Just two weekends ago the Naomh Anna Leitir Móir football club brought a great sense of happiness, unity, and pride to their locality by winning the Connacht intermediate final for the first time in the club’s history.
It was a terrific sporting occasion and a fabulous victory for Naomh Anna who will now face the Ulster champions - either Cookstown (Tyrone ) or the Cavan champions - next January
These last few months have been an exciting journey for the club. Their 2-14 2-13 extra-time victory over Westport of Mayo should have marked a period of celebration and contentment in that passionate football pocket of Connemara.
Instead just two short days later the heartbreaking accident that claimed the lives of four young women, and left one critically ill, has put all sport in its rightful place.
It is a hobby, a pasttime - one we enjoy and one that brings us great pleasure and passion for our clubs and county, but compared to the tragedy that has beset those devastated families, it is irrelevant and immaterial.
That sense of desolation around Connemara from last week was compounded by another terrible loss in a car accident of Michael Joyce, a 16-years-old from Leitir Meallain last Sunday night.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the families, friends, and communities of all those who died in the past 10 days.
