BEFORE the Kerry game with Cavan, Paddy Andrews, Cillian O’Connor and Marc O’Sé, looking like a Take That tribute, shook their heads sadly every time Cavan were mentioned. Cavan must be bitterly regretting the day they ever beat Mayo. The following weekend, they got Donegal, enraged and motivated after their loss to Tyrone. Next up […]
CORK are a permanent anti-climax. Incapable of a definitive contribution, they are indifferent to defeat. Because they are deeply unserious, they play in the full knowledge that they are going to lose. They are not a football team, merely a gather up of boys who want to train and tog out for the county. They […]
I WAS certain, deep in my bones, that Limerick hurlers would beat Cork in the hurling. Certain in the same way that a man is when he knows he is in love. A profound, inexplicable certainty. I have a kitty with David O’Malley. He is the horsey expert. I take care of the GAA side […]
THEY opened the Knockmore social club for me for the Dublin Galway game. By quarter to five I was settled in front of GAA+ on the huge television with a pint of Guinness and a feeling that life does not get any better. If I ever win the Euromillions I’ll buy the club and hire […]
THE Dublin wall has fallen. At the final whistle in the Leinster semi-final, people wept. They ran onto the field to grab a blade of grass or a handful of clay. An hour after the final whistle they were still standing on the field, in shock. For the last decade, on the Trinity Old Boys’ […]
I ASKED RTÉ before one of the Mayo All-Ireland finals if they would open the show with Beck’s song, “I’m a loser baby, so why don’t you kill me.” They refused. “Why?” I asked. “Because it’s not polite.” It might not have been polite but it is true. As they demonstrated again on Sunday for […]
‘Maradona has the ball, two are marking him. He touches the ball. He passes them both. Maradona, the genius of world football. He dashes to the right. He leaves the third defender behind him. He’s going to pass to Burruchaga. No he doesn’t. He passes the fourth defender. It’s still Maradona. Genius, genius, genius, he’s […]
IN 2000, the sportswriter Eamonn Sweeney was at the top of his game. A successful novelist and sports journalist, he was a regular on TV shows, a drinker, a socialiser, an intellectual and a 32 year old man in a loving relationship. In his new book ‘The Last Ditch”, his first in 20 years, he […]
AFTER the Ulster final last year, Jimmy McGuinness stood on an articulated trailer in the centre of Donegal town and told the throngs, “There is only one thing left for us to win, and we are going to go after that with everything we have.” Since then, a panel of players that looked very ordinary […]
AFTER the Ulster final last year, Jimmy McGuinness stood on an articulated trailer in the centre of Donegal town and told the throngs,”There is only one thing left for us to win, and we are going to go after that with everything we have.” Since then, a panel of players that looked very ordinary before […]
