I SUPPOSE they can’t give it to Clifford every year. To be fair to Ryan O’Donoghue, he is a better tackler. Kerry’s miracle of human evolution scored 1-8 against Tyrone in the quarter final. It was an electrifying match, with David making the decisive contributions. As Adrian McGuckin used to say, “I’m suspicious of boys […]
10 YEARS AGO THE Eoghan Rua hurlers got off to a blistering start against Bredagh en route to booking their spot in the Ulster Intermediate Hurling Championship final. Elsewhere, there was good news for Tyrone fans as Sean Cavanagh confirmed via social media that he was set to commit for another year in the county […]
I had to paint the picture with my own kids – if Kerry and Galway meet in an All-Ireland semi-final or final and I’m standing in Croke Park with a Galway top on, can we accept that? I had to wrestle with that.” Like all other Kerrymen who have wrestled with their idealism, idealism lost. […]
Winning is for extremists. As Kieran McGeeney put it a few months ago, “Lots of people love to play Gaelic football and that’s great. But if you want to win, you have to put everything on the line. And I mean everything.” I thought of that when I met Peter O’Mahony this week. I also […]
The week of the All-Ireland, Jim Gavin said to me that I might be overlooking an important factor. “Jack O’Connor has never won back-to-back All-Irelands.” “Is that important?” I said. “Nothing could be more important. If Kerry win on Sunday, the two-in-a-row gives him an opportunity for three-in-a-row. So long as he knows how to […]
Everyone in Mayo is going around smiling like the magic mushrooms are starting to kick in. A fortnight after the final I went down to the recycling centre on the Killala Road. The lad at the bottle bank was wearing a Mayo jersey. (Everyone here is wearing Mayo jerseys). “What do you think of that […]
I RANG Frank McGuigan's life-long friend John Joe O'Neill this week. "Lonely Housewives.com," he said, "How can we help you?" When I had stopped laughing, he said, "If you are a lady seeking to join, we will require your death certificate madam. We don't want an angry husband walking in on a client." When I […]
MY mother was very annoyed when Paudie Clifford chatted his way through the national anthem. She is a religious woman who keeps large bottles of holy water inside the front door to throw over visitors’ cars when they are leaving. As my brother Proinsias says, “you need to wind the windows up quickly.” “I hope […]
THE decision to hold the All-Ireland draw last week turned the provincial finals (except Connacht) into the biggest anti-climax since Cork football. During the week, I posed the question in the Trinity Old Boys Group (free staters to a man): What is wrong with Cork football? The answers came flooding in: Hurling. Donal Óg. Frank […]
‘We, the current Mayo team, request that the Mayo County Board takes steps to remove Pat Holmes and Noel Connelly from their roles as team managers with immediate effect…We, the players, have set ourselves extremely high standards in terms of team organisation and management and as a squad we do not believe they have met […]
