Our columnist Frank Brandon on there always being another day for the disappointed sports fan, Ireland’s record-breaking performance at this year’s Olympics, the obstacles facing children interested in swimming, and the success of Creggs GAA’s recent club draw…
It’s the Sunday of the August Bank Holiday weekend as I write, and there is no doubt that the weather has been a fairly big spoilsport. The almost constant rain has put a dampener (literally) on stuff all over the place.
There are so many festivals going on around us at the moment, with Ballygar and Castlerea (among others) having huge events on this weekend, so I can only hope that tomorrow, Monday, will give them some respite (Editor: It did).
As a result of the wet weather, I have spent a lot of the day watching the Olympics, where water also played a big part in our medal hopes.
Obviously Daniel Wiffen had a huge chance in the 1500 metre swim final, but his earlier exertions probably caught up with him as he earned yet another medal for Team Ireland. This time it was a bronze, to go with his earlier gold, and that hard-earned medal brought Ireland’s total so far to seven – the highest we have ever earned in any Olympics, with a lot of stuff still to go!
However, on the other side of things, after making a big burst through the field and getting himself into serious contention for a medal, Rory McIlroy found the water on the 15th hole – a mistake that put paid to any chance he had of finishing on the podium. He still finished in a very creditable 5th place, but I do think he would have got at least a bronze if he hadn’t lost two shots on that hole.
We had our daughter and two granddaughters visiting for the weekend, and so I also spent some time watching episodes of Paw Patrol and Super Kitties before I had the misfortune of tuning in to see the Galway ladies get a bit of a trouncing in the All-Ireland final by Kerry. I had put up a few Galway flags in anticipation of two All-Ireland final appearances, but weather permitting, they will be coming down early this week.
I know I shouldn’t say it, but I really believe the Galway men blew the best chance they will have for a long time to win Sam Maguire, and while I am not as clued in to the ladies’ situation, it may be a long road back for them as well.
So tomorrow my five flags will go back into cold storage, and it could be a while before I need them again.
Before I leave the Olympics – it would be churlish not to comment on the atrocious refereeing that Castlerea’s Aoife O’Rourke was subject to, and although I didn’t see Daina Moorehouse’s bout, it seems that she too was simply robbed by shocking officiating. Every Olympics there seems to be more and more controversy in the boxing, and surely the day will come when that sport will manage to get itself removed from the actual event.
However, no matter what happens from now on, Team Ireland have excelled in many different sports. It is remarkable how swimming and rowing have taken off in Ireland, and how many top class competitors are coming through in both of those events.
As an aside, with all the interest there now is in swimming and with children wanting to swim from a very young age, I am told it’s almost impossible for kids to get a place in any swimming clubs in Co Mayo; none of them will even place children on a waiting list, they are so full. I don’t know how to solve the problem, but in this day and age surely the political will should be there to encourage all children to learn to swim as early as possible.
*Funnily enough, just after I had written that piece about the difficulties in getting kids into swimming clubs, I read Brendan O’Connor’s front page article on the Sunday Independent, in which he spoke about all the young kids pretending to be Daniel Wiffen and wanting to swim like him – “that’s if they can find a public pool to swim in”.
Gremlins, goals and a missing masterpiece!
According to most dictionaries, gremlins are imaginary, mischievous creatures that cause things to malfunction. As such, the greatest sportswriter of all time (in my opinion) Con Houlihan used to always blame the gremlins whenever there was any misprint or mistake in his printed article.
Well last week the gremlins got at a piece I had written – but rather than causing a malfunction, they simply devoured the whole lot! Though I might have been a little to blame as well… because I totally forgot to send the email to this newspaper!
Anyway, the gist of the lost masterpiece was that the magic of sport comes from the fact that no matter how disappointed or even devastated we may be after defeat (either as participants or supporters), there is always another day.
For us on the Galway side of the divide in Creggs, after the terrible let-down of the All-Ireland final, we at least had the first round game in the Intermediate football championship against St Croan’s to look forward to. And so on Friday evening last, in front of a great crowd in Creggs, on a pitch that looked absolutely resplendent, we got the chance to wipe out the disappointment of the previous weekend, and after a very shaky first-half performance we turned it on in the second half to record a very welcome (and very rare) win in the Intermediate Championship!
It’s funny how things can happen, because we had a number of injuries to key players, and I suppose we weren’t expecting too much on the night. The truth is that Croans could have been out of sight by half-time if their shooting had been a little better.
However, their failure to put us away during that first half left us hanging in, and a superb Darren Gately goal right on half-time left us in the almost unbelievable position of being a point ahead at the break.
And so we kicked on after the interval, and having managed to pull off an unexpected win, we headed to the village and had a few quiet pints to celebrate.
It’s only the first game out of three, so there’s some tough games ahead, but last weekend at least, Galway’s demise was a long way from my mind.
I am going to send this piece immediately now, while Con Houlihan’s gremlins are hopefully fast asleep!
And finally…
As I told you in the piece about our game with St Croan’s, our pitch was absolutely resplendent on Friday night. But of course these things don’t just happen by accident.
A couple of years ago, the pitch was in such a bad state that it had to be completely revamped, and as a result it was out of action for almost two years. This revamp involved a lot of local fundraising. Fundraising plays a huge part for all small clubs, as development of everything has to be paid for, and it’s a never-ending struggle for these clubs to keep going.
To that point, over the last few weeks out here in Creggs several club members have gone above and beyond in their efforts to sell tickets for the local draw for All-Ireland tickets, along with a couple of overnight stays in the fabulous Gibson Hotel – and as a result of their dedication, the draw was a great success!
The legend that is Mary D (Mary Devaney for the few that don’t know) has asked me to thank all the kind and generous people who bought tickets from her, and who in doing so are doing their bit to keep Creggs GAA Club afloat. They support every draw and fundraiser that the club undertakes, but it is the likes of Mary D who give up their time to continue calling on people and knocking on doors that are the real heroes.
As she thanks all of those who supported her, I wish to thank Mary and everyone else who put enormous effort into selling these and all other tickets! Without them and their likes all over, where would we – or every other rural club – be?
