Dublin win the All Ireland

A certain phrase by Mick Fitzgerald just about sums it up.

The Dubs are still (still!) writing songs: "True Blue" performed by Damien Dempsey, The Dubliners, Frances Black, and more

True Blue

Here's to the Dubs the boys in blue
With hearts so brave and hearts so true
From both sides of the river it's stand and deliver
True Dubs just like me and you

True blue, true blue
We're all Dublin through and through
True blue, true blue
Win lose or draw we'll follow you...

Can you hear Pat Good playing the Gazuki there in the background? Yes Gazuki. Apparently it's an 8 string guitar tuned like a bouzouki.

All proceeds go to the Rise Foundation charity which Frances Black founded in 2008. It helps families affected by addictions.

Sniff.

Written by John Healy, Toddy Griffin and Pat Good.

The Rise Foundation

Bernard Brogan and Conal Keaney: poise panache and a penchant for polished delivery

But only when they've a ball in their hands...

Eventually they finished the ad, watch it here.

Vodafone Rising Stars Programme on Hill 16

The Dubs are still writing songs

Sam is coming home

Sam is coming home,
back to Molly Malone
He’s tired of cutting cabbages
in Kerry and Tyrone
He misses Anna Liffey,
the coddle and the crack
Sam is coming home again,
he wants a welcome back...

3 days to go.

Check it dog, Sam is Coming Home

The Dubs are writing songs: "An Bua Ag B’lÁth Chliath"

An Bua ag B’láth Chliath © 2011 Enda Reilly agus Enda Cullen

Chur ort do bhróga Gorma
Déan damhsa liom
Chuig Croker
Mar a ndearnamar
an oíche Shamhraidh sin
le grá úrnua

‘s ag an gcluiche mhór ar an lá
le mo grā geal liom
Nach orm an tádh
Mar tás againn go mbeidh an bua ag Bláth Chliath...

Listen to the track

All Ireland Sunday is four days away.

So. Excited.

An Bua Ag B'lÁth Chliath from An Bua Ag B'lÁth Chliath by Enda Reilly

Offaly board locks team out & waits for them to be knocked out of Championship

Joe Dooley's not happy

The Offaly hurling team were locked out of O'Connor Park last Saturday when they arrived for a training session. Naturally enough this caused something of storm - nobody likes being stood up.

Since then all hell has broken loose. Offaly manager Joe Dooley unleashed the chaos in a letter to the Irish Examiner (printed on Tuesday) which criticised the Offaly County Board and finally exposed the whitest of white elephants in Offaly GAA.

The letter begins as follows:

"As a result of the way we were received, from gates being locked all over the place, to players and mentors being asked to leave the field, to not being allowed walk across the field, to the threat of cars being removed from outside the ground, we had no choice but to call off training.

"This is not a satisfactory situation given we have our most important game in two weeks’ time."

"This type of treatment has been an ongoing issue all year and today it came to a head when all involved agreed we have had enough.

"This is the last thing anyone wanted or needed but it was collectively felt that we were left with no other choice. It is very clear to all involved that throughout this year and last that we are not wanted in O’Connor Park. Every reason seems to be used to keep us out of the pitch or off the pitch during training sessions."

The letter was signed by major figures in Offaly hurling: Joe Dooley (manager since 2007, player 1984-2000, Triple All Ireland winner, All Star), Tony Murphy (team secretary for 30 years), Brendan Kelly (selector since the early 1990s), Pat McLoughney (selector), Francis Forde (coach), Brian Carroll (team captain), Joe Bergin (vice-captain), and Shane Dooley (star player).

The spark for the latest row: the redeveloped O'Connor park (old stand, top right.... duh)

As with most disputes, it seems that money is at the heart of the furore. Five million euro was pumped into redeveloping O'Connor park with a new 7,000 all seater stand completed in 2006. Whispers are that an early Championship exit for Offaly might advance opportunities for O'Connor Park to stage more Championship matches (with large attendences) over the summer. Dublin and Galway will be meeting in O'Connor Park this weekend in a match which will certainly be a sell out.

Needless to say the uproar has caused a whole host of former Offaly players to go bananas. Daithi Regan slamed the county board on Wednesday (Irish Examiner):

"The feeling locally — and I’d feel very strongly about this — is that the Offaly County Board is interested in one thing and one thing only, and that is servicing the debt on O’Connor Park.

"The big thing for them this week isn’t that Offaly beat either Cork or Laois in the hurling qualifiers, it’s that they get 15 to 20,000 in O’Connor Park this Saturday for Galway and Dublin [Leinster senior hurling semi-final].

"They have no interest in Offaly hurling. I’m not saying that lightly, they have no interest whatsoever in the future of hurling in Offaly...

"For a county that between 1980 and 2000 won four All-Irelands, nine Leinsters, a National League — New York or London are better treated."

All Star and double All Ireland winner Michael Duignan made a passionate defence of the Offaly players in an interview on RTE:

"I'd like to know what is the the strategic plan in Offaly. What is the plan for the development of hurling and football over the next three, five, ten years. As far as I can see we want to get as many matches as we can into O'Connor Park and stop our teams trainning there... Once Offaly are out of the Championship there'll be seven or eight matches played in O'Connor Park to get as much revenue as possible in, and this sadens me.

"I was one of the people on the O'Connor Park finance committee that raised 1.2 million euro in the county for the development of O'Connor Park and I certainly didn't raise that money or put in the effort that I did so that our county teams could be locked out of the facility...

"You take an example: last Saturday morning James Rigney, who broke his arm playing for this county three months ago - he was out for eight, nine weeks - he came back to trainning and he broke his hand on the same arm the following night training. He was out running on the perimeter of the pitch in a pair of runners, outside the white line and he was put off the pitch last Saturday morning. Now if anyone can tell me in this day and age that that's acceptable I'm sorry it's not.

"And I think this is not a little spat. This is a serious issue for Offaly and for all Offaly hurling people who love the game.

"There's people down there [at O'Connor Park] who have a little bit of power and they think that they own the place, and that's not good enough. That facility is there for the players of Offaly and the people of Offaly. It's not there for one or two individuals."

The team itself put up a superb display against the current National League Champs, Dublin, only losing out in the dying moments after being reduced to 14 players. Considering the Dubs are many people's sneaky bet for the All Ireland this year it's scandalous think that the Offaly players are not given every opportunity build on this performance and make a good run at the qualifiers.

And in my opinion it's shameful that a team of amatuer players, with an average age of 23, who train on a par with professionals are made to feel unwanted and worthless.

Hard to see how any player could remain faithful to the Faithful after that.

Watch highlights of Offaly's narrow loss to Dublin

Links:
Furious Dooley’s letter of intent (Irish Examiner)
Regan blasts Offaly board over hurlers’ treatment (Irish Examiner)
Crisis for Offaly Over O'Connor Park - Michael Duignan interview (RTE Radio)

Prove you're an Irishman

Find a hurley and the local gullible hobbit. Pick up hurley. Put hobbit on stool. Take aim while telling hilarious joke to disarm foolish hobbit. Unleash the poc fada treatment until he's in the next parish.

For the benefit of those who no longer believe in the Brehon Laws of proving ones's ancestry, here's a snappy BBC graphic.

Obama has fun in Ireland (BBC News)

Pitch invader #winning (part 2)

It was all smiles at first but then big Nickey Brennan (former President of the GAA) went and spoiled it all.

Dear me. As you know touching the Queen is a no no. So going for the auld Patrick Kavanagh wink and elbow language of delight is definitely out. Supposedly royal protocol aides stepped in and resolved the kerfuffle.

Word is he's since apologised. *sighs*

When men were men

Then...

Now...

Best goals ever. Dude.

I don't care what you say.

Click for the videos

All Ireland holds its breath

Brendan Cummings
But all eyes are on Kilkenny

© tribune.ie

Record breaking Poc Fada champion, four time All Star, All Ireland champion Brendan Cummings cried his eyes out as a child in Croke Park when Kerry were thwarted five All Irelands in a row by Séamus Darby’s wonder goal. Kerry had beaten Offaly in the final the previous year and the Faithful had waited for their revenge. And they got it.

That was then and this is now.  Just as he has done for the last fifteen years, Cummings will be between the sticks for Tipperary. But part of him will almost be with the Cats who are looking to pull off what has never been done. Part of him. Almost.  Because part of him is still with that Kerry team which fell just short of achieving immortality. All eyes – even his – are on Kilkenny.

Scenario A) Kilkenny win

They become the first team ever to win five All Irelands in a row and solidify themselves as one of the great teams, to be remembered as long as the game is played (and beyond).

Scenario B) Kilkenny lose

Much of the above still applies.

Because Kilkenny are that special.

Special manager. Special players. Special team.

The recovery of Henry Shefflin from a torn cruciate knee ligament four weeks after the injury demonstrates commitment. Ferocious commitment. Shefflin received treatment from world renowned expert Gerard Hartmann who has in the past salvaged the careers of Ronan O’Gara, Sonia O’Sullivan, and Colin Jackson (the Limerick based physio has been responsible for healing over 50 Olympic and world championship medallists). O’Gara described the treatment as “murder, the hardest thing I ever had to do in my career.”

So that’s huge commitment shown on Shefflin’s part.

But 8,000 people turning up at Nolan Park to see Mr Lazarus run out with his team mates for a training session demonstrates something else entirely. Something bizarre. Something obsessive. Something even a little terrifying.

Apparently word spread around the town. Shops were abandoned. Car doors left open. The terraces packed. And they all nodded and gasped on seeing Shefflin running, tackling, and scoring. And now he's on the starting lineup for the match.

Mad isn’t it?

Jackie Tyrell (2006), Henry Shefflin (2007),
"Cha" Fitzpatrick (2008), Michael Fennelly (2009)

Living in foreign as I do, I have often tried – with little success – to describe the GAA to friends for whom Ireland is just a blob on a map. It’s an amateur game. Played countrywide, nearly 2,500 clubs. An amateur game. Third biggest stadium in Europe. Amateur game. Teams throughout Europe, North America, Australia, Argentina, Japan, Taiwan... Yep an amateur game. Men and women, schools and communities, North and South. Fun? Passion? Rivalry? You better believe it.

We tend to explain so many of the eccentricities of the GAA to ourselves with phrases like “Sure hasn’t it always been like this” and “Don’t we go for the love of the game?”. But after seeing dedication shown by the likes of Shefflin generate such extraordinary responses, I am left as gobsmacked as my foreign friends.

A loss will take little away from the Kilkenny team. It would be akin to the great Don Bradman falling for a duck in his final innings and missing out on perfection. It might be summed up by a famous Joey "the Lips" Fagan quip (spoken at the end of Roddy Doyle’s “The Commitments” after the band has fallen apart and everything lies in tatters): "Sure we could have been famous and made albums and stuff, but that would have been predictable. This way it's poetry."

Win or lose, Kilkenny make a remarkable story and Shefflin will be forever remembered as its protagonist.