October 10, 2004
Say it ain't so
Despite Mayo's hammering by Kerry in the All-Ireland Football final, there's been some good news on the GAA front in the West (well, for Galway anyway). Galway won the Ladies All-Ireland football final, and to make it sweeter, it was the Dubs that they beat. Of course, they would have had more support in Croke Park if the Galway Club Championship had not been scheduled for the same day in Pearse Park in Galway. Not too many suffragettes in the Galway County Board…
The Ladies made a triumphant return west with the Cup - as is tradition, they got off the bus and walked across the Shannon (and shook the Dublin dust off their feet while they were at it, no doubt). They stopped off in Ballinasloe, where the Horse Festival was in full swing (….desperately trying to avoid obvious champion filly analogies here…) as well as ClareGalway on their way into the city (thereby touring all the county's premier traffic chokepoints on the same night).
On a related equine note, it looks like Ireland's only medal of this year's Olympic Games is about to be rescinded. It seems that the horse failed the drug test that was done after the competition. His rider, Cian O’Connnor has denied cheating (he was due to be awarded the Irish Person of the Year last night but decided to decline it) and the horse is unlikely to have administered the tranquilliser itself, so I'm sure there must be an interesting explanation for it all.
On a related sporting note, I flicked over to TG4 last night after watching the Ireland-France soccer match (I watched it on BB2 to spare myself the sound of George Hamilton, and , since the opposition was France, the English commentator was 100% for Ireland anyway). The Ardan chat show was on, and there was a gorgeous young lady on, dolled up to the nines, ag caint as Gaeilge!. Turns out that she is the next Miss Ireland or something, from Gweedore, though for some reason, she spoke Irish with a Soutside Dublin accent (I guess nobody's perfect). Anyway, after a few minutes , the show went over to its sports correspondent in Paris, to comment for a minute or two on the match. Hmmm, so TG4 sent their reporter over to cover a match as Gaeilge that they didn't show and that was available on RTE anyway. Can I have his job, please?
Posted by Monasette at October 10, 2004 11:00 PM