Topics

TV3 have announced their GAA coverage for the summer:

http://www.tv3.ie/media.php?action=news&id=150

It must have been good old crack in the negotiations, especially in the choice of which Provincial Finals RTÉ were to keep. It's interesting also to note that they have their pick of the qualifiers - I presume this is just in case Pillar and his merry men meet with some sort of terrible accident in Leinster?

The most interesting thing about it is the involvement of Motive Television. The question is, of course, which Motive Television will show up - the geniuses who brought us Breaking Ball, or the cretins who delivered Park Live? Watch, as the man says, this space.

Martin Breheny has an astonishing piece in today's Independent about a player who, if he "was from Kerry, he'd be a multiple All-Ireland winner after a dozen years at centre-stage."

The role accidents of birth can have in a particular man's career are hardly news. But what I found astonishing was who the particular player Breheny chose is, and what county he's from. I'm not posting the link so we can all guess. I'll give you a hint - it's not Sligo's Eamon O'Hara, or that Leitrim boy that played so well for them at full-back, or Dermot McCabe of Cavan, or the recently retired Declan Browne, or Kildare's Johnny Doyle, or Offaly's Ciarán McManus or Wexford's Mattie Ford or anyone from Antrim or Clare or Carlow or Roscommon, the constant heart of Ireland. Go have a guess.

The Independent ought to be ashamed of themselves. It's an insult to the vast majority of county players who know that only one team can ever win the All-Ireland but go out anyway for the honour of wearing the county colours, and without whom there is no Championship. Shame, shame, shame.

One of the few consolations I have on a Monday is reading Eugene McGee on Gaelic Football in the Independent. Eugene has his little biases, of course, but he shoots straight from the hip and his heart is generally in the right place.

But now, because the Indo has spent big bobs on a redesign of their site, I can't find him in there at all! They have a big banner on the right hand side of their sports page advertising his column, but that links to last week's article, which is no good. There's a link to Eugene from the front page under the title of "columnists," but that page leads with the great man's thoughts on Wicklow v Louth, which is quite some time ago now: http://www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/eugene-mcgee/

The fact the Indo have him listed as a columnist means they're aware he's an asset - how hard can it be to link directly to his new copy, and correctly archive the old?

The Independent has gone right down the toilet since Vinnie Doyle left as editor, and the Sunday Independent has been a pestilence for over a decade, but that's an argument for another day. Right now, all I want is to read Eugene McGee on a Monday. Is that too much to ask?

The Daily Telegraph is not noted for anything other than staunch Unionism. How astonishing, then, that they should print this article about Croke Park. The Indo picks up a lot of copy from the Telegraph - I don't think they'll be going for this one. How quickly we forget.



'Old foes' return to Bloody Sunday site
By Brendan Gallagher
Last Updated: 11:08am GMT 07/02/2007

Tipperary's popular half-back and captain, Michael 'Mick' Hogan, who had travelled to Dublin for an afternoon's sport to play in a friendly against Dublin, lay motionless on the greensward of Croke Park, blood oozing from his gunshot wounds, cut down by a British machine gun. So too Jane Boyle, dressed in her Sunday best, who had attended the match with her fiance and was to have got married five days later, and William Scott, a fanatical 14-year-old 'Dub' or Dublin supporter.

A couple of yards away lay 11-year-old William Robinson and 10-year-old Jerome O'Leary – good friends, Gaelic football fanatics and defenceless children who were bleeding to death after being gunned down by the so-called tough men of the Black and Tans. At one point during an afternoon of madness, the Tipperary and Dublin teams were lined up in the centre of Croke Park to be executed summarily by the British but mercifully a high-ranking, although unidentified, officer intervened and screamed that there had been enough killing on this awful day. November 21, 1920. Bloody Sunday. The first Bloody Sunday, that is. The second followed 52 years later in Derry.

In all, 14 Irish citizens were killed by British forces at Croke Park on Bloody Sunday and 80 badly wounded – including Hogan's Tipperary colleague Jim Egan – which goes a long way to explaining why the ground is so strongly identified with Irish nationalism. Part shrine, part cathedral, a living historical monument to the freedom fight. Hill 16 – the massive terrace that holds up to 15,000 fans – is built on the rubble of Sackville Street (renamed O'Connell Street when the British moved out) after the uprising of Easter 1916 had left the city centre in a state of some disrepair. The rubble was carted out to Croke Park, piled high and grassed over.

It is a mercifully rare, probably unique, occurrence for a sportsman to be shot dead by British troops on the field of play, so the story of Mick Hogan warrants re-telling. Indeed, just telling – it is doubtful if anybody this side of the Irish Sea without Irish antecedents has ever even heard it. Strangely, it was never included in history lessons in British schools.

Horan was born at Currasilla near Nine-Mile-House in Tipperary in 1896 into an old and much respected farming family. A talented sportsman who played for the Grangemockler GAA club, he rose quickly though the junior ranks to captain Tipperary, and like most able-bodied men in the area he joined the local volunteers to help in the underground fight to rid Ireland of the occupying British Army. Indeed, as a natural leader, he had been elected company commander of the Grangemockler Volunteers on the Friday night before the Tipperary team travelled up to Dublin by train the next day.

The Irish War of Independence (1919-21) had meant that all Gaelic sport had been banned by the occupying forces throughout 1920 but by the autumn a few inter-county matches had been allowed and Tipperary's game against Dublin – undoubtedly the two top sides of the era – had been organised hastily to raise funds for the families of those who had been imprisoned by the British. It was undeniably an overt political act during a period of extreme tension. While that does not excuse anything that followed, it does place the incident in context.

Bloody Sunday took place soon after the death of hunger striker Terence McSwiney and execution of Kevin Barry, and the Irish Republican Army were looking for revenge. Early on the morning of the match, in an operation planned by Michael Collins, a hit squad – the 12 Apostles – staged a series of raids on British intelligence officers in Dublin who were collectively known as the Cairo Gang. An hour later 14 covert intelligence officers had been killed and six badly wounded.

The British Army, based at Collinswood, considered how to retaliate and thoughts turned immediately to Croke Park where a crowd of between 15,000 and 20,000 people was expected. In fact, however, Dublin was in such turmoil that day that the figure was nearer 10,000. The Army later argued that such a crowd was probably the best hiding place for the assassination squad and their intention was to search everybody as they left after the game. Anybody not cooperating would be shot dead on the spot.

It was a combined exercise between the Police (RIC) and the Army (Black and Tans), with the latter taking the lead. A spotter aircraft was dispatched to fly over Croke Park where the game had started half-an-hour late, and three armoured vehicles circled the ground. However, contrary to Hollywood's version in the film of Michael Collins — Liam Neeson taking the starring role — a tank did not burst on to the field itself.

On the approach of the soldiers and police, the turnstile attendants raised the alarm, a stampede ensued and the armed forces rushed straight into the ground and on to the pitch, firing indiscriminately. In the chaos it is doubtful if they actually targeted Hogan as such, although Army officials would probably have known of his background and that of other players. They were simply reckless as to whom they killed.

Later that night two IRA officers, Dick McKee and Paedar Clancy, were arrested for their alleged part in the morning assassinations and shot dead at Dublin Castle while "trying to escape". Meanwhile Hogan's remains, accompanied by the team, arrived in Clonmel on the Wednesday after the game. Thousands joined the funeral procession to Grangemockler.

He was buried in his Tipperary football suit, the coffin was draped with the Tricolour and lowered into the grave by the men who had played beside him on that fateful day.

Thirty years later the main stand at Croke Park was named in his honour and one of the massive new stands retains his name. They say sport and politics shouldn't mix but on this day they were indivisible – which explains why Croke Park will always be more than just a sports stadium and Mick Hogan is more than just a Tipperary football player.

• The Six Nations clash between Ireland and England is on Feb 24.


Information appearing on telegraph.co.uk is the copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited and must not be reproduced in any medium without licence. For the full copyright statement see Copyright

Lovely stuff from the great Duggan of the Times, a man that always seems to understand the heartbeat of the GAA.

-------------------------------------------------

And it's all about to begin again

Thu, Jan 18, 2007

GAELIC GAMES: Keith Dugganwas in Ballinode, Sligo, for a match that marked the beginning of John O'Mahony's period in charge of Mayo

All journeys begin somewhere. Four months after their All-Ireland adventure ended in painful circumstances against Kerry, the footballers of Mayo took the field again.

The circumstances could hardly have been much different. Instead of the towering vista of the Hogan Stand, the Connacht champions played with the twinkling windows of Sligo hospital for a backdrop. They were facing a tidy young student team for whom the chance to play one of the marquee counties and push on for a place on the FBD Connacht League final made an attractive double.

Although the GAA boasts astonishing crowd attendances at grounds on high summer Sunday afternoons, it is on nights like this you really have to marvel at the mass appeal of the association. They might well have handed out medals of valour along with the programmes in Ballinode for the loyal, the curious and the downright mad who showed up to watch a match that marked the beginning of John O'Mahony's period in charge.

Gaelic culture has changed considerably since the Ballaghaderreen man last roamed the sidelines with Mayo some 16 years ago and his shaman acts with Leitrim and Galway in that period meant his popular return was always going to elicit considerable interest.

On Tuesday night, TG4 featured O'Mahony in its Laochra Gael broadcast and the archive material was a salient reminder of just how many significant Connacht football moments bear his fingerprints. At one point in that documentary, O'Mahony produced a sturdy 1980s video camera he purchased himself for the purposes of video analysis. The old machine was not on the job last night and in any case, O'Mahony would probably choose to wipe this particular archive. In front of maybe 1,000 people, Mayo lost to Sligo IT by 1-10 to 0-9 points.

Those who showed up early wisely faced their cars towards the pitch and sat contentedly behind the wheels, planning on enjoying the game from behind the windscreens as if gazing out on the Atlantic at Rosses Point.

The students though, used to long warning walks in lashing rain, had different ideas and quickly formed an enthusiastic box around the edge of the pitch. Given the latest GAA furore on sideline rules, it made for an amusing spectacle. It was hard to gauge just how many people were on the sideline midway through the first half but it was definitely over 500 people, not all of whom were selectors.

As Mayo's David Brady, fresh out of retirement, pleaded with a linesman after skidding towards the crowd, "We need to move them back a small bit. For their own sake."

It was that kind of night. Brady was one of several familiar faces that O'Mahony and his selectors played from the beginning. Seven of the team that started last year's All-Ireland final were playing. Ballinode, a fine, floodlit facility on the outskirts of Sligo town, was just the place to let the Mayo boys know they were back from the Floridian cruise, with a bitter cold wind and a pitch glistening with damp.

For all that, the football was crisp. Mayo played Ballaghaderreen man James Kilcullen at full back and the imposing number three enjoyed a busy first half, with Sligo benefiting from a lively display by Barry Regan, also from O'Mahony's parish.

But it was the sight of Marty McNicholas knocking over frees under the bright floodlights that illuminated just how difficult and fleeting the chance to claim a place in a football county like Mayo can be. It does not seem too many years ago since the Breaffy man was being heralded as the chosen one among the generation of talented minor players that Mayo cultivated at the end of the last century. Through injury or bad luck or one crucial indifferent day, that senior promise has never fully materialised. You often hear of such prospects quitting, disillusioned or fed up or simply bored with waiting for their chance. At least McNicholas still has time enough to give it another push.

"Yeah, Marty had a long period there recuperating from a cruciate injury and he started back training with Breaffy and has come in with us," said O'Mahony afterwards. The new boss will hardly have spent the midnight hours poring over his notes on this match. There was little to say other than there are no soft touches in elite Gaelic football anymore.

Sligo IT, one of the new forces in the college game, lined out full of running and a glittering full-back line containing Leitrim's Barry McWeeney, Roscommon corner back Seán McDermott and Donegal All Star Karl Lacey.

On a tight field, the match had the feel of a competitive training work-out and the students got the decisive break, a lovely, sweeping move that began in the arms of goalkeeper Paul Durcan and finished with a planted shot to the Mayo net by Tomás Costello.

"I think it was clear we were fairly rusty out there, that it is a while since we have played football together," said O'Mahony afterwards.

"There are players coming back from holidays and the rest of it and that was reflected in what we saw out there tonight."

The largely young crowd enjoyed it though and - as ever - the biggest support seemed to come from Mayo. A few drifted away in the second half, Big Brother fanatics perhaps or maybe off for Wednesday night pints. Student priorities are different. Those who hung around applauded a good victory from the college.

"If Sligo win on Sunday, that means they are through regardless of how we do," confirmed O'Mahony. "So that's the first competition down the swanee," he concluded with a beam.

Fifteen minutes after the final whistle, Ballinode was deserted and two amorous dogs had the playing field to themselves. Someone considerately switched off the floodlights shortly afterwards.

The Mayo players weren't long heading south from the Yeats county. The road back started here.
© 2007 The Irish Times