She went on to tell the audience that she was "carried off a pitch once" while her husband Martin was playing for Queen's University Belfast in a Sigerson Cup match.
"It was actually out at UCD," she recounted.
"The referee missed the fact that the man I was hoping to marry had just been kicked in a particular part of his anatomy that I just thought wasn't a very fair thing to do!"
"That you had great plans for!" offered Tommy Tiernan.
"Now that you put it that way..." laughed Mrs McAleese. "I actually had plans for children eventually and I was looking at that going down the drain!
"So anyway, I ran onto the pitch and two of Martin's colleagues, the coaches, they dragged me off the pitch!
"But anyway, we lost the match - but on the way home I was voted Man of the Match!
"But anyway, I've given all that up now - I'm a reformed character."
"How do you stop that?" asked fellow guest Laurita Blewitt. "I need to embrace this. How do you do it?"
Mrs McAleese replied: "Well, if your daughter says to you, 'You're an embarrassment" in front of your grandchildren... I thought, 'I've done that. It's over now!'"
Watch the interview in full on the RTÉ Player.
The Late Late Show, Fridays, RTÉ One and RTÉ Player, 9:35pm
