Blog
October 5th.
Boyle U 16 s Convincing County ‘A’
title win.
I
have been telling anyone interested in Gaelic football who I talk to in Boyle
about a special town team who play pure Gaelic football. The proof of my mission
was to be seen on Friday night last, under lights at Kilbride. It was a
wintery, cold night but the football played was heart-warming. Their opposition
on Friday last was a combination of Michael Glavey’s and Eire Og with a number
of top-class players. They had beaten Boyle in the Abbey Park just a few weeks
ago. This was in a league game for this year’s under-17 minor Championship. So
this 2020 final was expected to be an even affair. However, it did not turn out
that way. From ten minutes or so in Boyle began to assert themselves and at
halftime, they led by 1.6 to 0.4.
The
second half proceeded in a similar fashion and ended with a convincing victory
for Boyle 1.13 to 1.7. The detail of the
game is clearly set out in Ronan Flanagan’s report for ‘The Roscommon Herald’,
Sports Section page 8.
Ronan
nominated Conor Kelly as ‘Man of the Match’ and it was a clear decision amongst
many sterling performances. Conor is the son of John Jnr. and grandson of John
Kelly Snr. who was an All-Ireland U 21 winner with Roscommon in ’66 and a
regular county senior player from then to the mid-seventies. Colm was outstanding
in this game displaying all the skills with an energy that was special. I will
not go beyond mentioning Colm here as there were so many fine performances
throughout the team that it is best to list the team and panellists in total as
they all contributed to an outstanding and really enjoyable exhibition of
Gaelic football. The skills of foot-passing, gathering and securing possession,
understanding and support play, driving at and through opposition attempts at
defence, unquenchable energy and pace, great free-taking, in other words all
the skills a coach would delight in.
I
don’t say this lightly but it’s as good as anything I have seen.
I
saw this once before when watching a St. Jar lath’s team win one of their many
Hogan Cups in Longford, maybe 30 years ago. The thing I brought from there also
was that all was done in silence from the players which was replicated last
Friday. Some side-line mentors were probably not on that hymn sheet.
I
left one skill for last. I saw one the finest high-fielding catches I have seen,
from young Eden Kerins (grandson of Liam) about 15 minutes into the game.
The
team: Sean Caravan/ Joseph Coyle/ Daniel
Casey Capt./ Mark Dwyer/ Oran Henry/ Eden Kerins/ Mark Halligan/ Conor Kelly/
Niall O’Donnell/ David Duggan/ Luke McGrath/ Catha McKeon/ Shay Noone/ Gavin O’Connor/
David Flanagan with David Beirne/ Jamie Kennedy/ Nicholas Callan/ Oisin
McDermott/ Andrew McGee/ Karl McKeon/ Tommy Walsh.
I
congratulate especially their manager Shane
Spellman for his contribution to this win. Well done Shane.
Also
his acolytes Dessie Mcloughlin/ Kevin O’Connor/ Gerry Emmett and Jim McGrath.
There is plenty of knowledge and passion there. It can boil over a little but…
I
mention also the significant Boyle support that was in Kilbride on Friday night.
Apart from Cathal Feely I did not see many of the Boyle senior team present but
I might have missed them. The referee, Kerryman Gerry Carmody, deserves a
mention also for his handling of the game.
This same team now face into the
business end of this year’s (2021) U 17 Minor Championship. This is at the
stage of a semi-final v Clann na Gael this week-end.
1. Crazy murders in the U.S.
and London.
2. The wild and crumbling
Atlantic Way: Donegal's and Mayo’s mica crisis.
A
scheme, which was to be administered by county councils predominately in
Donegal and Mayo, would give homeowners up to €275,000 to reinstate their
crumbling homes. Apparently that is not
enough. It is slated, as of now, to cost over €3 billion. Taking ‘The National Children’s
Hospital’ cost inflation as a yardstick it is just a guess what it might really
cost.
Where
is that block supplier now? I have heard little of his company.
There
are 6,600 houses in Donegal and Mayo crumbling due to the issue and the
question is possible; Will it stop there?
I
have not used this term for a while…’unbelievable’.
3. A very disturbing issue at
Cork University Hospital which defies logic.
4. An Attorney General doing
a decent ‘nixer’ over a year after his appointment as a Government apparatchik.
5. The Irish army
discrimination and ill-treatment of a number of female officers and the
frightening trial procedures they have to face.
6. The spiralling costs of
fuels and electricity with threats of outages etc.
7. The spiralling cost of
house building materials.
8. The cost and lack of
availability of housing.
9. Maybe I should just say
the blanket spiralling costs of everything.
10.Online scams.
11. The streets of Dublin.
12.The struggle to adhere
with climate change needs.
13.Oh Yes …Covid 19.
14.(You get a small indulgence
if you have read to here! I remember a ‘Plenary’ indulgence. What was the
lesser one called? They were to do with Purgatory! It was defined as, “A
place where some souls suffer for a time before they went to heaven”.
There is a mill in my home village of Castlecoote and one potential poet
defined it as;
“A place
where some souls suffered for a time… before he went to England”
“Thanks for having me”, as contributors
like to announce on U. S. News channels.
