A Different View
100,000 steps for Cormac embodies soul of the GAA
A Different View with Dave O’Connell
History will be created within our midst this weekend when the largest ever gathering of All-Ireland winning captains takes place at, of all places, Ballybrit Racecourse.
From Clare’s winning captain of last summer, Pat Donnellan, back to Brian Smith who led Meath to Sam Maguire way back in 1949, they will come from all four corners of Ireland to join with our own famous captain from 1980, Joe Connolly, on a very special day.
Joe’s nephew Cormac – son of Murt and Mary – died after a four year battle after he was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2011. He too was a hurler and his Castlegar team-mates were his lifeline on the darkest of days.
There is no tighter community than the GAA and they look after their own….in life then, but now in a different context.
The Connollys wanted to honour Cormac’s life in a meaningful way, while raising money and awareness for charity at the same time.
They chose Pieta House – probably with the same mindset as that courageous young Kerryman Donal Lynch, who also died at a young age from cancer. It was because they felt life should be valued and cherished, and anything that helped those who couldn’t see that should have the help at hand to steer them through.
Thus 100,000 Steps for Cormac was conceived – a three-day walk that covers around 100,000 steps and would raise around €100,000 for Pieta, now established in Tuam thanks to the phenomenal commitment of John Concannon, along with the charity’s founder Joan Freeman.
And when the Connollys – the epitome of all that’s good about the GAA – called on their own, they were met with open arms.
So they divided their initiative into three; first up today ( Thursday) are the clubs around this county who have tasted All-Ireland glory – that’s seven hurling clubs, three football clubs, five camogie clubs and one ladies football.
And over the three days, this walk will start, finish or pass through every one of those parishes to taste All-Ireland glory.
The focus on Friday falls on Galway’s All-Ireland winning senior teams including six football, three hurling, two camogie and one ladies football from 1956 to 2013. The 94 Galway All-Stars from 1971 onwards in all GAA codes have also been invited.
Legends will be falling over each other if the launch of this event some weeks back is anything to go by – household names of the present, recent and distant past, mingling with those of us who marvelled at their feats on the biggest of sporting stages.
And then on Saturday, Galway will witness the greatest gathering of All-Ireland captains ever seen – at least sixty of them and maybe up to seventy. That’s two-thirds of the 100 that are alive.
They will come from north, south, east and west and those that cannot come mainly have very good reason – some are preparing for All-Ireland glory of their own; they are playing or training for the business end of this year’s championships.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune
If you don’t know who you are, the door staff have no chance
A Different View with Dave O’Connell
The only time in your life that you should ever utter the words: “Do you know who I am?” are if you’ve just had a bang on the head or you are unfortunately suffering from dementia.
Because, otherwise, the phrase ‘do you know who I am’ only serves to make things a whole lot worse.
Normally, the phrase is unleashed towards late night door staff on a wave of alcohol – and never once in the history of time has it produced the result the utterer had intended.
The doorman may well know who you are which is often the very reason you’re not getting into the place in the first instance – or if he doesn’t know who you are, he won’t be unduly influenced when he does, unless you’re a famous movie star or his long-lost cousin.
‘Do you know where I am?’ might often be closer to the phrase you’re looking for, because that would serve you well when you’re looking for a taxi.
‘Do you know who I am?’ is a threatening phrase that in truth wouldn’t frighten the cat. But if you’re anxious to dig the hole a few shovels deeper, you should follow up with ‘I’d like to speak to your manager.’
Managers can be elusive at the best of times, but they’re normally rarer than hen’s teeth when it comes to the small hours of the morning – and even if they’re there, they are most likely watching proceedings on CCTV…just so they know who you are, in case you yourself can’t remember.
‘I’d like to speak to your manager’ suggests that you and he or she are from the one social sphere which is several strata north of the one occupied by door staff.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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Connacht Tribune
Eurovision is just a giant party that could never cause offence
A Different View with Dave O’Connell
As it turned out, we were much closer to a Eurovision win than we could ever have imagined – not Ireland, of course, because we’ve now mastered the art of just sending cannon fodder to be blown out in the semi-final.
No, this was just two of us – myself and our eldest – who were lucky enough to be at Anfield for the Reds’ recent win over Brentford, where positioned in the seat right in front of us were four happy lads from Finland.
One of them, we now know, was Käärijä, the singer of the catchiest song at Eurovision, Cha Cha Cha.
But just a week before 7,000 people sung his catchphrase at the Eurovision Arena, he and two his mates – accompanied by an older bloke who had to be either his dad or from the national broadcaster – sat anonymously in the same corner of the lower level of Anfield’s Main Stand.
He was utterly unknown to us as well of course, and the only thing that saw him stand out was his green nail varnish. Live and let live, of course, but it still ensures that you make an impression even if it looks like you were just very late for St Patrick’s Day.
Käärijä may well be Liverpool’s greatest Scandinavian fan, although the bar for that is set fairly high, given that they invade the city in greater numbers every two weeks than the Vikings did just once during the first millennium.
Equally, he may not be a football fan at all – although, as the rest of the week proved, he sure loves a crowd.
Positioned as we were in the corner of the Main Stand, the next section to us, around the corner in the Anfield Road Stand – currently adding a top layer – was occupied by the visiting Brentford supporters.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Connacht Tribune
Tapping is contactless – but it’s soulless too
A Different View with Dave O’Connell
Contactless payments reached a record €17.9 billion in Ireland last year – up by 31 per cent on 2021, as people came out from under their Covid shell and appear to have left their cash behind them.
Figures from the Banking & Payments Federation found that – despite the cost-of-living increases – the Irish public made three million contactless payments a day, worth an average of €53 million in the final quarter of 2022.
Given that there are 3.8 million people in Ireland over the age of 18, that means that almost every single one of us tapped the card every day last year.
And again, on the presumption that there are a few who still prefer peeling a fifty off a wad of notes, the true figure may be even higher, as we eschew actual money every time we go into a restaurant, bar or shop.
Then comes the monthly morning of reckoning when you open your statement – electronic of course because, like paper money, banks don’t deal in paper statements anymore either – and your guilty secrets unfurl like a rap sheet before your very eyes.
Five taps of a Friday night in the local, followed by a five-ounce burger meal on the way home.
And just why did you need a family-pack of crisps when a small bag would have done? Was all that beer and wine really for a party, or a night in just for one?
Cash provided plenty of dark corners to ignore your profligacy, but there are no hiding places in the contactless world.
Worse still, until that morning of reckoning arrives, you’ve no clue how much you’ve spent, and handing over the card doesn’t hurt half as much as parting with hard cash.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.