Search Results for 'Alan'

I can only imagine that Ballintubber are devastated and disillusioned and as the week wears on the pain becomes more bearable. Ballintubber’s season has so many similarities to Charlestown’s year in ‘09. We went unbeaten in senior football that year in every competition and won the four available trophies within Mayo, similar to what Ballintubber achieved this year.

I am really looking forward to Sunday’s county final, Castlebar and Ballintubber met in the group stages with the Mitchels winning by a single goal but it seems the tides have turned slightly after Ballintubber’s devastating display in the semi-final win over Knockmore. Castlebar seem to have the measure of Ballintubber as of late, but will certainly be fearful of going up against one of the most lethal club forward lines in the country. They will also be reminded that Ballintubber have beaten them in two finals in the last five years. Castlebar have a better defence than Ballintubber but Ballintubber have a better forward line than Castlebar so something has to give.

The Town Hall recently unveiled its programme for the early months of the new year and it contains some real gems for theatre-goers to look forward to. There are plays featuring Beckett, Joyce, Martin McDonagh, and Pat McCabe, the Rough Magic and Decadent Theatre Companies, to name but a few in a line-up combining classics with exciting new works.

Kiltane are the 2013 Connacht Intermediate football champions after a very professional performance against Boyle of Roscommon last Sunday in Elvery's McHale Park. They were never really in danger in this game, albeit for a sloppy patch midway through the first half in which they conceded a goal and a point on the spin but that was as good as it got for Boyle. Kiltane are keeping the tradition going by being the third Mayo team in a row to win the Gene Byrne Cup. Little did they know the favours Davitt's and Charlestown did for them the two years previous by playing almost all of their games away from home resulting in the Mayo champs having three home games in this years provincial series. You cannot beat home advantage when you are entering the unknown. It is hard to believe this team could have been out of the championship if Drumcliff/ Rosses Point substitute Colin Ginty kept his head instead of fluffing his lines in the dying moments of the semi final when it looked easier to score. Upon such outcomes All-Irelands are won, most All-Ireland champions have a little bit of luck along the way and that most certainly was Kiltane’s. Their ambition now certainly has to be to claim more silverware in early 2014, a feat which Davitt’s and Charlestown failed to achieve.

The two top football teams in the county in 2013 are Salthill and Corofin, and they will face each other in the county final on October 13 after their respective victories last weekend.

After many months of speculation, one of the country's leading property firms is coming to Galway in a move which will see it merge with one of the city's most innovative property experts. The nationally renowned DNG group and the city based firm Maxwell Heaslip & Leonard will join forces and are set to offer a whole new level of professionalism and service to the Galway property market.

In June 2012, PJ Loftus lost his battle with bowel cancer. PJ was an extremely popular and valued member of the Knockmore community and had been a dedicated servant to Knockmore and Mayo GAA for many years. To pay tribute to his father's memory and raise much needed funds for the Mayo/Roscommon Hospice, PJ’s son Alan has organised a charity match between the Knockmore senior GAA team and their soccer counterparts from Conn Rangers. The game will take place on St Stephen's Day at 1pm at the Knockmore GAA pitch. The Knockmore team will feature county stars Kevin McLoughlin and Shane McHale, alongside Alan himself, Aidan Kilcoyne, John Brogan, Declan Sweeney and the returning pair of Trevor Howley and Niall Canavan amongst others. The Conn Rangers senior soccer team who narrowly missed out on promotion to the Super League this year will be represented by Owen McNamara and Brian Hughes (who both featured on the Mayo Premier A league team of the year), along with Noel Butler, Darren Coleman and Joe Faughnan.

With Cheltenham only days away, eager punters will be gathering their tips, guarding them as if they were pure gold while pondering the usual each-way forecast, or place it-on-the-nose dilemmas, and with questions like those to consider what better place to have the craic, get a few wins in, and truely enjoy this great horse-racing festival than at Brian Fahy Bookmakers.

The west of Ireland is gearing itself up for further boxing success next month when Mayo's own Henry ‘The Western Warrior’ Coyle takes on Italy's Elio Cotena for the WBF Light Middleweight title at the Royal Theatre, Castlebar on Friday August 12.

FRANCE’S LUMIÈRE brothers may have gone down in history as the pioneers of cinema when they stunned Parisenne audiences by screening their films in 1895.