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Page 20 - O'Neills Blog
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In the GAA | In the Archives | April 18, 2016The Brogans, the O Sé brothers, Eamonn and Neil McGee. What of the McEntees of Crossmaglen, Henry and Seamus Downey, or in Tyrone the Cavanaghs, the McMahons, the Donnellys Mattie and Richie and in Derry the McGoldrick clan? Monaghan’s Kieran and Darren Hughes. It's a feature of the GAA with its family ethos that you often don't see one brother without the other. Sometimes it’s hard to tell them apart. Often one lad suffers in the shadow of his sibling. What with wearing each other socks, lifting the wrong initialled and occasionally even getting a yellow card in the wrong.
Pity the poor Irish mother. Bad enough going through the wringer over one son but imagine having two involved. It was said in Derry that the Downey’s mother could never bring herself to watch Seamus and Henry play. But play they did. Gaelic football and hurling are full of bands of brothers plying their trade. Some are more successful than others. Wrong it is too, to ask one how the other is going. They tend to get treated
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In the GAA | April 06, 2016Club jersey. Wintergreen. Kinesio tape, new boots, the Gaagle Waterbottle, the new Size 5 O’Neills All Ireland; the firm rimmed sliotar and the freshly banded hurl. It's that time of the year again, the club season is getting a head of steam and it's time to celebrate all that we love about the GAA.
The Club Jersey
No team talk worth its salt can be without the manager pointing to the Jersey and exhorting lads to play for it, remembering the lost generations and the heroes of the club that have passed before them. An impassioned oration about the importance of the Club Jersey does the soul incalculable good. We only have a lend of it before we pass it on to the next generation. So it is said. An hour and a half later the very same jersey is lying in a pool of muck on the Dressing room floor, before being unceremoniously dumped into bag and taken off to be washed. And who is it that is responsible for this onerous task?
The Man or Woman that Washes the Jerseys
A mythical figure, this
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In the GAA | In the Jersey HQ | March 11, 2016Cork 1916 Commemoration Jersey
As part of the Easter Rising centenary commemoration, Cork will wear a special jersey designed in the style and colours worn by Cork teams of 1916 for their match this weekend against Kilkenny. It’s not known whether they will also use the sort of hurley featured instead of their trademark big bas camans as they bid to get a result against the Cats.
Cork teams wore this jersey in blue fabric with an embroidered 'C’ until 1919. Then during a raid on the Cork County Board office, the British army confiscated the jerseys and they have never been seen since. If you happen to come upon one in your attic let us know! Having no jerseys to wear, Cork borrowed the colours and kit of the defunct Fr O’Leary Total Abstinence Hall Hurling Club, and these were subsequently officially adopted. The ‘TA’ from the original Abstinence jerseys was removed after a while so that a plain red geansai remained providing the blood and bandage jerseys so famous since.
Explaining the
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In the GAA | July 08, 2015It always seemed that gaelic football was the more likely of the gaelic games to become widely played worldwide, however in recent years hurling has gained a foothold in the United States, increasingly common among non Irish communities, where players are attracted by the skill and physicality of a game that they say has it all.
Hurling has featured in North America since reports in the late 1700s reported matches between rival Irish immigrants, with the occasional row breaking out among players and partisans!
At the start of the twentieth century there were about a dozen American hurling clubs. Indeed in 1910 a group of American hurlers toured Ireland and in the 1930s teams from the States played in the Tailteann Games.
Hurling is now spreading beyond the Irish communities in the United States with some success. More and more unfamiliar, yet distinctively Irish hurling and gaelic football jerseys are appearing on the O’Neills website. There is a thriving interest among Irish American communities
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In the GAA | June 29, 2015Over recent years there has been a steady stream of GAA players heading to Australia for work or extended holidays. Gaelic Games in Australia and in New Zealand have probably never been stronger. We take a look at some recent developments.
In March 2015 O’Neills opened its first Australian office headed up by Antoinette Brophy from Kildare, who moved Down Under to take on this role. Speaking at the time Antoinette told us: “There is some O’Neills brand awareness due to the fact that most of the Australian Gaelic football players have become familiar with the O’Neills brand through their love of Gaelic football.”
To build a picture of the rude health of the GAA in Australia and New Zealand we caught up with Jamie Fitzsimons, PRO for the Gaelic Football and Hurling Association of Australasia to get his insights on the Games Down Under.
Q: What is the general state of GAA there in the Australasia Board region and is it growing?
Jamie: The GAA is represented in all Australian states
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In the GAA | June 17, 2015Gaelic football. Played worldwide. The O’Neills All Ireland Gaelic football. Kicked around the world where Gaelic is played. The two are virtually interchangeable.
For GAA clubs setting up overseas, one of the first things they send home for is an authentic O’Neills All Ireland football. It just isn’t a Gaelic football match if you’re not using an O’Neills ball. It’s that simple.
Over time the O’Neills Gaelic football has become synonymous with our Gaelic games, the GAA, football and the Sunday Game. In the last twelve months alone hundreds of the O’Neills All Ireland balls have been shipped to teams worldwide. The O’Neills ball is kicked from San Francisco to New York, from Stockholm to Seville, from Amsterdam to Abu Dhabi and from Penang to Perth.
Wherever two or three Gaels are gathered, you’ll find the distinctive All Ireland football. Whenever a club is formed anywhere in the world, there’s sure to be an O’Neills ball in the middle of it. That’s just the way it is. Check out videos
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In the GAA | June 11, 2015Anyone who’s ever been involved in a coaching or playing capacity with an intercounty Camogie team or Ladies Gaelic Football team will know that they work every bit as hard as their male counterparts. The difference? They get a fraction of the recognition, little of the reward and minimal media coverage. It’s the 21st Century now, and its time things changed.
For years players involved in Camogie or football maybe just accepted the way it was. But it became quickly apparent when they trained alongside their male equivalents, when they compared notes with their brothers or clubmates, or when they lifted a newspaper that the innovations coming thick and fast to the men’s game weren’t coming their way at all.
Treating Athletes the Same
For some county players simple innovations like a hot shower, food or physio after training were a foreign country. If that was the state of things for county players, imagine the situation at club level. Unreconstructed clubmen would march a team of hurlers
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In the GAA | April 17, 2015Soon there will be a generation of hurlers and camogs going through their careers that won’t remember the bare headed player. Hard to believe but it's true.
In both games of course up until relatively recent times, helmets were unknown. Players regularly got split open playing the game which added to its allure.
It wasn’t until 1967 when the helmet made its debut. A lad by the name of Micheal Murphy came on as a second half sub for UCC in a Cork County Final wearing a motorcycle helmet prompting a few raised eyebrows amongst the 12,500 souls watching the game. Murphy had sustained a fractured skull and, wanting to play in the match, had the ingenious idea to wear a helmet for protection. Nothing wrong with that we can say through the mists of time.
At the second time of asking in 1968 UCC’s motion to the Cork County Convention led to the matter being considered at the National Congress. From then onwards, players’ headgear was on the agenda.
Having been the man to get the ball rolling,
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In the GAA | March 19, 2015O’Neills Partners Cricket Ireland
Ireland’s superb performances in the ICC Cricket World Cup provided the backdrop to the opening of O’Neills first Australian office in Adelaide.
Headed up by Kildare native Antoinette Brophy, the Official Launch of O’Neills Adelaide in conjunction with Cricket Ireland was held at the offices of Andersons solicitors just before Ireland’s crunch World Cup match against Pakistan. O’Neills is official kit supplier to Cricket Ireland supplying the current World Cup Ireland Cricket Jersey.
Guests of honour at the launch were the Irish Cricket officials and the playing squad who came so close to qualifying for the knock out phase of the ICC World Cup. Also present were Kieran Kennedy and Antoinette Kelly from O’Neills and local businesses and representatives of the Irish Community in Adelaide.
There has been huge interest and support among the Irish Community in Adelaide for O’Neills; they have enthusiastically welcomed the presence of such a well-known brand