THIS week’s Policing Board report shows ahow extraordinarily peaceful the North has become. PSNI officers have only discharged a shot five times in the last ten years, the most recent being an unintentional discharge in June 2022. The other four shots were fired into the air outside Omagh police station after Tyrone won Sam in 2021. The […]
WELCOME to the football factory, where every Gaelic football team looks the same, sounds the same and plays the same. The All-Ireland Senior Club semi-finals on Sunday were the usual chore. The winners, Kilmacud and Glen, spent most of their time trying not to lose. The crowd spent most of our time chatting amongst ourselves. […]
SEAN MacCumhaills tweeted the following message on their social media on Christmas Eve. “We invite applications from suitably qualified persons for the position of Reserve Team Manager. To express your interest in this position please send an e mail with your name and contact details to: secretary.seanmcools.donegal@gaa.ie before 6pm on Wednesday 11th of January 2023.” […]
JORGE Valdano, the Argentinian striker who scored the winning goal in the 1986 World cup final (needless to say, from a classic Maradona pass), was interviewed in the Guardian a fortnight ago. The chat turned to the little man. He said “How could you not look at Maradona? When he walks into the dining room everyone […]
“I’ll be seeing you, in all those old familiar places That this heart of mine embraces All day through… I’ll be seeing you In every lovely summer’s day In everything that’s light and gay I’ll always think of you that way…” WHEN I turned on the radio on Wednesday, Jimmy Durante was singing ‘I’ll be seeing […]
AT the tribute night for Brian Mullins in St Vincents a few weeks ago, Roddy Collins was gobsmacked at the number of his old Derry team that turned up. “In soccer, they wouldn’t be here unless they were being paid.” “Seriously?” “No bleeding way Joe. It’s all about greed in our game.” I haven’t been watching […]
MARADONA would have been 60 this week. The greatest left foot in the history of the world. To commemorate his birthday, The Funny Old Game soccer site broadcast a goal he scored for Napoli against Verona in 1985. The Verona ‘keeper launches a high kick out from his hands, in the manner of a Cavan […]
OUR greatest referee, David Gough, was on an elite referee’s night out in Dublin. Everyone had passed the fitness test earlier that day so they were all, as he puts it, “on a high.” David: We were in the Croke Park hotel having pints and the craic. It was getting late and the lads were mad […]
I INTERVIEWED David Gough at the weekend, our greatest referee. He supports my four new rules. Q. The sweeper is the real game killer? A. It is. It has become an awful boring game to watch Joe. Even to referee. It is dreadful. I wouldn’t go to watch a football match now and I used […]
ON Sunday just past, I was at the Knockmore-Aughamore championship match at Knockmore. Jerome Henry, one of our best referees, was in the middle and refereed the game very well indeed. Everyone was on their best behaviour, the cloud of the Roscommon affair hanging over every game played last weekend. Afterwards, I shook hands with […]
