Our man Frank on his sporting viewing last weekend, both locally and (finally) on the big screen; More musings on Storm Éowyn… and hailing the exploits of golfing superstars Rory and Shane…
It’s Saturday morning as I write, and after doing a little bit of stewarding at the rugby club, where the usual huge number of young children had turned up for the ‘minis’, I found myself heading off to the community centre in Cortoon (near Tuam) to see my granddaughter, Riley, take part in a weekly soccer class called Little Kickers.
I’d say all the children there were under five years of age, and to call it a soccer class would be doing it a huge injustice. The two young coaches, a boy and a girl who appeared to be in their teens, had devised a programme that had all kinds of different elements in it, including exercises, running, and many fun games (some with a ball and some without). I have to say that, even for a slightly sceptical old spectator like me, it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience.
The two youngsters managed to do what any parent will tell you is very difficult… i.e. keep a group of U-5s under complete control, and totally interested in what they are doing. Like Riley, they all really enjoyed the activities, and were fully invested in the hour-long session.
When it was over, we all – that’s me, Lisa, Riley and Hayley – headed off to the McWilliam Park Hotel in Claremorris where we met up with my daughter, Tara, and where we had a lovely midday lunch. It was probably about one o’clock when we got there and the hotel was very busy, but in fairness service was prompt and efficient and above all friendly, and brought the curtain down on a very enjoyable morning.
Anyway, I headed home excited at the prospect of watching the Ireland-England rugby game, only to find out that the electricity, which had come back on Thursday evening, was gone again. I don’t deny that the thought of missing the game didn’t sit well with me. Now compared to the problems that thousands of people still have after Storm Éowyn, I am the first to admit that mine was a very small one and I should be (and am) thoroughly ashamed of myself.
As luck would have it the electricity came back shortly before kick-off, but as my telly is totally blank since the storm (I have no station at all) I headed down to my son Mark where we watched Ireland get themselves a very satisfying victory over the auld enemy.
The first half was depressing from our point of view, and I felt we were lucky to be only five points adrift at half-time. However we really took fire in the second half and were out of sight before two very late tries put a better look on the scoreboard from an English viewpoint.
Now I have nothing against England but the truth is that there is nothing quite like putting one over on them. I suppose it’s the size of their country along with their never-ending sense of superiority that makes a win over them so special. We are away next Sunday in Scotland and that too is one that is fraught with danger.
Thanks to the Connacht Junior rugby fixture-makers, Creggs’ two cup semi-finals (firsts and seconds), are both scheduled for Sunday afternoon, which means we will not get to see the Irish game at all. As this is only the first week in February and we are already at the semi-final stage of the cup competition it’s hard to see why the games have to be played this Sunday. There are only a handful of league matches left to play as well, so why the rush?
As someone who played in a good number of cup and league finals back in the day, they invariably were played toward the end of April, as the season had to finish before May Day. There are a lot of Sundays between now and then, so I cannot understand what the thinking of the Connacht branch is. Anyway, let’s hope our two teams do the business and qualify for their respective finals – and that Ireland follow up last Saturday’s win by beating the Scots in Murrayfield.
Storm clouds gathering… and we need to be prepared in future
Back to the real world, and as I write this on Sunday evening I am reflecting on a chance meeting I had with a woman who lives about a mile down the road from me, in Rosmoylan. She told me that they hadn’t got the electricity back since the previous Friday morning week. And it seems that loads of areas around us are in the same boat, as indeed are very many communities in the west.
While there is no point in politicising the situation and apportioning blame – like some politicians seem to be doing – the bottom line is that this situation is not acceptable. If nothing else, we must be ready for such an eventuality if and when it happens again.
Now anyone who heard the ferocity of the wind in the early hours of Friday, 24th of January last will know it was definitely on a mind-boggling scale, but we had been warned that a fearsome storm was coming and therefore maybe steps should have been taken a little bit quicker.
However, that’s all in the past. It appears that everything points to bigger and more powerful storms coming our way, so the challenge for this, and any other future government, has to be to forget about stupid party squabbles and differences and formulate a plan to deal with such events in the future.
I wrote a few weeks ago, long before Éowyn was ever heard of, that the fact that our new house builds all have electricity and no fireplaces or chimneys would cause problems for their owners with heat, or lack of it, in the event of a power outage – it didn’t take long for it to come to pass.
As an ordinary ‘two and sixpence’ I don’t have the answers but surely our highly-paid politicians and civil servants can come together and make sure plans are in place to deal with the type of weather events that are certainly going to be more and more frequent. Obviously the ESB workers are putting in Herculean efforts to try to get everyone sorted, and they of course must be applauded for their efforts, but it is not right that some people will have no power for a fortnight. So let’s make sure it won’t ever happen again.
And finally…
We all know that for such a little country we punch way above our weight in lots of different sports. People like Katie Taylor, Rachael Blackmore, Roy Keane and wee Barry McGuigan (amongst many others) have gained worldwide recognition for their talent and achievements in their different sports.
For the last two nights (as I write) it has scarcely been believable that in one of the most prestigious golf tournaments in the world (outside of the majors), we have had two Irishmen, Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry battling it out at the top of a world class leaderboard in the AT&T tournament in Pebble Beach, California.
McIlroy eventually won and took home 3.6 million US dollars, while Lowry, finishing in second place, earned himself a hefty 2.16 million dollars.
As the commentators marvelled that such a tiny island could have produced two such superstars, it struck me that in our long and glorious years of sporting achievements, to see the two lads at the very top has to rank amongst the best sporting moments of our lifetimes.
Now all we can hope for is that it proves to be the springboard for Rory to finally win his fifth major, after an 11-year wait since his fourth, and that the likeable Offaly man (Shane) can collect a second one to go with his British Open success in 2019.
I know my achievements don’t fully compare with those of McIllroy and Lowry, but I have decided to go to the turf shed and – if I can find my clubs – resume what up to now has been a pretty pathetic golfing career. Who knows, I might yet beat my brother Duff. Watch this space.
‘Til next week,
Bye for now
