OJ Simpson's conviction for kidnapping and armed robbery in a Las Vegas court last week had a special relevance for one Irish family.

Retired cameraman Paddy Barron and his wife Nuala Malone entertained the disgraced former American footballer in their Wicklow home in 1974 when he came to Ireland to present a sports documentary for ABC TV.

Paddy Barron, who is now 76, told the Sunday Tribune: "I was a freelance cameraman at the time. Back then I was doing a lot of work for the ABC network in the US with a producer called Doug Wilson who came over to Ireland each year to film All Ireland Finals.

"I remember one day he rang me up to say he was coming over the following morning to Ireland with an American football player who ABC were trying out as a presenter."

The next morning Paddy woke up to find the ABC crew outside his home in Kilquade, Greystones. First out of the taxi was OJ Simpson. Nuala Malone remembers: "My first impression of OJ was how handsome he was, while seeming shy and retiring because he didn't say much at all. He was impeccably dressed because I think the TV network had bought him all these new clothes for the trip."

After only recently retiring from American football, Simpson it seems was used to being looked after. "I remember that day coming in he had quite a heavy bag with him which he let me carry. It weighed a ton and if that wasn't bad enough, I was heavily pregnant at the time," Nuala said.

The trip to Ireland was the first time Simpson had been outside of the US and it showed. "Our dining room was in the back of the house and it had a view onto some hills," Paddy recalls. "I can remember OJ looking out and saying to my wife, 'Ma'am, what are those white things out there?' Nuala told him they were sheep and I can remember OJ saying, 'What are sheep, ma'am?'"

After a week interviewing GAA players and filming around Dublin and Wicklow, the job finished with OJ and the ABC crew returning to the United States. However it wasn't the last the Barron family heard of OJ Simpson.

Paddy's son, also called Paddy Barron, says: "I was about five at the time and I remember weeks after OJ left, all these boxes arriving by Fedex at our Wicklow home.

"They were full of these presents for the family from OJ. He even included Dinky cars for me which was an amazing thing to get back then."

The Barrons say they were shocked at OJ's later fall from grace when he faced trial for the murder of his former wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ronald Goldman.

Nuala watched every day of the trial on TV. "I suppose the first OJ case was the drama to end all dramas," she said.

"It was all so different from the memory we have of the OJ Simpson as a guest in our house in Wicklow. Such a quiet man."