The Drawn All-Ireland
Final
Last Sunday’s All-Ireland
Final was a surreal (dictionary definition = strange; not seeming real;
like a dream) roller-coaster of a game. Dublin will ask; how did we play so
bad? Perhaps they played as well as they were let! Perhaps many in Mayo will be
feeling that it is the classic Mayo syndrome of a ‘missed opportunity’. As the
psychiatrist said to his colleague on vacating Fawlty Towers ‘there is material
for a whole conference here’.
Dublin cannot, one imagines,
play so poorly again in terms of scoring , time lapses between scores, star
players having miserable games, being at times so disorganised and clueless,
their shape, organisation temperament being frazzled. At times they were ‘not
waving but drowning’ being kept on life support by Mayo own goals.
In fairness to Mayo they came
back from the near death at least twice. They put themselves in the driving
seat at one time, into the second half, after coming back from Dublin’s first
half lead but did not continue when Dublin were is real distress. Also to
Mayo’s credit they were the team that came with the late spurt of three
points, in extra time, to send the game to a replay. It is as well that this
happened otherwise it would be remembered as a poor, weird game. Had Dublin won
it would have a very unsatisfactory victory. The confused reaction of both sets
of supporters at the end of the game represented the GUBU nature of it all.
This is also represented in these lines!
Part Two: The Replay
Another Battle
In replay terms the odds are
again on Dublin but their experience in the drawn game has to have given them a
shock and reality check. They will set out to rectify their mistakes here of
course but if Mayo can unsettle them again early in the game the famed Dublin
confidence could be fragile. It could hardly happen this time that the Dubs
will get two freak gift goals. A number of Dublin star names possibly showed
that they were near their career end especially Bernard Brogan. Again the
Dublin substitutes contributed well. The less familiar Mayo names did
likewise. Two Dublin players Small and Fenton were ‘man of the match’
contenders as were Vaughan and Cillian O’Connor for Mayo.
Mayo will have learned too
and they will again go into the game to make a battle of it and as the drawn
game demonstrated this can damage Dublin. One of the fights of the battle will
be between Keegan of Mayo and Connolly of Dublin. A lot of eyes will be on this
pair from the off the next day and the possibility exists that one, or more
likely both, will get their marching orders early. There will be no advantage
to either side by this. Also Aidan O’Shea will have to enable himself to make a
real positive contribution as his was a scatty performance in the drawn game
capped with two awful long range kicks towards goal at the end. He will have to
accept the robust attention he is sure to encounter and hope that the referee
will deal with the o.t.t. stuff. The referee for the replay, Maurice
Deegan, was on the line on Sunday and so will be familiar with the legacy
issues that will surely carry into the next game. Occasionally the expectations
of a hurly burly encounter do not materialise and a reasonable game results. I
do not think this will be in Mayo’s interests so I see them as risking more in
terms of the analytic spake ‘who wants it more’. Mayo certainly showed they
wanted it more last Sunday.
The questions are can Dublin
be so poor again and can Mayo maintain the intensity of the drawn game? I felt
that Dublin would win last Sunday but now I’m not so sure.
Hopefully Mayo will bring the
same aggression and passion to the replay and when one considers the
physicality of rugby or American football the Gaelic football boundaries are
not rigid and consider what the former Liverpool manager Bill Shankly said
"Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you,
it's much more serious than that." It is such a prize for Mayo and its
people and those who wish it so that it deserves an almighty effort which I
believe will be given.
I don’t know if there
is a singer in the Mayo panel but if there is there is room –if they win – to
emulate the late great Joe McDonagh of Galway from 1980 with a verse of the
great Western anthem ‘The West’s Awake.’
·
I have criticised
the ‘BLACK CARD’ a number of times here and it is a serious issue that has to
be addressed and it has to be binned. The ‘black card’ is frustrating players
and observers a great deal, The McCarthy ‘black card’ was debateable, perhaps a
yellow was more appropriate. Aidan O’Shea should have at least a yellow card.
Daragh McCauley should have been sent off escaping with two big fouls one a
hand trip and second a ‘clothes line tackle’ that possibly merited a ‘red’ on
its own.
·
I presume there
is a reason for having the replay on a Saturday (maybe interfering with county
championship games) but it is not clear. It has the potential for mayhem
traffic-wise with a bus strike. Another issue is that by the time the game is
over the last long distance trains west will be gone for example Dublin to
Westport 6.30. I still feel that having the game on Saturday is questionable.
·
The search is now
on for tickets. Tickets are usually more accessible for replays and since there
is no minor game that should free up 4/5 thousand tickets.
·
Longford County
Council made a name for itself by removing some roadside signs wishing
‘Good Luck to Mayo’. That shows some local authority efficiency! Give it
a break.
Abbey Community College
‘Class Act’
Perhaps it is initial
enthusiasm with the start of the new school year but Abbey Community College
had a good news profile in this week’s Roscommon Herald ‘Class Act’ schools
section. I was taken with Ethan Beirne’s account of his visit to a First World
War battlefield where the Connacht Rangers were involved at Guillemont. A
number of Ethan’s forbears were amongst the 126 men from the Boyle area who were
killed in W.W. 1 and the army tradition has been passed down to Ethan’s family
with his dad also serving in the Irish army. It was a very good and well
written short account of a memorable visit for him. These second level school
pages give prospective young writers a public platform which I am sure they
will be pleased with.
A couple of weeks ago Gerry
Boland had a considered profile, in question and answer format, of an
established Boyle writer Patrick Chapman who was student at St. Mary’s College.
I was one of his teachers and I remember a science fiction essay of his
confusing me as to its merits. I imagine it was very good. I liked the answer
to the question asked by Patrick of his English teacher as to; ‘Why (Oscar)
Wilde had been imprisoned?’ to which the teacher answered ‘tax reasons’.
The Siege of Jadotville
The Congo 1961
Boyle Connections
Continuing on the army theme
but fast forwarding to the 1960s’ when the Irish army provided a number of
troops for peace-keeping missions abroad starting with the Belgian Congo in the
early sixties. Amongst the memorable incidents of this initial campaign was the
ambush at Niemba of 1960 where nine Irish soldiers lost their lives. Another
was the siege of Jadotville which began in September ‘61 where an Irish army
garrison of 157 was surrounded and after a week’s long battle had to give up
their arms being vastly outnumbered and lacking supplies. It appears as if this
action cast a shadow over the role of these men subsequently and it took a long
time for due recognition to be paid to them. Last Saturday the soldiers of
Jadotville were remembered and honoured at Costume Barracks, Athlone as most of
them came from this region. Amongst those present were members of
the Tiernan family from Boyle including Mary Tiernan wife of one of the
soldiers of Jadotville, George or Georgie as he is remembered in Boyle. Indeed
it was a busy and varied few days for Mary as the Saturday event at Athlone
followed the Friday wedding in Dublin of her grandson David to Miss Becky Lee
and on Monday Mary returned to Dublin to attend the premiere of the Netflix
film ‘The Siege of Jadotville’ starring Jamie Dornan as Cdt. Pat Quinlan the
commander of ‘A’ Company 35th Battalion who were at Jadotville. Perhaps the
film can be shown locally in Carrick and we can learn more of that fateful
event.
‘Ireland the
Autobiography’ by John Bowman
I heard a review of this book
subtitled ‘Eyewitness accounts of Irish Life since 1916’ on the Sean
O’Rourke programme over the week end. It is a compilation of notable speeches,
essays and recorded verbal accounts by a broad spectrum of Irish people over
the century. I’ll quote two short extracts one by Brendan O hEithir, who I met
a few times in Galway, and the second from a radio address by Eamon de Valera
while Taoiseach from the late 30s’.
“The late Brendán Ó
hEithir tells a delightful anecdote from 1943, as reproduced from his
iconic GAA memoir, Over the Bar. The (Cavan town based) Traveller Billy Doonan
was en route to Monte Cassino (Italy) as a British Army radio operator when he
went missing one Sunday. His comrades in the unit wondered about this, it was
unlikely that he could have been shot, as there was a lull in hostilities.
Eventually Doonan, who was described as `a
natural footballer' by Ó hEithir was found. "He was up a tree on the
side of a steep hill and he seemed to be in a trance," writes Ó
hEithir mischievously, as only he could. Doonan had discovered the ideal
listening post to hear the Roscommon v Cavan All-Ireland Football Final, as
relayed from Croke Park”.
Eamon de Valera
"... The Ireland that we
dreamed of would be the home of a people who valued material wealth only
as a basis for right living, of a people who, satisfied with frugal
comfort, devoted their leisure to the things of the spirit – a land
whose countryside would be bright with cosy homesteads, whose fields
and villages would be joyous with the sounds of industry, with the
romping of sturdy children, the contest of athletic youths and the
laughter of happy (comely) maidens, whose firesides would be forums for the
wisdom of serene old age. The home, in short, of a people living the life
that God desires that men should live. . .
."
I will not get tangled up in
commentary on Mister de Valera’s famous vision of an Irish Utopia.
Boyle GAA: Two Fixtures
Boyle Juniors play
Strokestown in Boyle on Sunday next at 12.
The really big upcoming game
of course is the Senior Semi-Final v St. Brigid’s in Strokestown on Sunday
October the 2nd at (note) 4.30.
Roscommon GAA League
Fixtures for 2017
Sunday, February 5th Tyrone v
Roscommon (first mentioned team at home)/ Sunday, Feb. 12th Roscommon v
Donegal/ Saturday, Feb. 25th Mayo v Roscommon/ Sunday, March 5th Roscommon v
Kerry/ Sunday, March 19th Monaghan v Ros./ Sat. March 25th Dublin v Ros./
Sunday, April 2nd Ros. v Cavan. That is seven games, three at
home-hopefully on a good Hyde Park pitch - and four away.
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