Your music/GAA correspondent is reporting for duty. We have our say here, then you have your say below. 32. Green Glens of Antrim (Antrim) Not my cup of tea. 31. My old Sligo home (Sligo) A nice song that wouldn’t set Croke Park alight. 30. Waterford my home (Waterford) Has a certain market. 29. The […]

3 years ago

You can’t get away from the Wexford club hurling championship these days. And we mean that in the best possible way. Open Twitter any time over the last few weeks and, as long as you’re moving in the right circles – GAA circles –  you’ll have found that, as quick as you can say boo, […]

3 years ago

Andrew Fryday is the chairman of Clonoulty Rossmore GAA club, he is Dillon Quirke’s uncle and on Saturday sport on RTE, he paid an emotional tribute to his late nephew. Quirke was playing in Clonoulty Rossmore’s county championship game against Kilruane MacDonaghs when, at the end of the first half, he collapsed onto the ground. […]

3 years ago

There was a six week gap between Ballyhale’s Leinster club final win and their All-Ireland semi-final against St Thomas and during that gap, TJ Reid was told not to train. So he didn’t. He did some light jogging and striking on the week of the game and then that Saturday, under the lights in Semple […]

3 years ago

You don’t know true pain…unless you’ve peddled one of those watt-bikes until you can’t pedal anymore. Cairbre Ó Cairealláin was the new-man into the Limerick set-up this year, as Strength and Conditioning coach, and, for his sins, Aaron Gillane got to know him straight away. And the Patrickswell man won’t ever forget him. Ó Cairealláin […]

3 years ago

Jack Cahalane was watching his sister Gráinne’s camogie match recently when he remarked to his dad Niall that she had a first touch like Sean Finn’s. Gráinne is the only one of the six Cahalane children who doesn’t play for Cork. She played underage alright, as is family tradition, and dad Niall says she could […]

3 years ago

Nearly is the word that would best sum up Lee Chin’s season both for Wexford and for Faythe Harriers. But he knows better than anyone, as a top level competitor, that nearly never won the championship. It was on Sunday, after one thrilling game, when Faythe Harriers’ club hurling dreams ground to an agonising halt […]

3 years ago

Shane Walsh travelled up and down from Dublin to Galway all year but having confirmed his intention to play his club football for Kilmacud Crokes for the foreseeable, he says that the two and a half hour round-trip ‘certainly takes its toll on the body.’ Along with his Kilkerrin-Clonberne club-mate and Galway selector John Divilly, […]

3 years ago

Colm O’Rourke confirmed in his Sunday Independent column that, as he looks ahead to his new role as Meath manager, he will turn to Sean Boylan for advice as ‘adviser, counsellor, motivator or whatever else he wants to be.’ Here, we look back on an interview with O’Rourke from last year where he talked about […]

3 years ago

“Today, I was doing it for Dan.” Aisling Donoher was the Player of the Match in Laois’ All-Ireland intermediate final victory over Wexford and, after three years away from the game, and after the battle she’s gone through with her son Dan, it was one emotional day for her and her family. Donoher has been […]

3 years ago

Meath 3-10 Kerry 1-7 Ciara Butler looks around but there’s nothing doing. Not even the faintest little thing. Where do we go from here? Her joint-managers can’t help her out with that one because, on the line, and even from a distance, the view is no better for Darragh Long or Declan Quill. Meath are […]

3 years ago

John Daly has legitimate claims to be nominated for Footballer of the Year but, as it turned out, and without even a mention, he was left out of The Sunday Game’s Team of the year. Where do you even start with that? Yes All-Stars are a cut-throat business, yes, this year’s renewal will be even more […]

3 years ago

Who’s going to get the job? There are jobs going, more this off-season than ever before, but thankfully, as the wheels turn around, and the queue forms, there are some good men eyeing up the driving seat. It may be a coincidence or it may be an anomaly but whatever the reasons are, there’s no […]

3 years ago

There have been plenty of question marks about the Kerry defence in years gone by but this year, as they marched towards All-Ireland glory, that defence only conceded one goal in the championship. Goalkeeper Shane Ryan obviously played a part in that, as did the highly regarded Tom O’Sullivan, but it was a team effort […]

3 years ago

You can give him the ball anywhere, anywhere, anywhere. Then the inevitable happens. It doesn’t matter who’s behind him, what’s in front of him or how the whole thing looks around him, because, even if it looks crowded or hopeless or like a blind alley, it doesn’t change the fact. Shane Walsh is going to […]

3 years ago

Kerry 0-20 Galway 0-16 Low lie the fields of Athenry… There are 28 minutes gone in the first half and that famous, fantastic anthem is ringing around Drumcondra. Music to Galway’s ears. Kerry are on the ball and even though the scores are level, even though they’re the favourites and even though they’ve had their […]

3 years ago

Watching a video like this one just spells it out for you. Becuase it’s right there in front of you. Many moons ago, Brian Cody gave a coaching talk at St Kieran’s College in Kilkenny and, having been asked some probing questions by his audience, Cody gave some of the most masterful and insightful answers […]

3 years ago

The Kilkenny players stand there dejected. It’s a tough place to gather thoughts. Some have tears in their eyes, some are down on their hunkers just, motionless, staring at the ground in front of them and, as the crushing reality dawns, as they realise that another opportunity has slipped away, others are taking it just […]

3 years ago

“Part of me became emotional, and obviously you’re thrilled, but there are so many regrets.” ‘Dreams’ was reverberating around Croke Park and, last Sunday, as he thought back on his own playing career, Niall Moran couldn’t help but become a little bit emotional. He was part of the Limerick hurling team between 2003 and 2013 […]

3 years ago

“John O’Mahoney just said, this is the biggest day of your lives. It should be the best day of your lives. Just get out there and do your stuff. So we all just looked each other in the eyes and said ‘lads, we’re playing useless, simple as that.” It’s the way John Divilly tells it. […]

3 years ago

On top of everything else, John Kiely has a set of pipes on him that can get a crowd going. The Limerick hurling manager certainly had the crowd going last night, when he sang Billy Joel’s breakthrough hit Piano man to thousands of rejoicing supporters at the Gaelic Grounds. On the stage behind him, his […]

3 years ago

1-2 to 0-0 and Kilkenny are rattled to the core. You can sense the nerves, all around Croke Park, and no matter where you look, you can see the jitters. Tommy Walsh has slipped into trouble, Conor Browne has fumbled a ball and then, with the red lights flashing like crazy, Cian Kenny has just […]

3 years ago

Limerick 1-31 Kilkenny 2-26 Paddy Deegan gets a hospital pass. Gearoid Hegarty’s eyes light up. Richie Reid looks on sheepishly because he knows, deep down, the way things are going, that Deego won’t be thanking him for this one. Deegan stretches every last sinew of his body to get there, to get a hand on […]

3 years ago

“John was probably the last guy who got the better of Sean Finn, 2-5 he got off him that day.” Brian Cody must be praying, right about now, that there’s another John Walsh in Kilkenny. He could have had the real one – Walsh was on the Kilkenny panel at the start of the year, […]

3 years ago

Colm Bonnar has been ‘relieved of his duties’ as Tipperary senior hurling manager. The county board management committee met on Wednesday night and, after a voting process, the decision was made to move on without the Cashel King Cormacs club-man. Bonnar took over on a three year term at the beginning of this year but, […]

3 years ago

Can it ever be trusted? Has this whole thing been a lie? Maybe Bubbles point in 2014 was over the bar and Tipp should have won the All-Ireland. Seeing as they went back on Saturday, after the fact, to over-turn Shane Walsh’s free – should we just go back to 2010 and give Louth their […]

3 years ago

James McCarthy looked around the field, he looked around the stadium and then he looked at the Kerry boys as if to say, boys, is there anyone else? It’d take a brave man. The Ballymun defender was supposed to have been injured coming into this game but, in the 54th minute, as he launched into […]

3 years ago

Ciaran Kilkenny hit a wide in the first half that, of all people, you just did not expect Ciaran Kilkenny to hit. It was high, it was a drifter and, for a finish, it was wider than a proverbial gate. And that is not one bit like him. Because he’s bomb-proof, usually, and he barely […]

3 years ago

Dessie Farrell is proud of his Dublin team and he says that everyone in the county should be proud of them too. They were beaten, but only just, by a stunning last minute free from Seanie O’Shea but they more than played their part in what was a tremendous occasion and a tremendous game of […]

3 years ago

Cometh the hour, cometh the man. Seanie O’Shea is the man. The breeze was blowing, the sun was shining, the legs were tiring but when the pressure was at its highest, and when Kerry needed someone to drag them over the line, Seanie O’Shea stepped up in a big time way. He stepped up and […]

3 years ago

What if there was no video evidence? What if the camera-man hadn’t positioned himself behind the flight of the ball? Then Galway would have been a point down at half time and who knows, maybe the second half would have went a different way. But the truth is that when it comes to hawk-eye there […]

3 years ago

Tony Kelly’s down but he’s not out. Saturday was an absolute sickener but, what else can you do, he’s back in with Ballyea and it won’t be long before he’s back doing what he loves. You have to get back on the horse at some stage. It’s put to him as he collects his player […]

3 years ago

Kerry are the favourites to win this All-Ireland semi-final but, judging by this combined team, and we all know that the logic of the combined team is undefeated, then the bookies could be in for a bit of a shock. Luckily for Kerry though, All-Ireland semi-finals aren’t played on paper. They’re played on grass. None-the-less, […]

3 years ago

Colm O’Neill and Nicholas Murphy were both on the Cork bench for the 2010 All-Ireland final. They would have been two of the best players on the panel at the time but after years of trying to squeeze every star player into his team, Conor Counihan had to make a few tough calls. And they […]

3 years ago

Aaron Gillane didn’t even flinch. Daithí Burke gave him a snig and a half but, as he ran out to the ball and with the ball there to be won, Gillane didn’t have any interest in winning the free. Let’s take care of business first. He controlled it with the deftest of first touches and […]

3 years ago

Dan Delaney remembers his son Tom playing in underage blitzes. How could he forget? Tom first started hurling with his brothers and cousins as a six-year-old in the Millennium Place estate in Cahir and by the time he was eight, and because he was scoring so much, he’d finish those blitzes as a goalkeeper. That […]

3 years ago

Kilkenny 2-26 Clare 0-20 Kilkenny did a Kilkenny on it. Why are we even surprised? Are we even surprised? All-Ireland semi-finals have always been their bread and butter but this, on a day that was supposed to be so much different, in a championship that was supposed to revolve around Clare and Limerick, was meat […]

3 years ago

They’ve been on the edge of their seats all day but this is the first time they’ve actually left them. A Galway fan tells them to sit the hell down but hilariously, and caught up in the heat of the moment, this pair of Armagh diehards don’t seem to care. They’re jumping and dancing and […]

3 years ago

Kilkenny’s six-time All-Ireland winner James Ryall says that, internally at least, the Limerick hurlers will be desperate to win this year’s All-Ireland. The Graigue Ballycallan club-man contends that, in comfortably beating Waterford and Cork in the last two finals, Limerick will face a sterner test this time around and in making his point, he draws […]

3 years ago

Eoin Cadogan started his electrician apprenticeship in 2004 and it was six years later, a month before the 2010 All-Ireland football final, when he was let go. As a young fella at the time, and with an All-Ireland to distract him, Cadogan wasn’t too concerned back then but still, little did he know that he’d […]

3 years ago

Rian O’Neill didn’t even bat an eye-lid. Sean Kelly was pushing Armagh’s best player in the chest – nothing major, every back does it – but most forwards push back and, for all the aggression that’s inside of him, you’d have expected O’Neill to do just that. But he didn’t even look at him. He […]

3 years ago

It is the end of the road, for the second time. James Horan is stepping away as manager of the Mayo senior footballers after Sunday’s All-Ireland quarter final defeat to Kerry brought another quest for Sam Maguire to a premature end. In his two stints at the helm with the senior footballers, Horan won six […]

3 years ago

Ethan Rafferty raised his hands as if to tell the Armagh fans to lift it and, seconds later, and not for the first time on Sunday, chants of ‘Armagh, Armagh, Armagh’ nearly raised the roof. This was an absolute mad house. If you were in the press box and you looked to your right hand […]

3 years ago

Galway 2-21 Armagh 3-18 (Galway win 4-1 on penalties) Cillian McDaid was delighted, he tells us with a laugh, that the penalty shoot-out didn’t go down to the last one. We’re chatting in the bowels of the Hogan Stand, after one of the most exciting Gaelic football games of all-time, and the Monivea Abbey man […]

3 years ago

If Barry Dillon had to compare Rory Grugan to one player, ahead of all the others, the first man that springs to mind is Mattie Donnelly. And from this Derryman at least, that’s the biggest compliment Donnelly’s ever going to get. Dillon managed Donnelly during his time at the University of Jordanstown and, looking on […]

3 years ago

The Coronas front-man Danny O’Reilly played for the Dublin minors, and he was good enough for the Dublin juniors but nothing could prepare him, after all those years away, for the challenge of marking Jack McCaffrey and Eoin Murchan in club games. O’Reilly still plays for the Templeogue Synge Street junior team and you can […]

3 years ago

“Goalkeepers generally aren’t very good Gaelic footballers. If they were, they wouldn’t be goalkeepers.” That was Darragh Ó Sé, shooting from the hip in last month’s Irish Times in a manner that, when you think about it, all of his family can. “No county is so overloaded with high-class inter-county footballers that they can afford […]

3 years ago

You could find him in Tí Joe Wattys on Inis Mór or in An Chistin in Carraroe. He could be singing or dancing or, on another night, he could playing the banjo or the guitar. Gaelic football has been number one for the last few years but, ever since Sean Mulkerrin suffered a horrific knee […]

3 years ago

Paul Mannion enjoyed himself last week as, a long way from home, he followed Shane Lowry around the Brookline country club at the US Open. Some life. He met up with Shane’s dad Brendan and, between them, as they watched some of the world’s best golfers, the boys shot the breeze like all Irish abroad […]

3 years ago

Keith Beirne, Mickey Quinn and Ross Munnelly have all played in this year’s Tailteann Cup while, as Antrim manager, Enda McGinley also has first hand experience of Gaelic football’s second tier competition. In that sense, and in every sense really, they were the perfect people to talk about it. As a Leitrim player, Keith Beirne […]

3 years ago