NOSTALGIA is a very powerful drug. Those of us who have reached the sere and mellow stage are all too aware of this. When we said a final farewell to the wonderful Sean O Siochain recently, we recalled how his generosity of spirit and lightness of style enlivened many happy events. We knew that we had been honoured by his presence among us.

There can be no doubt now that he would have approved of the much-maligned Teilfis an Gaeilge's decision to screen most of the All Ireland hurling and football finals from the 1970s over the next few months.

This is a major coup by any standards and should, for a short time at least, quieten the strident begrudgers who know the price of everything and the value of nothing. As" one who was privileged to be present at most of those matches, I look forward to their recall.

Most attention will fall, of course, on the great clashes between Dublin and Kerry during those years, but for many of us, particularly those of us from Connacht, the 1970s will be remembered as the decade which saw Galway hurling come into its own, even though it took until 1980 to bring it to its full flower.

Although the matches which stick in the mind from the 1970s for Galway were the semi-finals of 1975 and 1979, we knew then that the big breakthrough was just around the corner, in spite of the disappointment of the finals in the years mentioned.

In hurling, too, vivid memories remain of the back-to-back finals of 1976 and 1977, when Cork beat Wexford on both occasions. Wexford, last year, finally threw off the shackles of those defeats, but it is a vignette which will never leave me.

In the weeks before the match, there was a vociferous school of thought in Cork that Martin Coleman's eyesight was not what it should be for a goalkeeper and that he should have been left out of the side.

The moment when Keogh swept in on the Cork goal and Coleman, diving at full stretch to his right with his hurley at full stretch as well, nudged Keogh's shot away to safety, remains etched in the mind.

In a relieved and chaotic Cork dressingroom, Martin Coleman sat in a corner, reluctant to allow the moment toe pass. He clutched his hurley to his chest and raising it to his lips addressing it thus: "D'ye know something?" he asked, "ye have better eyes than meself".

Less pleasurable moments focus on an unfortunate slip by the Armagh fullback, Tom McCreesh, which allowed the deadly Jimmy Keaveney in for a goal in the 1977 All Ireland final.

Then there is the famous incident involving Mikey Sheehy and Paddy Cullen in 1978, when Sheehy's free kick left Cullen, in the immortal words of Con Houlihan, "heading back to his goal like a woman who had smelled a cake burning".

Why Sheehy and Cullen should be isolated in this incident and the roles played by Ger Power and Robbie Kelleher overlooked, has always seemed unfair to me.

In the 1970s, however, this observer will always recall the glorious performances of Egan of Kerry, shoulders hunched, ball treasured away from any danger of a challenge and a quick side-step before a telling shot for a point or a goal.

Equally memorable are performances by Jimmy Keaveney, Anton O'Toole, Tony Hanahoe, Joey Donnelly, Kevin Moran, Danny Murray, Dermot Earley, Paddy Moriarty, Paudie Lynch, Martin Furlong, Willie Bryan, T J Gilmore and Liam Sammon.

The recollection of the original commentaries that accompanied these matches, including those of Michael O Hehir, adds spice to the programmes which lie ahead, beginning with the Kilkenny-Limerick All Ireland hurling final on March 4th.

It was, surely, ironic that Joe McDonagh of Galway should have been the one to launch the venture in Croke Park on Thursday last.

Joe will be the next president of the GAA yet, when these matches were being played, he was one of the members of a great Galway half back line of McDonagh, Sean Silke and Iggy Clarke, and played in the 1975 and 1979 finals. He would surely have been part of the Galway breakthough team of 1980 had not illness intervened.

The "replays" of great matches of that era will not be confined to All Ireland finals.

The Munster football final between Kerry and Cork in 1974 is included, as is that never-to-be-forgotten All Ireland football semi-final between Dublin and Kerry in 1977.

Matches will be shown on Tuesdays and Thursdays until the middle of June and will be presented by Michael O Muircheartaigh, no better man, under the overall title All Ireland Gold. BSkyB eat your heart out.