Search Results for 'Croke'

Galway take on Limerick this weekend in one of the biggest days in the Irish sporting calendar.

There are matches that decide championships, and there are matches that define generations. The 1980 All-Ireland Hurling Final belonged to the latter. On a warm September afternoon in Croke Park, Galway defeated Limerick by 2-15 to 3-9 and, in doing so, ended a wait that had stretched back to 1923.

Sunday will be the eleventh time that Cork and Galway have clashed in the headline match of the senior camogie season. While the Leesiders hold the upperhand in terms of wins, some of Galway's most notable victories have come against the women in red.nHere are two examples — the 1996 final which was Galway's first title. And the 2021 final, the first post-lockdown final played in sunshine in Croke Park.

Hurling is one of the oldest field games in the world. Some stories portray it as a form of military training, proficiency on the field equated with skill in battle. Legend has it that the first battle of Moytura fought about 2000 B.C. between two rival tribes, was preceded by a fierce hurling match between two teams of 27 a-side drawn from opposing forces. The casualties were buried under a huge stone cairn – a megalithic tomb. The field where the game took place is still called The Field of the Hurlers. Ancient games were also played at Tara.

On a gorgeous Monday afternoon, 13 days before an All Ireland SHC semi-final between Galway and Limerick, Henry Shefflin stands on the top floor of the Lough Rea Hotel & Spa.

The real stuff starts now. Losing to Galway wasn't ideal - but it has taken Mayo as many games through the back door to get to the same stage as the newly minted Connacht champions.

This one will sting, more so than the other recent defeats in the concrete caldron on Jones Road on the biggest day of all. 

At the end of the Mayo-Dublin All-Ireland semi-final five weeks ago, as the ‘Green and Red of Mayo’ boomed out over the loudspeakers, the chorus reverberated around the ground like a war-cry signalling the end of the most hurtful oppression imaginable at the hands of Dublin for over a decade.

With the elite contestants in the senior camogie ranks now clearly defined, Galway will look to reach their third decider in a row as the same four counties prepare for Sunday’s All -Ireland semi-finals for the fourth successive year.

As someone who is absolutely fascinated by the subject of history, it is rather inexplicable that in my five and half years of living in Galway that the only real historical fact I knew about the county was Mayor James Lynch Fitzstephen hanged his own son Walter for murder and thus came the term lynching. So when the opportunity to read The Little Book of Galway presented itself, I finally had a chance to bring my Galway history knowledge up to scratch and it did not disappoint.