Messages

Coiscéim Coiligh - Irish for the auld stretch in the evenings but literally means c**k's footstep to capture those slight increases in daylight every evening, a hen's stride as some of the older generation would say.

And it was the board that added the two asterisks for that lad that runs around the farmyards of Ireland ever mornings waking everyone up to do a day's work.

Speaking of French, it's old (2012-2015) but the supernatural undead series Les Revenants (the Returned) was excellent. Worth seeking out.

The big question is if the annexing of Greenland happens before or after the World Cup. If the latter (to avoid a boycott), then it will coincide with Ireland's presidency of the EU, and Trump also set to arrive in Doonbeg for the Irish Open in September. If before then will UEFA and European teams have the balls to boycott; if after, what's Ireland reaction. A bit of soft chat from Micheál most likely.

Was almost lost to rugby, had a promising career ahead and played for Bucs and Connacht underage, but chose GAA in the end.

What kind of Connacht GAA nonsense had Sligo playing Mayo yesterday and London today? Time of year on heavy ground ripe for injuring players.

Well done to Naomh Bríd and hard luck to An Bhoth. It was a nervy finish alright but overall the Kiltoom men had more scoring options even with Ben O'Carroll well marked all day. It was also some discipline not to give Beggan a 2-point free all day. Overall second half was erratic and early injury to Mark Daly didn't help Carroll's kick out options, but it's an ongoing weakness. Some save by Trundle and the Monaghan men will regret missed goal chances in particular. Brigids will meet a more clinical forward line in Dingle. Should make for a great final. Won't help our chances of surviving Div 1 but has given new manager chance to try our new lads in FBD league.

Well what a game. Stated off like we'd be watching Ballyboden kicking points all day and the SuperValue seats. But Dingle had leaders like Tom O'Sullivan and BB had no one to match that when the chips were down. But hard luck BB, a devastating loss for them. They still kicked phenomenal scores and in full flight looked unbeatable.

That was a brilliant second half by Dingle. Deserved to win in end.

Some points by Tom O'Sillivan.

Strokestown took one hell of a beating. Poor enough team hyped up for weeks

Where was all that hype? Betting odds going into game was:
Glenullin 8/11
Draw 8/1
Strokestown 8/5

There was only 2 points in it with 6 or 7 minutes to go when a 4th goal against run of play basically ended it as a contest. A poor one to concede by the goalie at that time. After that Strokestown were kicking hope and kick high balls into square. However look forward to seeing Shane McGinley develop more in a senior county geansaí. Congrats to Glenullin, a big team that will be hard to beat.

Mrs Robinson
April Come She Will
The Boxer

UK Top 40 this day 40 years ago.

I wonder if one of those columns is meant to be highest chart position because that big ol ballad Power of Love by Jennifer Rush with even bigger hair-do hit #1 earlier that year. Some of those songs hit #1 and others would eventually make the top spot. In the days when the charts was still a thing and we'd buy vinyl singles/45s.

Left to right. Position in chart, last week's position, number of weeks in chart (or Top 40).

Thanks. Should have copped that. Interesting after 3 weeks Band-aid had not yet reached top, thought it did for Xmas, as it eventually went on to be one of the best selling singles of all.

1985 list and that's where Band Aid was charting the year after it was the Christmas number 1.

Indeed, it was released 1984. Need to take it easy on the Christmas Redbreast.

Would someone be able to post interview in IrishNews with Conor Shields from Clogher, thanks!

Conor Shields: "Clogher is more than a club. It's a family. It was a warm blanket in times of need."
irishnews.comDec 23, 2025
"Finally, to all you people out there. Yous people in Australia, in America, yous people up above. This is why we do it. There's more important things in life than football. But there are very few more important things than the feeling every one of you will feel for the next hours, days, weeks, years. Suck it all in and be proud to wear your jersey and know wherever you go, you are part of Clogher Eire Ógs."

* * * * *

TO ask Conor Shields what Clogher means to him is to hit rock way beneath the kicking of footballs around the place.

When he said the words above, they tumbled out of him on the steps in Healy Park from the only place he knows to find them.

There is no script in front of him. Every syllable is direct from the heart.

The scene in front of him gets blurry, the tears beginning to well up in his eyes.

Clogher is joy. It is love. It is shelter. It is a means of expression. A place to be from. Something to get out of bed for.

It is everything.

it is home.

It is three-and-a-half years since his father Mickey passed away.

Conor was on the Tyrone squad at the time.

They'd worked together in 2021 and everywhere they went, Mickey's introduction to people would always include that his son was a Tyrone footballer.

And then they won the All-Ireland.

"I'll always remember 2021. It was probably the greatest day of his life. It would have done more for him than the rest of us.

"Anyone came to the house, he'd have been showing them the All-Ireland medal."

Conor Shields lifts the Sam Maguire Cup after Tyrone's 2021 All-Ireland success. PICTURE: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
Conor Shields lifts the Sam Maguire Cup after Tyrone's 2021 All-Ireland success. PICTURE: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile (Stephen McCarthy / SPORTSFILE/SPORTSFILE)
Conor's All-Ireland medal is on his father's gravestone now.

When he got the call from his brother Patrick in June 2022 to say their father had died by suicide, they were shattered.

Mickey had driven them around the country to blitzes from no height. Loved the post-match discussions. His tractor and linkbox never left the club in Clogher, where he'd put so much time in tidying the place up.

His wife Jacqueline, the two boys and their sister Michaela, he loved so dearly.

From the moment his focus was able to sharpen, Conor Shields could see the goodness of the community around him.

Marty Shortt, Clogher's then-manager and their previous championship-winning captain in 2000, was one of the first people to arrive in the street. The club militarily ran the wake.

In the time that has passed since, Conor has lost count of how many times the bubbles of grief have fizzed inside of him on a training day.

From Shortt through to Leo Meenan and Mark Donnelly now, words don't always need to be spoken.

"There's times where I'm not at it. I'm just tipping about all day, just waiting to open the waterworks. I've landed in to training three or four times and said to the management, hi, boys, I'm having a bad day. They would just put an arm around you and they understand.

"It's more than a club. It's a family. Everybody is affected by grief. But there's only one way to get over it and that's to accept every bit of comfort.

"We describe it as a warm blanket. That's what the club was to us. They were a warm blanket in times of need."

Right now, in his words, everyone is under the blanket.

To say that Clogher dreamt of these days is to push at the boundaries of fantasy.

Clogher winning Ulster titles? Clogher within an hour of Croke Park?

When he was going to senior games as a young boy, Shields and his friends would head straight over to the second pitch and play soccer. They were there but they weren't. Not like now.

Conor Shields in action for Clogher against Emyvale in the Ulster junior football championship final. PICTURE: Ulster GAA / Mark Richards
Conor Shields in action for Clogher against Emyvale in the Ulster junior football championship final. PICTURE: Ulster GAA / Mark Richards
Their Ultras – "the average age is about six" – have been engrossed by this voyage.

Conor Shields has been sustained by it.

After every training session and before every match, he visits his father's grave. He finds comfort there.

"Some days are brutal. You just don't want to get out of your bed. We know this, we'll never, ever get over it. We can get stronger. I suppose that's the way I am. I'm stronger. We all are as a family. We're a lot stronger.

"Inevitably, there's going to be the big days you prepare yourself for - Christmas, the birthdays, your own birthday.

"You could be driving anywhere, the song goes on the radio or just a wee thing and it'll knock you for six.

"Christmas in general is not a deadly time of year because it only reminds you what you don't have.

"But this year, the club collectively has something and we have something to look forward to and that's January 3rd."

* * * * *

CONOR Shields' footballing story has a trinity of beginnings.

The first was when Clogher and Augher amalgamated at underage for a while.

Instead of being in grade four trying desperately just to field, as the U16 team he helped this year was, they spent those years playing grade two.

"We actually spoke about it during the week, when you're playing against the likes of Clonoe and Coalisland that are senior teams, then you realise Jesus, we're not that far away. A lot of the players that were playing there are probably our mainstays in the senior team at the moment."

As is the way in smaller clubs, he was training with the seniors at 16, getting a feel for it.

Clogher's trajectory began to rise some 3,000 miles away in New York.

They'd won junior championships in 1972 and 2000 but the hollows were deep. Headers and volleys routinely replaced proper training sessions.

2017 wasn't looking much different. The weekend before they left they beat Drumquin for just a fourth league win in 11 games.

Brian Pearson was the club's captain in '72 and now a driving force behind the Rockland club in New York. He invited them over to be part of a weekend marking the opening of new facilities.

Young and old got a chance to mix in a way that they never had before. They were surrounded by All-Stars that had travelled over for their own exhibition game, the Doohers and McGuigans and Ó Sés and Mortimers of the world.

Clogher celebrate at the final whistle after winning the Ulster junior football championship. PICTURE: Ulster GAA / Mark Richards
Clogher celebrate at the final whistle after winning the Ulster junior football championship. PICTURE: Ulster GAA / Mark Richards
When Clogher returned home, they went on a remarkable run to the championship final.

The following year they won the junior league and spent the time from then until last year in intermediate.

"I'd always say that was probably a turning point for the club," says Shields.

"It was a serious trip and there was just a different buzz about it when we came home."

Their step up and his part in it set off Tyrone's radar. He'd been around minor panels and U21 panels, so they knew of him. The shop window at intermediate was bigger. When Feargal Logan and Brian Dooher took over, they brought him in.

A year later, he was going up the Hogan Stand steps to raise the Sam Maguire above his head.

It can be a long time, a year.

By the following September, tragedy had struck.

Part of his leaving Tyrone in 2023 was that his grá for it understandably deserted him.

A lot of it was also the sense of guilt he felt from watching Clogher struggle in the first half of seasons. His game time with Tyrone was limited and he, like most inter-county players, wasn't allowed to play for the club.

"It was hard for me heading up to Tyrone and thinking I'm offering nothing to the club here, I can give nothing back. Look what they've done for us the last couple of years and I can't do anything for them.

"It wasn't the same after he passed. I was leaving home, working during the day, going to training and it's still fresh, you don't really want to leave the family. The same love wasn't there."

When they ran a sevens tournament in Mickey's name in 2023 and 2024, the club again broadened its shoulders and put the family up on their back.

With his brother Patrick in Australia this year and no obvious space in a packed Tyrone calendar, there was no 2025 edition, but it could well return next year.

All the funds have gone to the Niamh Louise foundation, a Dungannon-based organisation that was founded in early 2006 in memory of Niamh McKee, a 15-year-old girl from Clonmore who had died by suicide the previous November.

"They've done great work with all the family, especially Mammy," says Conor.

Conor and Patrick Shields pictured with representatives from clubs that took part in the Mickey Shields 7s tournament in 2023 to raise funds for local charity Niamh Louise.
Conor and Patrick Shields pictured with representatives from clubs that took part in the Mickey Shields 7s tournament in 2023 to raise funds for local charity Niamh Louise.
This autumn has been one of deliverance and distraction.

When they were relegated last season, Clogher were training with eight and nine men.

A few weeks after the drop was confirmed, a group of players met up.

"We just said 'there's two ways you can go here. We're at a Y-junction. You can go left and back to playing headers and volleys, or go right and do things right, put a big push on, win a junior championship, get out of junior and see what you can do in intermediate.'"

33 men appeared at the meeting. They took in a solid, established management duo of Leo Meenan and Mark Donnelly.

By the start of December 2024, they had six weeks of gym work and running under them.

"At the start of the year when you're coming down, realistically you think if you're good enough you're going to win. But you can think you'll win the Eurovision and the World Cup and the whole lot. We had to be realistic.

"We said our first goal was just to get out of junior for the better of the club. The next goal was to win a Tyrone championship."

Losing a league decider to Cookstown was a big knock-back but they regrouped.

Now here they are, ready for an All-Ireland semi-final.

A year is as long as you make it.

* * * * *

OUT the old Monaghan Road, it's less than 20 minutes from Clogher to Emyvale.

"It's about 12 miles. You cross one wee sheugh and you're in Emyvale."

He knows the road well. His partner, Chloe McQuaid, is from the Monaghan village.

One of the great quirks of the provincial club series is its tendency to throw up meetings between clubs that know each other well but never meet.

Emyvale were their Ulster final opponents. Shields had scored 1-1 from wing-back against Slaughtmanus, 0-4 against Donagh of which 0-3 was in extra-time. In the Ulster final, he feared his black card would cost them dearly.

"When I got back on I was like a baby lamb ready to be let out to a field."

When the ball fell into his hands five minutes into stoppage time, he couldn't believe his luck.

The kickout they'd nabbed came after he'd had a chance to win it blocked down.

The hand of history slapped him in the face and then rubbed it better.

Shields keeps his cool and scores.

"Then the ref blew that whistle and that was the best sound I've ever heard in my life. I was relieved more than anything.

"If I'd missed it, the boots would have been going up in the attic."

He thought four years ago that the sensation of winning an All-Ireland with Tyrone was a once-in-a-lifetime feeling.

"That feeling after lifting Sam was unbelievable, and I thought I'd never feel anything like it again.

"But lifting a junior championship with your club is something I will never, ever, ever forget. It sort of surpasses it. It probably takes it to another level.

"It's just different when you're with your club friends, the people you grew up with, people you see every day of the week, people that know the ins and outs of you, know your struggles, when to give you a kick up the hole, when to pat you on the back. It's just different.

"Nothing will ever come close to the feelings that I felt after winning the Tyrone junior and Ulster junior championship.

"The Ulster final, you're speaking to people after and they're telling you they were talking to you on the pitch but you can't remember. You're sort of just in aeroplane mode. You're floating. It's a feeling that's just unbelievable.

"Going into the Tyrone final and the Ulster final, those weeks were shocking. Wile hard. It only reminds you of what he's missing out on and that he's not there.

"Just after the final whistle, the people come up to you and they don't say nothing. I know what they mean and they know what I want them to say.

"Like, I'll always remember the All-Ireland with Tyrone. Very few people win an All-Ireland with their county. It's probably a wee bit more unique.

"But it's still nowhere near the feeling of winning a junior championship with your club. It's what you dream of. I can nearly retire now and be over the moon.

"They always say the county men will go to your wedding but the club men will lower you into the grave. That's the best way to sum it up."

Conor Shields pictured with the trophy after Clogher's Ulster junior success. PICTURE: Ulster GAA / Mark Richards
Conor Shields pictured with the trophy after Clogher's Ulster junior success. PICTURE: Ulster GAA / Mark Richards (RichiesPics)
The men in the Clogher changing room would go to the ends of the earth for Conor Shields, because they know he'd do it for them.

They will decamp to Carrick-on-Shannon on the first Saturday of a new year as Tyrone's last men standing.

"There's no point spilling the milk at the front door. There's no point coming this far if you're not going to give it your all in an All-Ireland semi-final because you're so close to something that is literally complete dreams.

"You sort of listen to people on about 'aw, this wee junior trophy'. What it means to a small club, what it means to any club...

"You're in an All-Ireland semi-final. You're flying the flag for Tyrone. Regardless of what level that's at, we'll do that with pride."

Pride.

When it came to family and club, Mickey Shields was always full of that.

UK Top 40 this day 40 years ago.

I wonder if one of those columns is meant to be highest chart position because that big ol ballad Power of Love by Jennifer Rush with even bigger hair-do hit #1 earlier that year. Some of those songs hit #1 and others would eventually make the top spot. In the days when the charts was still a thing and we'd buy vinyl singles/45s.

Left to right. Position in chart, last week's position, number of weeks in chart (or Top 40).

Thanks. Should have copped that. Interesting after 3 weeks Band-aid had not yet reached top, thought it did for Xmas, as it eventually went on to be one of the best selling singles of all.

UK Top 40 this day 40 years ago.

I wonder if one of those columns is meant to be highest chart position because that big ol ballad Power of Love by Jennifer Rush with even bigger hair-do hit #1 earlier that year. Some of those songs hit #1 and others would eventually make the top spot. In the days when the charts was still a thing and we'd buy vinyl singles/45s.