Update 5th May

Boyle GAA Picture Gallery. (Repeat)   

Since the opening of the new GAA complex at the Abbey Park in 2010 it has been anticipated that Boyle GAA Club would display its past long history with a permanent exhibition of pictures spanning the decades. Thankfully there is a good selection of pictures to choose from and it is proposed that groups of these will be framed covering various themes.

The complex is ideal for this display project with generous and accessible wall space, which I know was in the mind of architect Chris O’Dowd from his initial design planning.

We would appreciate expressions of interest in terms of people sponsoring an individual frame where the sponsor would be credited. It is expected that at least ten frames will form the initial exhibition with an incremental growth from there.

*Of course if the interest is not there and the fairly small finance is not forthcoming the project will not happen. You can contact me at 086 816 3399 for further information.  

GAA Senior Championship

Boyle begin their senior championship quest on Sunday next with a game against Western Gaels at Strokestown at 2. Boyle have been playing in the O’Gara Cup and apart from a hot up and down game against Michael Glavey’s in Ballinlough they have been pretty comfortable for the most part in the other games. Sunday next is a big step up however and Western Gaels have a number of established name players. They have been spoken of as possible contenders for the championship for a number of years now but time is running out with this present good squad. While Boyle have a number of top players their strength in depth may be more limited. Boyle will be relying on the usual suspects on Sunday and will need things to go well for them to emerge winners. They got to the semi-final last year, which was the best effort on record, so hope springs eternal.

Boyle Celtic

Boyle Celtic had a disappointing result in Killarney. Any time a team loses by 1 goal to nil usually means that the nil team could have at least drawn or perhaps won. Boyle did not play well in the first half and Killarney with a wind advantage pressed hard and got the goal which ultimately decided the fixture. Boyle upped their game in the second half and had a number of more than half chances but the Killarney keeper had to make just one top save. The very unlucky dismissal of the Boyle striker with 20 minutes remaining eliminated a main threat in that period with the wind and the possibility of the game being played more in the Killarney half and box.

So it was disappointing and now the side feature on Sunday in a competition they would really like to win, the Connacht Junior Cup away in Galway against West Utd. 

Champions League on the box. The majesty of Ronaldo.

The two semi-finals of the European Champions League did not present the hoped for fireworks. On Tuesday night Real Madrid disposed of city rivals Atletico by 3 to 0. It was more a case of Ronaldo v Atletico as the great Portuguese player once again demonstrated his genius with a sublime hat-trick just as he had done in the quarter final against Bayern Munich. As was commented by the analysts it is something to follow, if one does, the performances of Ronaldo and Messi week in week out. While there have been many great soccer players down the decades from Puskas and di Stephano through Best, Pele, Eusebio and Johann Cruff but it seems as if the present duo are in a league of their own and the pendulum swings from performance to performance as to who is the greater. It is just opinion of course but their consistency as a duo suggests that they are the greatest players who ever played the game.

Tattoos a life sentence!

Perhaps we all have our taboos, some of little consequence but a tad irritating and others which really get under our skins. Amongst my list are tattoos. It seems as if it is a plague with soccer players to a greater extent than most other groups of people. Once it was just Popeye the Sailor Man perhaps influencing sailors as a group. Then it was hardy Brits abroad in Spanish resorts. Then it took off in soccer endorsed by David Beckham perhaps but now it is almost the norm with soccer players. I would not know if these are reversible but if they are not I wonder how many of those players will feel decades hence. It is very rare to see tattoos in rugby, golf, racing or hurling. Beards are actually banned for jockeys which was traditionally a decent quiz question. The body art has made its way to the Gaelic football scene with Paul Galvin being the player I first saw indulging. In MMA (Mixed Martial Arts which I find objectionable) the poster boy is Conor McGregor.

While I imagine some ‘ladies’ also like tattoos the high profile lady who I am aware of with tattoos is Sinead O’Connor. A ‘fad’ can excite short term obsessive behaviour but tattoos could be an embarrassment for life.  

Sunny Bog Days

The sun comes out in early May and for a certain coterie of us it is off to the front that is ‘the bog’ or the costa del bog. If on hearing that the turf has been cut for a week or more one’s demeanour changes and bogitis (if you forgive the invention) infects the consciousness. One has to visit the scene to ascertain the status and precise location of the said turf. The bog road becomes a freeway with dust rising as in a desert convoy. Some footings begun by a nearby tenant raises questions as to one’s own status in the project.

I have been involved in this process for decades with significant intervals as the bog in London was an entirely different element.

Anyway it is just the beginning of the current bog campaign. In my native place, Fuerty, I was just on the edge of the ‘beet campaign’ catchment area. The beet was being grown for one of the four sugar beet factories then in Ireland i.e. Tuam. It used to be a school rhyme; “Master Conboy, name the four sugar beet towns of Ireland”. “Carlow, Mallow, Thurles and Tuam, sir”.

Later this process would expand and emigrate to the cotton towns of Lancashire; ‘Manchester, Oldham, Bolton, Bury, Burnley, Rochdale and ?’  or the woollen towns of Yorkshire ‘Leeds, Bradford, Halifax…’

In our area we cut the turf in our own bogs, barrow the sods out from the bank to the drying ground and after a certain time and with the weather being favourable we would turn or scatter the sods to enable further drying. This might extend to a second scatter. Then if the turf had reached a certain texture, I’ll call it, it would be collected into rough footings. In this part of the country scattering is often discarded and the savers go straight to the footings and very geometrical ones are favoured. After the footings process it was regularly clamped. This was a time-consuming procedure especially required if the turf was to be left for some time on the bog.

Then it was the drawing home time with crated carts if the run into the bog tolerated the weight or a half load out to the ditch by the roadside for topping up the next half load. The bog road was a busy place during this process but as the saying in Tipperary went the turf home the hay saved and Cork bet cleared the way for a satisfying Autumn.

So if the current heatwave continues for say another week that road into Tonroe will be a busy one indeed.

The deaths of two great GAA supporters, Donie Shine and Pat Dennehy

Two very different GAA people passed away over the weekend, Donie Shine of Clann na nGael and Pat Dennehy of St. Brigid’s. Both have been lifelong pillars of their respective clubs. Donie was a significant club player with Clann na Gael where he won 7 county senior championships and then managed his club to 5 All-Ireland Club finals which they lost. The club won 8 county titles in a row and 6 Connacht titles also in a row. This record is unlikely to be repeated. Donie went on to manage the county team from ’94 to ’97 and was replaced with the usual     

lack of tact. He later became an analyst on Shannonside Radio games with Willie Hegarty and is remembered for his regular referencing of referees. I knew Donie for decades through GAA activity but those who were close to him and joined him at social outings have been speaking of the great companion that he was with a huge knowledge of people, places and sport.

Pat Dennehy was more the old style club man. He was on the St. Brigid’s executive for over 50 years and was particularly associated with Scor. A brother of the former Secretary of the County Board Frank he was a highly respected quiet-spoken man. May they rest in peace.         

Realboyle T.V. Guide Tadgh

I tune into my friend Tadgh’s T.V. review last week and the following caught my eye;  

“Fair City

Paul asked Niamh to get Information about Marcus and work undercover

She obviously misheard him and worked under the covers”

Boyle Men on TV.

Two Boyle men were prominent on TV earlier this week.

Monday’s ‘Reeling in the Years’ dealt with 2006 which included the 90^th Anniversary of the 1916 Rising and the Irish Army parade and salute at The General Post office (GPO). Reading the Proclamation  loud and clear was army officer Tom Ryan from Main Street.

A half hour later on Channel 4 programme called Travel Man: 48 Hours in Vienna IT star Richard Ayoade was joined by his colleague from the IT Crowd Chris O’Dowd.

There were probably others but I just happened on Tom and Chris.

Joan Burton in the Dock

It is often the case that a person enters court as the litigant to quickly find out that they are being treated as the defendant. Such seems to be the situation in the current case of former minister Joan Burton and the Tallaght 7.

The detention of Joan Burton in her car at Tallaght for 3 hours and the current trial of 7 defendants, seeking their place in history as The Tallaght 7, is a peculiar show. Joan has now been in the witness box for 3 to 4 days to go with the original 3 hours. It was reported that she was cross-examined by 7 senior barristers one for each of the defendants. So Miss Burton was abused by a crowd including the 7 in this case but she did not run a tape -during the traumatic episode- as to how it would all play out in court. Not good forward planning there! There were plenty of police present in Tallaght but they did not want, I presume, to make real heroes/victims of the 7 by being overly aggressive. I wonder who is paying for all the lawyers and how it will all pan out.  

Saudi Arabia and Women

It would raise a few eyebrows or eye lashes to see that Saudi Arabia has become a member of a U.N. Committee to do with The Status of Women. Ireland are hiding behind a tradition that it does not disclose how it votes on those issues though Belgium admitted, with embarrassment, that it had voted for Saudi Arabia. The tone of the present debate suggests that Ireland did likewise. The Minister, Charlie Flanagan, an able person generally, is in a pickle here as to admit that Ireland too voted for Saudi (possibly in a trade, trade off) would  raise a wasps next nest of recrimination which might upset the Saudis’ whose ambassador issued a statement this evening of which I copy some of the opening line to here;

 “In a response issued this evening, the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia here in Dublin said that their candidacy came from the Kingdom’s “leading role” in strengthening the role of women worldwide”.   

So what’s all the fuss about!