Pa Ranahan
With the leaving cert results out last week, I couldn’t help feeling nostalgic about my own efforts at it. It’s fair to say it took a back seat to any sport that was being played at the time but it went okay in the end. A subject I was particularly worried about was Irish, but…
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The super 8s, or Average 8s as a friend from home has labelled them, finished up with a very unsatisfactory spectacle last Sunday. The “Coma in Omagh” was always likely to unfold given the teams involved had already secured their place in the All-Ireland semis and with that in mind gave panel members a run…
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My recent, “almost” annual visit to the dental surgery of Dr Iarlaith Killian in Castletroy brought with it the usual apprehension beforehand. But, as has always been the case, since I first walked through his door with a sore tooth in my UL days, I was put completely at ease. Still, sitting there in the…
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I was in the sky for the 1st half of the game last Saturday and had to do with regular updates on Twitter and WhatsApp for the 2nd half. Family holidays away in June are one of the few perks of no longer playing inter county. But my mind was definitely in Cusack Park for…
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Last weekend we headed west for the wedding of my cousin Ellen and her husband Peter in The Armada Hotel at Spanish Point. It was a brilliant two day celebration, and with a few hours downtime on the Saturday I went for a wander around the hotel. Dotted about the venue were pictures of JFKs…
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Niamh and myself joined my brother Conor and his wife Brenda along with thousands of other revellers at The Coronas performance in the Limerick Docklands on Sunday evening. It was the perfect antidote for the disappointment of the previous nights Munster Football Semi Final. Their tour – The Long Way Home – was a good…
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On Saturday evening a team in red will take to the field and be expected to come away with a comfortable victory. Many will feel that their opposition, who have beaten the odds and surprised all the experts to date, will be happy just to have made it this far in the competition. The manager…
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Looking out onto the pitch after the final whistle Saturday evening you got the feeling that maybe, just maybe, the touch paper had been lit. As I was making my way down the steps of the Ardan O’Riain a wave of Limerick Academy U-15 footballers ran across the immaculate Semple Stadium surface heading in the…
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3.45pm. May 24th 2009. Semple Stadium, Thurles. Beads of sweat rolling down my face. Trying to catch my breath and seeking refuge from the burning sun in the shade of the Ardan O Riain stand. I wasn’t alone. I’d been joined by Mark O’Riordan, with the ball at the other end of the field. A…
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A book that I find myself picking up again and again is “Players First” by John Calipari. I’d never heard of Calipari before reading this, but he is one of the most successful coaches in the history of American college basketball. As the title of the book indicates, his whole philosophy is built around putting…
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