TV Presenter and radio host Dermot O'Leary was in the hot seat this week on Second Captains Saturday. He spoke to the guys about being the son of Irish immigrants in London, patriotic tattoos, Terry Wogan and some of his personal sporting highlights.

Dermot inherited a love of sport from his father, who played for the Wexford Hurling team and emigrated to London "just before" Wexford won the All-Ireland in 1968.

"He was kind of like the bright young thing of Wexford hurling at that time and he would have definitely been on the side…There's definitely still a fire there."

Dermot's parents decided to make the move to London, where they raised Dermot and his siblings in a household that was "a little bit of Ireland". The Irish influence was strong but not forced, Dermot explained.

"I always describe myself as, I'm Irish but not from Ireland, if that makes sense...I've had an Irish passport since I was a kid and I've never had a British passport. And I don't hold that as, like, a badge of honour or anything, it's just something that happened. They never forced that [Irish] identity down our throats, it just felt very natural for us."

Dermot recalled how whenever his Grandad was visiting, certain sports were not allowed on TV.

"I remember once we were watching Athletics and he came in and was like, 'Turn that foreign muck off' and I'm like, it's running! It's just guys running around the track! He was an odd guy, my Grandad."

It's doubtful Dermot's Grandfather would be very enthused about Dermot's "obsession" with American football that would follow. There was an "oddly" well-populated American Football league in Colchester, where Dermot lived, because of its proximity to former WWII American military bases. His team were a plucky bunch but didn't exactly set the world alight.

"We went through a whole year of not scoring a point and yet, somehow…I still say it's one of the formative experiences of my life. We stuck together and we finished that year. And then we got a new coach and...we turned it around. He was a proper follow-this-guy-over-the-top kind of coach."

Indeed, some of Dermot's fellow teammates followed their coach in more than just sporting manoeuvres. The coach was a fan of chewing tobacco, Dermot explained, which lead to some of the teenagers wanting to try it too.

"Some of the older guys, sort of looking up to him, started chewing tobacco and he sort of turned a blind eye to it. We were like, 'We're 16-year-old children chewing tobacco!'. Like, one of our linebackers is kind of like, you know, spitting tobacco out the side…But he was a great coach, a really good motivator."

In terms of sporting highlights, the Ireland versus England game in Croke Park in 2007 was "era-defining" for Dermot.

"The English national anthem was played and this is going to sound odd because I've got this English accent but the English national anthem was played and it was just respected impeccably. I mean, you could hear a pin drop. And that made me more proud than any sporting result, I think."

During the conversation, Dermot paid tribute to his former colleague, Terry Wogan, who he called an "absolute master of radio". He shared some advice Terry had given him during his early days at BBC Radio 2.

"The first piece of advice he ever gave me was: 'Never be afraid of the silence' and there's something kind of, you know, very timeless and poignant in that…there was a real sense of authority and poise about the guy."

It's possible Dermot could have used some of that poise when it came to selecting his tattoos. He explained that overcome with a wave of patriotism, he made some decisions he now has doubts about.

"I have an old Celtic Cross, that my wife just about tolerates and when I was 18 I had a shamrock on my bum…that I really need to get rid of."

Listen back to the whole interview with Dermot O'Leary on Second Captains Saturday here.