Grealish’s divine intervention to deliver Liam McCarthy to Galway

Bradley Bytes – A sort of political column by Dara Bradley

Forget the bookmaker’s odds making Kilkenny favourites to win the All-Ireland senior hurling final on Sunday. And forget the fact that Kilkenny has Brian Cody, the greatest ever manager the game of hurling has seen.

And overlook the fact that they have TJ Reid, one of the game’s finest stickmen.

Ignore, too, the evidence that tradition is on their side . . . Kilkenny has won 10 out of the last 16 All-Ireland finals and their head-to-head against Galway in All-Ireland finals reads: four wins, one draw, one defeat.

Never mind that Galway has won just six of the 24 All-Ireland semi-final meetings with Kilkenny, since 1897.

Leave all those hard facts to one side and consider this: Galway has God on their side.

You see, Galway West TD Noel Grealish was in Rome recently and visited the Vatican.

The Independent Dáil deputy even got an audience with Pope Francis during his visit.

Afterwards, Nice Noel made a presentation to the pontiff on behalf of the Poor Clare sisters of Nun’s Island in the city.

And sources close to the Pontifical Swiss Guards have indicated to Bradley Bytes that, after the presentation, Grealish asked Pope Francis to put in a good word with the man above for a Galway win.

“The Bishop of Galway may be a Kilkenny man,” Pope Francis is rumoured to have responded. “But sure isn’t Joe Canning the closest thing to God on earth as I am?”

Whisper it but Galway for Liam . . . and that’s on Francis’ orders.

Mayor doesn’t curry favour with Indians

The city mayor’s ability to shove his foot into his mouth is quite spectacular.

He was at it again at the weekend, at the unveiling of an Indian stone at the Circle of Life Garden in Quincentennial Park in Salthill on Saturday.

The stone was sourced from the ancient temple town of Madurai in South East India, a place of seminal importance in the political life of Mahatma Gandhi.

It completes the Global Heritage Walkway in the Circle of Life Garden, which commemorates organ donors and their families.

Indian Ambassador to Ireland, Mrs Radhika Lal Lokesh, unveiled the stone, after a brief speech in which she emphasised the bonds between India and Ireland.

There was a sizeable number of Galway’s Indian community in the crowd for the unveiling.

Mayor Frank Fahy then said a few words . . . presumably off the cuff, or else he needs to sack the speech writers.

He referred to the cricket ground in Melbourne. Ignoring completely the, ahem, complex and, er, tetchy relationship between India and Pakistan, Frankeen, with all the diplomacy of a bull in a crystal shop, said: “I know nothing about cricket but ye in India and people in Pakistan are good at cricket.”

Cue collective facepalm from embarrassed locals.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.