Monthly Archives: March 2019

  1. Hail Glorious St Patrick’s Day Club Finals

    Hail Glorious St Patrick’s Day Club Finals

    St Patrick’s Day means one thing in the GAA calendar: a celebration of the club jersey and all who play in it. And if some of the media coverage is to be believed the finals could be shifted leaving a major hole in the traditional national Saint’s Day celebrations. Of course the finals weren’t always played on the 17th March, but they’ve been there for long enough to be considered a GAA institution, sacred cow and immoveable feast but could become a Shibboleth as the season is subject to serious restructuring anytime soon. This year the county jerseys represented by their club champions are Galway, Kilkenny and Kerry. Not many surprises there.

     

    And as one of the show pieces of the Club scene we all crave good games. After a few years of fairly one-sided matches in the football, bar Dr Croke’s two point win against Slaughtneil a couple of years back, supporters will be hoping for a decent competitive game in the football final.

  2. Sarah Rowe: An International Woman of Sport

    Sarah Rowe: An International Woman of Sport

    For International Women’s Day we caught up with Mayo and Collingwood star Sarah Rowe who’s living the life of a professional athlete in Australia.  Exclusively for O’Neills Sarah talks 20x20, women’s sport on the rise and the absence of Coppers in Oz!

     

    You coping with the lifestyle there ok?

    The lifestyle is great, I’m not working over here, so I’m in the club every day, well five or six times a week anyway, using all the resources so it’s great.

    We train Monday evenings, Wednesday evenings, Friday and Sunday and the other two days you’ve to get a gym session in. So quite similar here to home.

    I go in to training about half three and don’t get home to about half ten at night. It’s a bit longer than at home, I suppose people work part-time and then train too, but the lifestyle is great.

    It comes with its pressures.

  3. Football’s Coming Home. So Is Hurling and Camogie for World Games

    Football’s Coming Home. So Is Hurling and Camogie for World Games

    All roads lead to Waterford this summer for the Renault GAA World Games. Around 1,300 Gaelic footballers, hurlers and camogie players from 10 regions worldwide are coming home to Ireland for the 2019 Renault GAA World Games in Waterford. And as part of the games O’Neills are delighted to be official kit partners, supplying the jerseys to participating teams as well as the official World GAA Games jersey and associated GAA clothing.

     

    The GAA are expecting 100 teams from over 20 countries to rock up to Waterford Institute of Technology’s's Sports Campus for a week-long festival of Gaelic Games activity between July 28th and 31st. After the groups stages at WIT, the finals are penciled for Croke Park on August 2nd.

     

    The decision was made to host the last edition of the games in Ireland, where they were hosted at UCD after having been inaugurated in Abu Dhabi the previous year.  It was subsequently agreed to hold the tournament 

  4. Gourmet Food Parlour O'Connor Cup Semi-Final previews

    Gourmet Food Parlour O'Connor Cup Semi-Final previews

    Compiled by Jackie Cahill

    THE race is on to succeed Dublin City University as Gourmet Food Parlour O’Connor Cup Champions.

    On International Women’s Day, Friday March 8, four colleges will battle it out for coveted spots in the 2019 GFP O’Connor Cup Final.

    Abbotstown will host both semi-finals as University College Dublin (UCD) take on University College Cork (UCC) at 3pm, followed by the meeting of University of Limerick (UL) and Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) at 5pm.  

    Over two eagerly-anticipated days, silverware will be handed out to the O’Connor, Giles, Lynch, Moynihan, Donaghy and Lagan Cup winners, while the O’Connor Shield Final is also down for decision on Friday evening.

    Dublin City University, who won the O’Connor Cup in 2018, will aim for a Shield title when they play NUI Galway at DIT Broombridge on Friday (6.30pm).

    All four O’Connor Cup semi-finalists are former winners of

  5. Ulster Says Snow in Camogie Finals

    Ulster Says Snow in Camogie Finals

    Ulster Says Snow in Camogie Finals

     

    Sneachta agus Sleacht Néill

    Christmas came early yesterday for the Slaughtneil camogie team. Then again maybe it is Christmas Day every day when you live up under Carn Togher and play camogie. Damien ‘Cob’ McEldowney looking like Santa, snowflakes flecking his magnificent beard, as he delivered another All Ireland to his home club. What a day for Derry camogie.

     

    At the minute Slaughtneil are way out on their own in terms of club camogie, in terms of the preparation off the pitch, the attention to detail, feedback to players, player input. The Right Stuff. They have it up there and they’re probably ahead of many camogie county teams.

     

    And the scary factor for their rivals in Derry, Ulster and across Ireland is that there is little sign of the success coming to a halt. As an example there is a strong, well-established and experienced

  6. Lidl National Football League Wrap

    Lidl National Football League Wrap

    Lidl National Football League wrap

     

    Compiled by Declan Rooney

     

    Galway and Donegal continue to light up the Lidl National Football League as the top flight’s runaway leaders both maintained their perfect starts to the season.

     

    Sarah Conneally’s goal helped Galway to a convincing Connacht derby victory against Mayo at MacHale Park, while Karen Guthrie, Róisín Friel and Geraldine McLaughlin all found the net for Donegal in their two-point win over Tipperary in Convoy.

     

    Victories over Mayo in last year’s Connacht final and the All-Ireland quarter-final meant Galway entered this league clash high on confidence, and once again Tim Rabbitte’s side didn’t disappoint.

    Playing into a strong wing Galway still led by two at the break, while Conneally’s goal ensured there would be no Mayo comeback.

     

  7. 2019 All Ireland Club Senior & Intermediate Camogie Championship

    2019 All Ireland Club Senior & Intermediate Camogie Championship

    All-Ireland Camogie Intermediate Club Final

    Clonduff and Gailltír Decider to Go Down to the Wire

     

    Sunday’s All Ireland intermediate camogie final will see a new name engraved on the Agnes O’Farrelly Cup as Down and Ulster champions Clonduff take on Gailltír of Waterford. It should prove to be an engrossing contest.

     

    This Clonduff team have been on the block around Ulster for a while. For the camogie cognoscenti, they first appeared on the radar with a trip to the Dubai sevens, back in 2008. And they always had a reputation as a camogie club that enjoyed the craic but enjoyed their camogie even more.

     

    Fionnuala Carr is a legend of the game in Ulster, she featured prominently for Jordanstown and subsequently studied in UCC where she picked up invaluable experience to drop back into Club and county. Tellingly Fionnnuala was also part of an Ulster team that won a senior Gael