Search Results for 'Brian Farrell'

My grandmother was born in Moylough, Co Galway, in 1890, and when I knew her she projected an image of Irish Catholic propriety. She went to daily Mass, and stopped to say the Angelus at noon and 6pm. She was generous with the price of a jacket or a ‘smart’ pair of shoes if she felt that I looked a bit shabby. She’d make my mother jealous by making the best chocolate cake ever!

The Galway footballers were knocked out of the championship on Saturday in Navan after being beaten by a point, 0-11 to 0-10, by a limited home side.

Westmeath champions Bunbrosna were denied a place in the provincial semi-final after Nobber did what many a Meath team has done in the past by stealing a win at the death. The Westmeath champions, despite missing a number of regulars and being reduced to 14 player’s in the opening half, looked as though they were going to hold on for a valuable win when they led by a single point as the game entered injury time.

The C& C Cellular Mayo AC Open Road League continues on Sunday October 12 with race seven of the nine race series. This four-miler takes place at Ballina and is a one lap course starting near the track at Beleek Park, going out via 'Dunnes' to join the 10k route on the Killala road, turning right and across to rejoin Beleek Park, finishing close to the track. The 'Terry Fox' run takes place annually at venues all over the world in support of the Terry Fox Foundation which raises funds for Cancer Research in memory of a brave young Canadian. Terry Fox was diagnosed with bone cancer at the age of 18, and had to have his right leg amputated above the knee in 1977. While in hospital , Terry was so overcome by the suffering of other cancer patients, many of them young children, that he decided to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research. The legacy of this heroic Canadian is that, to date, more than $400 million has been raised worldwide in his name.

Palatine 0-8

Palatine, Eire Og and the Conlon Cup will form a great partnership at 3.45 on Sunday afternoon at Dr Cullen Park, when they meet in the Michael Lyng Motors Carlow senior football championship final, in a repeat of last years county final.

Brian “Skeach” Kelly will more than likely line out for his beloved Palatine as they try to dethrone reigning champions, Éire Óg, in next Sunday’s county senior football final. Nothing unusual in that you might think. Sure hasn’t he been playing senior football for Pal for the best part of a decade and a half. Well three months ago, Skeagh was in no position to take to any football field. In actual fact his very life was under threat! Following a clash of heads in the Palatine’s clash with Kildavin/Clonegal he was left with quite a bruise on the side of his head. He went to hospital immediately after the game as a precaution but was discharged that evening and told to take it easy for a few days. That he did and was ready and willing to return to the training field. However he was still complaining of headaches and blurred vision. He thought nothing of it but the Pal management team were not happy to let him return. That first night back he was practising a few frees before training when Mick Lillis Pal’s trainer told him he was unhappy to let him resume. The club arranged an MRI scan in Dublin to make sure everything was alright and it was from there that things began to get interesting! He returned home but almost immediately was summoned back to Beaumont hospital where he was informed that he had a life-threatening clot on his brain. As he said himself, he still didn’t realise how serious the situation was. He felt fine. It was only when he asked a member of the medical team attending him to rate the severity of his condition on a scale of one to ten that it really became clear to him. She told him it was at least nine and a half! At that moment all thoughts of playing in this year’s county final disappeared from his mind! The doctors told him that if he had taken part in that training session and received even minimal physical contact, it could have been enough to have killed him. If the clot had moved as much as one milimetre it would have been fatal. He was immediately put on clot busting drugs in the hope of avoiding surgery and thankfully these were successful. Still he was not to go near a football field for at least the rest of the year, if not for ever. But once he was on the road to recovery like any GAA player, the lure of the game was too much. He was back for the latter part of the championship and apart from the unusual sight of him sporting a rugby scrum cap, everything is back to normal and he will be looking for his second county medal on Sunday. That possibility was far from his thoughts three months ago when, as he put it, “they were thinking of opening my skull!” Brian’s story may be an aside but it is just one of those things that add to the occasion of any county final. Every club has its own stories. Reasons why they just cannot afford to let this opportunity slip. I’m sure Éire Óg have their own. As I said here last week, it’s one of the things that makes a county final unique. 

The Michael Lyng Motors Carlow senior football championship final, between the top two teams Palatine and Eire Og ended level 1-10 a piece on Sunday last. The game provided the passion, the spills and thrills, and all that is good in a hard-fought sporting encounter at Dr Cullen Park.

Michael Lyng Motors SFC Replay

The driver of a car that caused an horrific car accident in Kilbride, Carlow and cut off oxygen to an unborn baby is still at large, Dublin Coroner’s court heard on Monday.