Galway lit up sport last Sunday — now let’s do it again

Thu, Sep 12, 2019

When we look back on last Sunday, not from the vantage point of a few days retrospection, but in a year, or five, we will realise the significance of that victory.

We will see then that the victory was not just one for Galway’s superb senior camogie players, but one for all females in sport; indeed for all sportspeople. In a year when fans were crying out for a showpiece, an epic to show the advances that have been made in terms of strength, conditioning, athleticism, skill, posture, composure, and belief.

Fantasy Football round five preview

Tue, Sep 10, 2019

So the first international break has concluded and for Mick McCarthy and Ireland fans it was a quietly satisfying one as the Boys in Green maintained top spot in Group D with a hard earned point against Switzerland.

Let’s engulf camogie stars in a sea of maroon

Thu, Sep 05, 2019

Every time in this wet late summer, when the skies opened and the heavens poured down upon us with a level of unprecedented ferocity, what followed brought a silver lining. Every soaking was followed by a drying; every flu was followed by sunburn. Every soaking cloud followed by the most blue of skies.

And in some sense, this has been the fashion of the Galway GAA summer — there have been moments when it felt like it permanently lashed this sporting summer, right from the moment Kilkenny and Wexford drew on that fateful evening; right from that night in Limerick when Mayo got revenge for the “batings” of recent years; right from the moment we lost the manager of not just one senior team, but two.

Fantasy Football review

Tue, Sep 03, 2019

Round four of the Premier League ended with a bang as Arsenal and Spurs shared the spoils at the Emirates Stadium after an eventful 2-2 draw. Elsewhere Chelsea blew a two goal lead against league new boys Sheffield United, Liverpool kept up their 100 per cent with 3-0 thumping of Burnley at Turf Moor, and Watford finally got the points column ticking with a 1-1 draw up in Tyneside against Newcastle.

Take your chance to shape our city centre

Thu, Aug 29, 2019

Cities should never be judged by their girth, by the amount of time it takes to cross from one suburb to another. They should not be judged by vast motorways going through their hearts or by the numbers who pound the pavements getting to and fro.

Instead, cities should be judged by the width of their vision; of the tallness of their dreams; of the extent of their capacity to be moulded to suit the needs of those who use them; Cities should be places that bring out the best in people; that channel their flow in ways that encourage only the best interaction.

Fantasy Football round four preview

Wed, Aug 28, 2019

Three rounds done and dusted and it is only Jürgen Klopp's Liverpool that still maintains a 100 per cent record in the Premier League after a 3-1 victory over Arsenal at Anfield on Saturday evening.

A man who delivered contentment

Thu, Aug 22, 2019

The power to bring contentment to so many people is a gift bestowed on but a few. Most of us live lives where even our most heartfelt endeavours reach out to but a few. However in that, they are no less valuable than those who effect so many.

Marketing Ireland’s Global Economy

Thu, Aug 22, 2019

Gambling Site Challenges
The gambling industry presents unique challenges for even the most experienced marketing and advertising firms. The primary reason for this two-fold. First, the industry reaches across the globe. Marketing firms that build brands and advertise for traditional casinos, must be educated on the presence of offshore casinos which are their primary competition. Second, the industry is growing at warp speed. This keeps law-markers busy adjusting and amending laws to protect their country while claiming their share of the market.

Fantasy Football round three preview

Thu, Aug 22, 2019

Week two of the Premier League is over and it seems the big boys might not have it all their own way this season.

GAA has created a game of protein-guzzling gym bunnies with arms the size of bullock’s necks

Thu, Aug 15, 2019

Dear Editor,
The rapid decline of our beloved GAA is unfolding right before our eyes as it descends into the depravity of professionalism.

Bedrooms remain a shrine to the lost children

Thu, Aug 15, 2019

It’s the empty beds that will hurt the most.

Bring concept of sanctuary into all we do

Thu, Aug 08, 2019

Now that the main festivals in Galway are over, and we thrust the booster rockets into the autumn and the project beyond of Galway 2020, it is time to think about how we define Galway, in more than just terms of culture, of sport.

Fantasy Football round one preview

Thu, Aug 08, 2019

It is back baby. The Premier League is returning after a three month break and here at Advertiser Towers we are super excited as the big kickoff this Friday night signifies the return of the Advertiser Tribal League in association with Monroe's Live - The perfect place to watch all this seasons games.

Who will be top dog in the the Advertiser Tribal League?

Tue, Aug 06, 2019

It's back, baby. There will be plenty of cheers and groans as Premier League football returns to brighten up our lives this weekend.

Gonna take my horse out the old Tuam Road….

Thu, Aug 01, 2019

“Am gonna take my horse out the old Tuam Road…am gonna ride 'til’ I can’t no more.” Song is ringing in me head...written for me that was, written for me...where am I...oh, I’m here so I am, like. I’ve landed. In Galway... Like that Boris Johnson lad, head on me like an explosion in a bloody mattress factory. The clobber on me right out of Peaky Blinders, the kinda clothes me fadder's fodder would have worn like 150 year ago…Sun rises in the capital of culture…ate a clock in the morning…waking up in a crumpled hape…I’d need Hawkeye to see if I made it home at all last night…smartphone alarm beep beeps into me ear...one hand picks up and smashes it again the wall...not so smart now is it…Radio bursts on…Leo and Boris having a row over a catflap or a back flap or something...have I fallen asleep like and woken up in some posh boy's dream...I listen to him and his Tory mates and say in me own mind he shouldn't be fecking with the country that make the world's supply of Viagra and Botox... mess with us boy and there'll be no hard Brexit for ye but plenty of soft landing...the Brits will be pushing a car with a rope...’tis Race Week…where am I...recessed lights in ceiling shine into me eyes...discover me pyjamas have a hood in them and me in skinny jeans…fell asleep in the clothes again...where am I...not Mrs O'Brien's B & bloody B this year… an AiryB&B yolk which is basically paying hotel prices for someone else’s scratcher and someone else’s jacks…decided to mess them about by moving the pictures around and putting all the clocks back two hours...they've another little toilet beside the regular wan, like a bath for your feet so I soak the socks in there all night...need the cure bad...have to look me best...Limerick lads are winning Love Island so pressure's on...went to bed looking like Donal Og Cusack woke up looking like Dunphy...open shirt buttons and spray deodorant under arms one squirt for each oxter and one for the road with a shot for the lads below…ya can never take any chances like at the Galway Races…could be hit by a bus or a quare wan...head for the lift…close buttons, push buttons, and fella in the lift mirror does the same…state of me like…airyB&B and a kitchen with nobody’s food left in it…head for the morning cafe…hipster fella with a beard asks me do I want brunch like. I do in me...whole night I've been starving...says he can do me advocate toast or something strange sounding like that...throw back the lugs and dive in...twas muck...like eating a squashed apple through a sock...try to walk sober like, wan foot then the udder, repeat...I'm Racingman, I'm wide out…I’m part of Galway. I’m Racingman, the boyoh, unleashed for the week…I walk down the street like Travolta in Saturday Night Fever 'cept without the can o’ paint…baby shakin that ass... they're looking at me, the wimmen, can't get enough of me...nawthing like a pair of skinny jeans (no ballroom dancing for me) and a mismatched jacket and tweed jacket and braces and cap to get them going...down the square check out paddys ladbrokes boyles get the odds... and ends...too early to go out to Ballybrit yet...sit on bench and look at the pretend fountain that's never on…Arts Festival hippies taking down their own festival garden for atin’ hummus and talking through their…are sure it's great for them…sit on steps, legs sprawled……wink at young wan heading to work down town, get scowl but scowl back at her…then I remember MeTwo or what ya call it, so I stall the ogling’…cramps me style though bigtime...Me the man, Racingman...me the man…loads o’ young lads around…Anthony Ryan mustn’t have a confirmation suit left in his storeroom…Reach into arse pocket of me jeans……hand shakes but 'twould by now anyways Wednesday... some forren fecker with a guitar murdering Grace in the Square...where's Lee Harvey Oswald when ya need him…I…get the Racing Post...to look cool like…in the know…and the Star...I stink a bit bad, so dash into Debbinghams cosmetics section and when the posh wimmen staff aren't looking over, Racingman is lost in a spraycloud of Calvin Kyne, Packie Rabanne, and Ralph Lawrence eau de sweat…lash on the lot of them…the cognac combo….then a splash on ur hand to look like ya know your stuff…spray some on that little card yolk… doubles up as a toothpick…smelling grand...looking good, give the crown jewels a scratch…let me get wan thing straight and all that…ready for the road...ready for the course...hop into taxi...sit in front…legs sprawled…I’m the man…talk the talk…big happy head on me…air stinks of air freshener and stale conversation...Then he said something about a rising tide lifting boats…knows his stuff this fella…crabbing on about immigrants taking our wimmen, can't get jobs…and he's from Lagos...three ways to racecourse...green, blue, and red routes…an hour later we take a bit of blue and red and he drops me in a cowshit-spattered field near Castlegar church...walk that way he says... the brown route...and I walk...go to ring the boys but smartphone still smarting from batin' I gave it… walk straight...shoes covered in sheeeite...in the gate...Text the lads but they get back on WhatsUpp app thingy…haven’t used that since the time I WhatsUpped Mixer the story about Murphy’s father knocking up the nurse up the village and didn’t know I was telling’ the whole hurling club like…They’re at the bar they tell me...Get myself a selfie with the new horse statue...made by Brendan Behan they tell me...that fella must be 150 himself...Guard nods at me I nod back 'howya guard' what does he know... probably has a file on Racingman...Maybe a whistleblower will get it for me…the big happy Templemore head on him and eyes red-out from reading Pulse all night…lads say to tease them about the missing breath tests but I told them I will in me ....whole day looking around to see famous faces...no sign of Leo today…he was here Monday with a wallet with him. Feckin’ Taoiseach with a wallet…and maybe even a bank account…twouldn’t be like that in the Bertie day…Rakes of Galway hurlers and footballers around...saw them around the parade ring throwing shapes, ya wouldn't see the feckers up in Croke Park where ya'd want to see them this time of year...shouted up Mayo at them...Bumped into the Comer Brothers, was going to ask them for a touch after they threw twenty million into Galway United...never know which of them Comers is which so just chanced me arm and said 'howya Damien,' and they looked at me as if I was some sort of a feckin eejit...stumbled on...fine fillies everywhere...Saw the Lads, roared c’mon ye bollix at them, the boys from home…saw Ted Walsh too…twenty years since he rode her mother... Lads have quare wans' mobile numbers… they want 200 notes for an hour of the bould thing...lads laugh when I ask for group discount and take out me social services card….an hour I laugh, an hour of drinking time wasted...she says for 400 she'll bate me with a whip ’til I cry and give me a happy ending…told her I can get a batin' for nawthing outside the chipper…and if I want a happy ending, I can watch Frozen…and the lads laugh…Am great for the auld repartee, me Racingman. Me head's in a spin...hops into taxi and shows the driver lad the place where the AiryB&B is…It’s Lagos man again...more stale conversation...he's up from Carlow with all the other taxidrivers…takes me to Newcastle via Athenry…he knows a shortcut. Tells me he loves…drives me around town nine times to make sure before I push in door of AiryB&B and I crash on the couch but then there’s a thump and some fella shouting about getting out of his house and then I sees that I do be in the wrong Airy B&B.…but I love it. I love Race Week...and today's Ladies' Day. So I better have a bath...it's August.

The perpetual pursuit of soundness

Thu, Jul 25, 2019

They always say that the coolest person in the hospital is the ultrasound guy. And on the days that he’s not around, the next best is the hip replacement guy.

Being sound is one of the nicest tributes someone can pay you. In Ireland, we probably have only two types of people. There’s the person who’s sound....and the fella who’s ‘only a bollicks’. People go through life striving to have the former compliment, only for their efforts at making people like them,  make them more likely to receive the latter moniker.

Ó Cuív slams delay in providing full orthopaedic services in Merlin Park

Thu, Jul 25, 2019

Fianna Fáil TD for Galway West, Éamon Ó Cuív, has slammed the HSE and the Minister for Health for the inordinate delay in providing full orthopaedic services in Merlin Park, Co. Galway where two operating theatres have been out of action.

Connacht Rugby has a chance to win silverware this year

Thu, Jul 25, 2019

Connacht Rugby has been given a reasonable chance of seizing silverware in the Pro14 next season after bookmakers released odds for the 2019/20 campaign. Defending champions Leinster are understandably the favourites to win the trophy, but only four teams have shorter odds than Andy Friend’s men. Munster, Glasgow and Ulster are all tipped to challenge for glory, but Connacht are next in line at 20/1 along with Scarlets and Ospreys.

Let’s not forget the architects of creative Galway

Thu, Jul 11, 2019

I have a secret fetish for architecture (just not so secret any more). I have been known to fondle bridges; to lose my breath over mindblowing overhangs; to stare at the steel ceilings of stadiums rather than the pitch and wonder just what allows 50,000 people to hop up and down without it all collapsing.

A tussle to end someone’s summer

Thu, Jul 04, 2019

In tribal sport, it matters to matter. There is nothing worse than not mattering, being seen as harmless; being seen as not capable of inflicting any damage on anyone but yourself. It is good to be part of the banter, to be able to slag your rivals, to joke about your own shortcomings, to participate in partisan oneupsmanship.

E-paper

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