THE games for the new rules over the weekend had all the drama of a plate of warm scones, though the final was fun. To be fair, I played in an All-Star game in Donegal after they won the All-Ireland and scored 1-2 in the first half against the most fearsome defensive formula the game […]
JIM Gavin has the air of a fresh faced young Mormon selling bibles door to door. Serene as the buddha, he could persuade you of almost anything. Imagine him as a US trial lawyer, beaming down from a gigantic billboard, with the slogan: Honest Jim Gavin, Trial attorney. Just because you did it doesn’t mean […]
AT the weekend, we brought our 14 day old to Knockmore to meet her people. On Sunday morning, we strapped her into her carrier and walked up to the pitch for the Senior Ladies Championship semi-final against Carnacon. The Knockmore girls are the county champions. They are also the league champions, having won that in […]
A MODERN coach/manager has finally broken ranks to say what we are all thinking. This week, Professor Niall Moyna, a state of the art expert who has managed DCU to four Sigerson Cups, was a selector and advisor to the St Vincent’s All-Ireland winning club team of 2008 and an integral part of Pat Gilroy’s […]
‘THE rules of Piggy in the Middle: Two players pass a ball to each other, while a third player tries to intercept the pass. The third player is called the Piggy in the Middle. After each successful pass, the players on the outside chant ‘Piggy in the Middle.’ Little did the creator of Piggy in […]
YOU probably haven’t heard of little Tommy Loughran, the coal man’s son. He is 13 years old, two footed and fast. Last weekend, his tiny club Lissan met Glen, the giants of Derry club football, in the Derry U-14 championship final. The Wattys’ management assigned two of their children to mark Tommy. So, the two […]
NOW that the exhibition football is over, it is back to the real stuff. The stuff of the heart’s core. Last weekend, we were up at Ballaghadereen to watch Knockmore against Ballagh (as the locals call it) in the first round of the Mayo Senior Championship. It was a very poignant day, the first Ballagh […]
WHEN Colm McCusker died last week, a piece of Ireland died with him. He was 91 years old and lived a life that will never be seen again. His first job was as a gardener in Upperlands with Clarkes, the big house protestants. Later, he became a weaver working in their linen mill. He saw […]
LAST Saturday, after they had just beaten Clara in a wonderful game of hurling, I walked into the O’Loughlin Gaels buoyant changing room. When the noise subsided, their manager and legendary Kilkenny hurler Brian Hogan said, “Joe, what can be done with the football?”. The room went silent. “Ban it,” I said. The place erupted. […]
THE vast roar that greeted the throw-in merely symbolised the triumph of hope over reality that grips the viewer. Immediately, the game settled into the familiar pattern, the endlessly rehearsed formula where nothing is unpredictable. So, both teams began the ‘you score a point, we score a point routine’, which has almost become a gentleman’s […]
