Tag: Padraic Joyce
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The West will be wide Awake if there are any more defections
“When all beside a vigil keep, the West’s asleep, the West’s asleep”… It may now be the case that if there are many more defections – real or rumoured – from Connacht counties, they may a vigil keep in persuance of a night’s sleep. Firstly, Cian O’Neill switched from watching the sun go down on…
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Sports Oddity
“This is Major Tom to Ground Control. I’m stepping through the doorAnd I’m floating in a most peculiar wayAnd the stars look very different today” David Bowie – Space Oddity You suspect there are quite a few sporting entities experiencing similar conundrums to Major Tom in recent days. Not least some of those in or…
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The stereotype won’t die if you keep feeding it
A late and sincerely missed friend of mine used to knock great sport out of telling what is a sizable Leitrim contingent in our locality that it took one of his people (Longford) to sing their ‘native’ song. Larry Cunningham and Lovely Leitrim. Given events in the last week or so, that little nugget of…
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Geezer eventually gets to rock the establishment with deliverence day
Maybe I do know what I’m at after all. At the outset here, a shameless confession – outside of Meath, obviously, I’ve a fondness for Armagh greater than any other county. Perhaps for no particular reason, but broadly based upon: their people, their back-story, their song, Geezer, Francie, Jarlath Burns, Crossmaglen Rangers and the way…
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Evolution of Jimmy Ball decides the finalists but the architect misses out
There was something very fitting about Rian O’Neill emerging from under the crossbar at the Canal End seconds before David Gough blew for full time. Armagh football pedigrees don’t come more purebred. McConville. Crossmaglen. Besides that though, nobody has typified Kieran McGeeney’s Armagh model more than the fair haired forward. Remember the piece which appeared…
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The call is from heroism, who will accept?
Perhaps if one had been around for the glorious yet curious duopoly between Dublin and Kerry in the 1970s and early 80s, it might be easier to reason with Dublin’s domination for the last decade and a half. Just to be clear, that is not in any way a criticism of those who are currently…
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Three out of four might go with form but there’s always the one…
There are always little signs. If you go back to one of the greatest GAA occurrences ever seen 33 years ago this week – Kevin Foley’s goal for Meath in the fourth game against Dublin – it’s hardly coincidence that they spent two hours rehearsing the move on a soccer pitch in Scotland seven days…
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Cup football still has its value
Mention has been made previously on these pages of how the idea of bucket lists doesn’t sit at all well here. If only because it makes a body think about, well, the journey around this big auld ball. And that’s challenging enough without bringing a stopwatch into the equation. That’s not to say, that there…
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System partly vindicated but still needs tweaking
What’s in a name? Quite a lot as it happens. Partly to see what sort of reaction it would receive, when doing my Facebook Check-In for Meath’s match against Wexford, it was referred to as the All Ireland IFC quarter final. Disappointingly, nobody took the bait. That’s what it should be called, though. As should…
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Sideline Cuts 28 – Sometimes the most obvious answer is the right one
In the dark old days of the National Leagues before each division (rightly) was seen as a separate competition which their own Final, trophy and the like, the knockout stages went in such a way that whoever qualified from Div. 1 played whatever team came out of the fourth tier. Thus, it went that whoever…