Articles in the GAA Category

COLM SHALVEY Despite everything that 2020 has sprung and just two weeks after a remarkable day of provincial finals, the All-Ireland SFC decider will be between Dublin and Mayo for the fourth time in eight years after a pair of one-sided semi-finals at Croke Park. The pundits attempting to build up Saturday’s clash between Cavan and Dublin are at pains to point out that the Ulster champions are there on merit, but they are under no illusions about the task at hand for Mickey Graham’s side. Peter Canavan on Sky Sports ...

HAPPY DAYS: Clodagh Kelly from Smithborough, who won the world I.J.K.A Karate championships in Cork, is back training after lockdown. PICTURE © PHILIP FITZPATRICK

COLM SHALVEY Peter Donnelly (PICTURED) has returned to the Tyrone senior football set-up just over a year after joining Séamus McEnaney’s back-room team in Monaghan. The addition of the Coalisland man, who joined Ulster Rugby as Academy Athletic Development Coach in 2019, was seen as a coup for Monaghan, but Donnelly is now back in the fold in Tyrone after answering a call from Feargal Logan, who has joined Brian Dooher in taking the reins from Mickey Harte. Donnelly spoke to Tyrone’s Teamtalkmag on Monday night, when he said: “I’m thrilled ...

Cavan win the Anglo Celt Cup against the odds Colm Shalvey reports Far from the traditions of a bustling Clones in the (relative) heat of July, the 2020 Ulster SFC Final involves sitting at home in front of a screen, but to quote one of the most banal cliches in politics, “we are where we are”. The glut of sport available on our television screens mean that by the time 4pm on Sunday rolls around, much of the weekend has already been spent on the couch. Saturday’s All-Ireland SHC quarter-final wins for Galway ...

The GAA, at national and local level, marked the 100th anniversary of Croke Park’s Bloody Sunday last weekend. An impeccable ceremony at a near-empty Croke Park prior to Saturday’s Leinster SFC Final was the centrepiece of the weekend’s commemorations, featuring actor Brendan Gleeson and musicians Colm Mac Con Iomaire, Catherine Fitzgerald and Lisa Hannigan. GAA President John Horan called on the Association’s membership to light a candle at dusk on Saturday, while an initiative by the Galbally Pearses club in Tyrone saw clubs and counties around the country light …

COLM SHALVEY REPORTS A shot at a TG4 All-Ireland LGFA SFC semi-final slipped agonisingly by for Monaghan in Carrick-on-Shannon last Sunday, but they can reflect on some solid progress during the disjointed 2020 campaign. Monaghan needed to win a relegation play-off against Westmeath to secure their senior status for 2020, but they went within inches of dumping 2019 All-Ireland finalists Galway out of this year’s race in a thriller that was very much in keeping with the Group Two form guide. All three games in the section were decided by the ...

COLM SHALVEY GAA President John Horan has called on the Association’s membership to light a candle this Saturday, November 21, in memory of the 14 people who were killed on Bloody Sunday in Croke Park in 1920 by British forces. Michael Hogan, the Tipperary footballer shot dead on the pitch that day, after whom the Hogan Stand is named, was a younger brother of Dan Hogan, a Monaghan footballer, who would ascend to Dan Hogan Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces in the new Irish Free State later that ...

Monaghan chase semi-final place COLM SHALVEY REPORTS A place in the All-Ireland LGFA SFC semifinals is the significant prize on offer when Monaghan’s senior ladies take on Galway in Carrick-on-Shannon this Sunday. Monaghan emerged from the neareight- month shutdown with a superb start to their Group Two opener against Tipperary last Friday night in front of the TG4 cameras. Monaghan may have wished to stop the count after they hit nine of the game’s first ten points, but Tipp got right back into the game before half-time, with Aishling Moloney and Róisín ...

Colm Shalvey reports TYRONE 2-19 MONAGHAN.1-12 Monaghan’s long-standing status in the Nicky Rackard Cup ended with last Saturday’s Round 2B defeat at home to Tyrone. Monaghan are the only county to have competed in each of the first 16 years of the Nicky Rackard, having never gone up to the Christy Ring or down to the Lory Meagher, but they are set to drop down to the bottom tier for 2021, with the GAA set to relegate two teams from this year’s competition. Monaghan, who had maintained their Nicky Rackard status via relegation ...

John Graham reports A more resilient Cavan scored something of a shock, but overall deserved victory over Monaghan by the minimum margin after extra time in this closely contested and at times quite spectacular championship opener that was played in difficult conditions in Clones on Saturday afternoon last. This is the second year in a row that Cavan have scuppered Monaghan’s Ulster championship aspirations, but in any analysis Monaghan will have to look deep within themselves as to how they let this one get away. Following a shaky opening ten minutes ...