Search Results for 'Ciaran Mac'

I was out of the country last weekend on a cycling holiday in Germany (more anon). I deliberately stayed away from all forms of communication until I arrived back in the country. By the time I landed in Dublin I was bursting for information on all of last weekend’s sporting activities. I called a few friends on the trek home from Dublin Airport and managed to get a good account of most of the action. The first conversation I had informed me of Kilkenny’s demolition job on Cork in the league final. These Kilkenny boys are simply in a different league to most others. I have watched them a couple of times earlier this year when they appeared to be just going through the motions, but once they get a whiff of a trophy they invariably rack it up a few notches. Jimmy Barry Murphy will, for the first time since his appointment as Cork manager, realise that the honeymoon period is over and his task of landing the Liam McCarthy is an enormous one when you consider the conveyor belt of young talent Brian Coady has at his disposal. But it is not just the talent that they produce year on year – it is their entire application and appetite for success that makes them so exceptional.

Travelling to Garrymore is a rare adventure for me. In fact it is one of the few grounds in this county that when I travel to it I invariably get lost along the way. Instead of taking the more direct (if you could ever use the word ‘direct’ in association with any passage to Garrymore) route via Claremorris, I thought I remembered the less travelled road up through Mayo Abbey being a little more interesting and so I veered right at the top of Balla village and not for the first time.