The Mick Clifford Podcast: Eamonn Sweeney on his struggles and his love of the GAA

Sportswriter Eamonn Sweeney set out to write a book about the GAA championship but succeeded in tackling a condition that had dogged him for nearly two decades, and largely confined him to his West Cork home.
He talks about his struggles, his love of the GAA and why he felt compelled on various match days to check out the Orthodox religions and dine on exotic foods.

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RTÉ News​

2 hours ago

• RTÉ News​

'The Jacks are back': how the Dubs put their stamp on Gaelic football

Analysis: The swell in support for Kevin Heffernan's high flying Dubs in the 1970s signalled something significant and new for the GAA By 'The Jacks are back'. The legendary broadcaster Michael O'Hehir proclaimed as much in his All-Ireland final television match commentary, by which time The Memories, a popular act on the Irish showband circuit, had already rhapsodized about it on a 7-inch single released by Rex Records. The Likes of Heffo's Army by The Memories from 1974 It was 1974 and the 'the Jacks' in question were the Dublin Gaelic footballers – 'the Dubs' - who had emerged from relative obscurity to win that September's senior football title. 'From poverty to plenty in twelve short months', as one sports journalist put it. In the telling of Gaelic football's story, this would come to mark a defining moment in the sport's modernisation - and not just for the higher standards for strength and fitness that appeared to have been set. Rather, it marked the moment where Gaelic games, so long associated with the recreational rhythms of rural Ireland, acquired a distinctly urban accent and its spectator appeal began to extend to a cohort of city and suburban youth that had no previous relationship with the GAA. Former Dublin footballer and St. Vincent's clubman Kevin Heffernan spearheaded this breakthrough. He observed how his team had succeeded 'to a large degree' in replacing 'the names of English soccer stars in the minds of young footballing enthusiasts and by their example in Irish sporting life' to having 'contributed to maintaining the national identity in the city.' Variations on this observation abounded. There was a near consensus that the coming of the Dubs was a matter of profound significance not just for the GAA in the capital, but for the broader welfare of the Association as a whole. There are several reasons for this. For a start, the team's record in winning three All-Irelands in four years represented levels of success that were, at the time, unprecedented for a team populated by native Dubliners. The early development of the GAA in Dublin had been driven more by the city's rural migrants than by native Dubliners, and it was these who had founded many of Dublin's first GAA clubs (many centred around workplaces or occupations) and filled the ranks of the county's teams. They were sufficiently good to helping the county to an impressive 19 All-Ireland titles - 14 in football, five in hurling – by the time the GAA's Silver Jubilee was reached in 1934. There was no sustaining this success rate. Dublin's fortunes waned noticeably after 1925 when the GAA introduced a new rule that permitted players to play for either their county of birth or residence. Dublin county teams consequently drew from a shallower pool of players and fewer All-Irelands were won. Post 1925, indeed, Heffo's Dubs became the first Dublin team to enjoy a period of sustained success - and Jim Gavin's would be the next with the five-in-a-row. But how did Heffernan, aided by selectors Donal Colfer and Lorcan Redmond, do it? The answer is superficially simple: by gathering around him the right people and getting them to play in a way that suited them best. Heffernan stressed that he wanted the right type of players, as opposed to necessarily the best players. He wanted players with character; players who would commit fully to the vision he set out for them. Once he had that, he explained that the job of management was three-fold: (i) to improve their individual skill levels; (ii) to ensure that they each achieved maximum fitness and (iii) develop field tactics that made the most these attributes. From RTÉ Archives, highlights of 1977 All Ireland football semi-final between Dublin and Kerry with commentary from Michael O'Hehir This he did to a dramatic effect. The fast movement of players and the ball helped to create space and scoring opportunities. The fluidity it brought to the game led writer Ulick O'Connor to extol that it was 'like watching soccer in the air', a tribute that doubtless disturbed some GAA traditionalists. The Dubs' swashbuckling style did not sweep all before it, however. It met its match in a young Kerry team under the tutelage of Mick O'Dwyer which surprised many by winning the All-Ireland title in 1975 and surprised even more by going on to become one of the greatest teams of all time. Heffo's Dublin and O'Dwyer's Kerry met five times in five years in championship football during the 1970s in a rivalry that a captivated media played up as a clash of opposites: urban versus rural, city versus county, culchie versus jackeen. This was a form of stereotyping that only partly stood up to scrutiny. As journalist Mick Dunne observed of their 1975 All-Ireland final encounter, Kerry had only one farmer on their side, despite being standard-bearers for the Irish countryside, and Dublin counted market gardener Paddy Reilly from St. Margaret's in rural north Dublin amongst its ranks. There was also no shortage of so -called "townies" in the Kerry team, the difference being, Dunne pointed out, that 'Dublin city is so much bigger a town than Killarney or Tralee." That it certainly was, and the disparity in size became ever more pronounced throughout the 1970s. Indeed, the rapid spread of new suburban housing was such that it would end up tipping the capital's population over the one million mark for the first time by the close of the decade. The rise of 'the Dubs' coincided with this moment of major demographic development and was a gift to a GAA that was increasingly anxious about its place in an Irish society that was no longer predominantly rural-rooted. It was therefore notable that as support for the Dubs snowballed from 1974 onwards, the team tapped into a youth culture that, on big match days, turned Croke Park (and the Hill 16 terrace in particular) into a riot of colour and noise which bore resemblances to images that TV would have made familiar from cross-channel soccer stadiums. 'We got pages of Dublin stories, badges, scarves, tee-shirts, pop-songs and all the other things that go with being successful sports teams nowadays', journalist Eugene McGee noted in late 1974. 'But in Dublin's case, we got it all to a degree that the GAA had never before experienced.' If the story of the GAA's subsequent development in the capital owes more to patterns of club organisation and to well-resourced coaching and games development strategies, the swell in support for Heffo's Dubs still signalled something significant and new for the GAA. It culturally connected the association to a growing constituency of urban youth and inspired a support base that in subsequent decades would prove both a rich source of Croke Park spectacle and a driver of GAA revenues.

Irish Times

3 hours ago

• Irish Times

Football quarter-finalists laid bare and what else we learned from the GAA weekend

The road n ot take n Spare a thought for the Louth bus driver. In an era where everything is analysed to the last grain of sand and nothing is left to chance, one wrong turn coming out of an unfamiliar town can leave the whole thing in a heap. And next thing you know, you're in Sligo when you're supposed to be in Ballybofey. Shit! Instead of making the journey to Donegal all in one go on Sunday, Ger Brennan and his team stayed in Enniskillen on Saturday night. But somehow on Sunday, when it was time to go to the game, the bus headed southwest instead of northwest. What should have been an hour's drive took two hours and 20 minutes. Which is more or less what it would have taken from Louth had they slept in their own beds. Donegal's Ciarán Thompson celebrates a goal during the preliminary quarter-final against Louth in Ballybofey. Photograph: Lorcan Doherty/Inpho 'A human error in our navigation,' explained Brennan afterwards, honourably refusing to throw anyone under the already tardy bus. Louth arrived at MacCumhaill Park at 3.15pm for a 4pm throw-in. They looked for a 15-minute delay but it was turned down. Whether or not it had any effect is impossible to say – they were only a point down at half-time so maybe not. But you'd imagine it will be a while before the bus driver lives it down. – Malachy Clerkin READ MORE Red tur n s gree n for Dubli n On the very first weekend of the championship, Clare overturned a 12-point half-time deficit and ended up drawing their match with now Munster champions, Cork . By the 57th minute, Cork's lead was still nine, 2-21 to 2-12, when Shane Barrett was sent off for a foul on David Reidy. Clare outscored their opponents 1-9 to 0-3 in the time remaining. For many analysts, it was clear how the red card had undermined Cork. Darragh Fitzgibbon was forced to spend time dropping back from the forwards, leaving Clare frequently with a 6v4 advantage in defence and able to use that as a launch pad. Chris Crummey's red card on Saturday came as early as the 16th minute, depriving Dublin not just the one-man penalty but the loss of an experienced player with the physique to compete with Limerick . RTÉ and Irish Times analyst Joe Canning was critical of Limerick's decision to stick with their zonal defence when presented with an extra man but John Kiely defended the strategy. Chris Crummey (6) leaves the field after being red carded during Saturday's quarter-final while Dublin manager Niall Ó Ceallacháin has words with Limerick's Gearóid Hegarty. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho 'We used the extra man in a typical way that any team would, we had three-versus-two in the inside line, 99 per cent of teams would do something similar,' he said. 'We have no qualms about that – that's not a concern for me right now. Ultimately, we were just not 100 per cent sharp on the ball, we turned over balls we shouldn't have.' There had been wins in Leinster this season for teams carrying a red card but neither Galway (versus Offaly), nor Wexford (against Antrim) were underdogs when Daithí Burke and Jack O'Connor respectively were sent off and they saw it out. 'It's not tactical,' said Dublin manager Niall Ó Ceallacháin afterwards. 'What it comes down to is the boys inside, how deep they dug, the hunger that was there, ground ball after ground ball. It looked like our boys wanted it more even with four on three or three on two at times in rucks on the ground. 'It's a complicated game; we've worked a lot on the small bit but in the cold light of day it's that stuff that the whole thing comes down to.' – Seán Moran Selectio n headache for Joyce Twice in the second half of Galway's win over Down , you could see the large frame of Galway sub-goalkeeper Connor Gleeson warming up. Páirc Esler is one of those fantastically tight provincial grounds, where the distance between the front row of the stand and the sideline of the pitch is barely enough for a man of Gleeson's size to do a lunge without inserting himself into the play. So he was impossible to miss. Equally obvious was the fact that Galway's kickout was under immense pressure by now. Down had the aid of a stiff breeze, which was causing Conor Flaherty's kickouts to hang in the air, much as Down goalkeeper Ronan Burns's had in the first half. Down had cut a half-time margin of 10 points down to two and it was getting to crisis time for the visitors. Galway's Connor Gleeson. Photograph: Ben Brady/Inpho Would Pádraic Joyce really go so far as to hook Flaherty? Of course he would. The one thing nobody doubted was that if there is a manager in the country who would take the extreme measure of replacing his goalkeeper in the middle of a game purely on as a tactical move, Joyce would be top of everyone's list. He didn't, in the end – his midfield change of Peter Cooke for Paul Conroy solved the problem instead. 'We were looking at everything,' he said afterwards, when we asked him if Gleeson coming on was a possibility. 'We had given away three or four in a row again and just didn't go to our kickout routine that we should have when the pressure was on. We hit a few over the sideline. So yeah, disappointed with that side of it.' Who starts against Meath this weekend? Joyce has a big call to make, so late in the season. – Malachy Clerkin Quarter-fi n al co n u n drum Jarlath Burns has name-checked the All-Ireland hurling quarter-finals on his long snag list, although no solution has landed yet. Unlike the football quarter-finals, which have been two days of double-headers in Croke Park since their inception at the turn of the century, the hurling quarter-finals have been jerked around in recent years according to RTÉ's commitment to other sports and the GAA's desire to give the Tailteann Cup semi-finals a prime-time slot. This year, the presence of Limerick and Tipperary in the quarter-finals meant the two most convenient venues for a double-header were ruled out, but the folly of splitting the games resulted in predictably disappointing crowds. The attendance on Saturday evening at the Gaelic Grounds was given as 15,404. For context, when Tipp and Galway met in the National League final at the same venue in 2017, the attendance was 16,089. At the time that would have been seen as a reasonable crowd for a league final, no more than that. However, for a knockout game between two of the top six teams in the hurling championship, Saturday's crowd was pitiful. The Tipp crowd, who had deserted their team last summer, have come back in droves, but the Galway crowd, who have a long history of desertion, went to ground on Saturday and must have been outnumbered by eight to one. Dublin goalkeeper Seán Brennan saves a late free during Saturday's quarter-final at Croke Park. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho Meanwhile, in Croke Park, it was the usual story when the Dublin hurlers share a double-bill with the footballers. Half a decent crowd turned up for the start, and a decent crowd rambled in before the game was over. Hurling quarter-final double-bills haven't produced two good games on the same day since 2007, when Wexford beat Tipp and Kilkenny outlasted Galway in a cracker. That was one of the seasons when eight teams were obliged to line up in the quarter-finals. In some years they haven't produced even one good game. It is by far the trickiest round of the hurling championship; two teams are recovering from a provincial final loss and maybe one of the other teams wasn't happy about finishing third in their province. But there are so few hurling matches in June and July that the hurling quarter-finals simply must be restored to a Sunday afternoon double-header. Without that status, it will continue to suffer. – Denis Walsh Fixture gym n astics Even before the Louth team bus got lost on its way to Ballybofey on Sunday, Jack O'Connor had almost certainly started planning for Kerry's All-Ireland SFC quarter-final against Armagh . With Dublin and Galway having won, Kerry's fate appeared predetermined at that stage. And so it came to pass. The repeat pairings stipulation meant Armagh could not play Dublin, Galway or Donegal in the last eight. That regulation also created a web within which several other fixtures that could not happen – Meath had a 50 per cent chance of playing Donegal but only a 25 per cent chance of playing Dublin. And so on. It added a layer of complexity that was, well, needless. Kerry's David Clifford in action during the preliminary quarter-final against Cavan on Saturday. Photograph: James Lawlor/Inpho Avoiding repeat pairings has been a staple of GAA draws even going back to the days before they were held at the crack of dawn on Monday mornings. The desire to prevent a scenario where teams meet again is kind of odd. One of the great attractions of sport is rivalry, and the most basic way of creating a rivalry is for teams to play each other. Often. Monday morning's draw has pitted Donegal against Monaghan. The sides met in the quarter-finals of the Ulster championship but they are permitted to meet again in the All-Ireland quarter-finals. However, Donegal were not allowed to play Armagh or Tyrone on the basis they played those teams at different stages of the championship. What would have been wrong with a Donegal v Armagh quarter-final? Is there really any need for the GAA to continue a policy of trying to avoid repeat pairings? Perhaps they should encourage them. – Gordon Manning

Irish Independent

5 hours ago

• Irish Independent

Louth Ladies cruise into All-Ireland semi-finals with a game to spare

By the time referee David Hurson had called for half-time, Louth were already 14 points clear, a lead they never looked like relinquishing, as they made it three wins from three in their All Ireland Championship group. At that stage, Louth led by 2-9 to 0-1, aided by two slick first half goals from Eimear Byrne and Kate Flood. Both players accounted for 2-10 between them. Louth's work rate and intensity in the tackle saw them win back possession high up the pitch on a myriad of occasions, particularly on the home side's kickout. This intensity was epitomised by Aoife Halligan and Áine Breen who set the tone in midfield, backed up by Shannen McLaughlin, and Seoda Matthews who also worked tirelessly in that department as 2-6 of the visitor's first half tally of 2-9 emanated from such turnovers. This intense tackling and aggressive press on their opponents kickout, was backed up by some delightful passages of play through the hands, with Aoife Russell finishing with 35 possessions. Elsewhere, Halligan saw 29 touches of the ball, while Breen and McLaughlin finished with 25 possessions each. Flood opened Louth's scoring account with two early points, which were quickly followed up by Byrne and Lucy White, as Louth led by 0-4 to no score after 11 minutes. Derry goalkeeper Thomasina Cassidy was also called into action to deny Louth's White and Russell in that opening half. Despite being second best, Derry treated supporters to arguably the score of the game through Annie Ni Lochlainn, whose sweet connection from a long range free would have earned her side two points under the playing rules in the men's GAA. However, Louth were relentless and showed no signs of letting up. Another flowing move involving Halligan and Russell saw Louth captain Breen put four between the sides, before two more Flood white flags left the Reds ahead by 0-7 to 0-1 after 22 minutes. Having already threatened a goal on several occasions, Louth finally found the back of the net through Byrne. Following a neat move involving Ceire Nolan and White, Byrne's clever evasion of Derry keeper Cassidy, had the finish to match, after she slotted home for Louth's opening goal. Another white flag from Flood was quickly followed by a point from Russell thanks to slick play from Byrne and Matthews in the build-up. ADVERTISEMENT Louth's ability to move through the lines was further illustrated in their second goal through Flood, with Breen and Russell heavily involved. This goal left Louth firmly in charge, leading 2-9 to 0-1 at the break The second half understandably saw a drop in intensity, and feeling of inevitability about the outcome as Louth tagged on additional scores, adding further gloss to the scoreline, despite some early wides. Half-time sub, Ciara Woods who has impacted the game each time she has entered the fray in this year's championship, landed the first of her three second half points. This was followed by another score from the menacing Byrne which left Louth 2-11 to 0-2 ahead by the end of the third quarter, with a sweetly struck Niamh Hannon point seeing Derry land their first white flag from open play. More flowing football saw Byrne and Woods add two more points each, while Breen and McLaughlin chipped in with late scores. Before the end, sub Zara Sweeney, a player who continues to add to her growing reputation as an exciting prospect for Louth, added a point beside her name. Louth could have added further goals to their tally, with Flood unfortunate to see her effort strike the crossbar. But they still amassed a commendable conversion stat of 2-17 from 30 shots in open play. From a Derry perspective, Annie Ni Lochlainn deserves a noteworthy mention, as she treated those in attendance to some fine point taking in the game, while Bláithín Donnelly ran her heart out in midfield. Louth keeper Rebecca Lambe Fagan did have to be on her guard to keep out efforts from Ni Lochlainn, and Aine McAlister, who was well marshalled by Louth's Rachel Beirth. The St Fechins defender emerged with the ball from defence on several occasions, alongside Eimear Murray and Eilís Hand. Louth can now look ahead to a home game against Sligo next weekend in a top of the table clash, with both sides assured of places in the All-Ireland JFC semi-finals. Louth: Rebecca Lambe Fagan; Eimear Murray, Eilís Hand, Rachel Beirth; Louise Byrne, Shannen McLaughlin 0-1, Holly Lambe Sally; Aine Breen 0-2, Aoife Halligan; Seoda Matthews, Eimear Byrne 1-4, Lucy White 0-1; Aoife Russell 0-1, Kate Flood 1-6 (2f), Ceire Nolan. Subs: Zara Sweeney 0-1 for Nolan (32 mins), Ciara Woods 0-3 for Sally (HT), Caoimhe Boyle for Murray (40 mins), Mia Duffy fir Matthews (47 mins), Gemma McCrave for Louise Byrne (56 mins). Derry: Thomasina Cassidy; Caoimhe Dillon, Grace Brewster, Joanne Corr; Anna Donnelly, Sarah Hargan, Katie Hargan; Bláitín Donnelly, Leah Brewster; Niamh Hannon 0-1, Anna Ní Lochlainn 0-3 (1f), Aoife Gormley; Aine McAlister, Meabh Boylan, Hannah McEldowney. Subs: Isabella O'Kane for Cassidy (HT), Jemma Shivers for Boylan (HT), Kate McCann for Gormley (HT), Erin Dillon for McEldowney (44 mins), Leah Casey for McAlister (54 mins).