Latest news with #BenBrady
Irish Daily Mirror
4 days ago
- Sport
- Irish Daily Mirror
The best photos as close to 30,000 women turn Dublin purple for Mini Marathon
28,000 women turned the streets of Dublin purple on Sunday for the 2025 VHI Women's Mini Marathon. The event, now in its 43rd year, is more popular than ever, and spots on the starting lineup were sold out in record time. With a theme this year of "Championing Womankind", women came from all over the country to run in the race. The youngest participant was just 14, while the oldest was aged 89. The race was won by Grace Richardson from Kilkenny City Harriers in a time of 34:17, with Claire Fagan from Mullingar Harriers AC finishing second in 34:35. Sinead Kane from Le Chéile AC placed first in the Visually Impaired category with her time of 44:26 in the 10km event. iDonate, the event's official fundraising partner, reported a massive total of over €2 million and counting, bringing the cumulative amount raised by the Vhi Women's Mini Marathon to well over €255 million since its inception in 1982. David O'Leary, Race Director of the Vhi Women's Mini Marathon said: 'The 2025 Vhi Women's Mini Marathon has been one of our most exciting yet. "From the sheer number of participants to the new innovations and incredible stories we heard in the lead up to and today, it truly captured what Championing Womankind is all about. "Congratulations to every woman who took part, and thank you to our amazing volunteers, our dedicated sponsors, An Garda Síochána, Dublin City Council and all our other stakeholders, and of course, our title sponsor Vhi.' Laurna and Evilin celebrate with a hug after finishing the race (Image: ©INPHO/Ben Brady) 1 of 12 Participants celebrate finishing with their medals (Image: ©INPHO/Ben Brady) 2 of 12 A participant celebrates whilst running through the finish line (Image: ©INPHO/Ben Brady) 3 of 12
The 42
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The 42
The feeling, the heart, the soul: Clones and Croke Park get us in the guts
THERE'S A PICTURE of an Ulster final day of the 1960s. As Fermanagh Street tumbles down from Matt Fitzpatrick Square and ramps heavenwards towards St Tiernach's Park, the scene demands your attention. Advertising hoarding juts out from the street façade, advising that Guinness is good for you, the famous Harp lager sign and ladies hairdressing saloons. You could smoke your lungs to a standstill if you followed the advice of Sweet Afton and Gold Flake. Clones in the 1960s. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo Bunting tethered across the street. Beneath them, groups of young men in suits and women in pencil skirts stand around, taking in the day or else journeying up or down. Some 30 years later, the Cavan newspaper The Anglo Celt commissioned the poet and playwright Tom MacIntyre to write a colour piece on the 1995 Ulster final between Cavan and Tyrone. 'Clones, two hours before the match, the streets packed and rich with colour, sun shining, hamburgers and hot-dogs hopping up and down like eggs in a ponger. 'It's a Fair, I thought. The Ulster final has become a Fair, a Festival, a Fleadh. Are we starting to learn to enjoy ourselves, I wondered?' 30 years on from that day and I retraced MacIntyre's steps on Saturday. I parked out the Roslea Road end and walked around the long way to Matt Fitzpatrick Square in an act of self-sacrifice only matched by war correspondents. The square was resplendent as a technicolour dream; tangerine dreams and the green and gold of the most forlorn counties of them all. My hand went into my pocket to retrieve my phone in a futile attempt to capture it all. It's impossible to capture a feeling. On down through the hot, steaming mass of skin browning, baking or burning. Struck by the mix of all ages, the good humour and the obvious and gauche flirting of the rural Ulsterfolk; charming a potential partner by slagging them about something, anything at all. We are now at that age when we truly can say without irony that 'it is nice to, see the young people enjoying themselves.' 100 'scuse mes' later and the crowd opens up as you stretch the calves on the climb to the ground. Banjos are being plucked by a street side beat combo. A tinny tannoy broadcasts something a bit country and wobbly. Off in the distance behind us, the techno thump endures. Advertisement The Clones hill in full voice. Ben Brady / INPHO Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO Images of children starved, bombed, burned and drowned from Gaza over the past year are fixed to the high fences. You cannot ignore them. They compel you to look and study and think how you can be in this unreality and confronted by the reality with banners imploring you not to support Israeli goods. Into the quirky concrete bowl and the day out properly unfolds. A line of people pouring into the hill remains right up until ten minutes after the game has thrown in. The day is alive and raw. None of this could have happened without the £700 handed over to local Methodist called Samuel Keary for some land that was turned into a ground and opened in time for the 1944 Ulster final. What a legacy. Questions have been raised about the provincial system. Is it now 'fit for purpose?' Has it outlived it's initial aim? How much of that debate was generated by Dublin's unrestricted authority in Leinster? And where that argument tails off, it is taken up again by the current situation whereby the provincial championships are almost entirely a clean divorce from the All-Ireland championships, only, well, there's kids involved. The former Derry captain, Chrissy McKaigue, is the ultimate bottom-line man. An example: In talking to this website over the winter following his retirement, we asked how he felt about entering the knockout stage of last year's All-Ireland series having already lost three games, he pointed out that everyone knew the rules before the competition started. Soon after he lifted the Anglo-Celt Cup in 2022, he was in the cool of the tunnel leading to the dressing room. We passed a remark about the significance of the Ulster championship. Instantly, he replied that as of the following year, it had little relevance beyond as a seeding mechanism for the All-Ireland series. McKaigue was right. Factually, you cannot dispute what he said. And yet how wrong he is too once you strip away the logical part of the mind. What has been logical about the Ulster and Leinster championships this year? What we have had instead is an succumbing to our emotions. Gaelic football had lost that for many years. The crowds shrank and kept their distance. Twitter became an important tool to lift the sense of ennui, ostensibly to check on scores around the grounds, but truly to offer some topics of discussion and debate while that in front of you faltered and drifted along. The new rules of Gaelic football are not perfect. The rules of Gaelic football have never been perfect ever since Cusack and his accomplices codified them. But the games are more arresting now. The romance of Meath beating Dublin was only trumped by Louth coming up the rails and making good on their third consecutive Leinster final appearance. The crowd in Croke Park of 65,786 shows us that the drug of identity and belonging gives a heck of a kick. We are at our best when silliness and frippery takes over. For all the Trust The Process chat, the sight of Louth's Dermot Campbell throwing the Delaney Cup over the goalline at the Canal End shows that the 2010 Leinster final Grand Larceny burned a hole in the soul of all Louth GAA people that was partly repaired on Sunday. Thomas O'Reilly performs with Grace Agnew ahead of the Leinster final. Tom Maher / INPHO Tom Maher / INPHO / INPHO As a sporting body, the GAA are blessed to have such incredible talent working in photography as the scenes captured in Croke Park and Clones show. There's something about the blending of colour, with the heat of Clones. Light dying, the shadow of the Gerry Arthurs Stand. The windows at the back offering pin pricks of light. It was as its most radiant when an Armagh player clipped a Donegal player just after the final whistle when he was having what we might charitably term, 'a moment to himself.' Carnage: Armagh and Donegal get stuck into each other. Ben Brady / INPHO Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO Most people would fall into two camps; feeling that perhaps the Donegal player 'fucked around and found out', or that it was a disgrace that an Armagh figure pucked the head off another, before an accomplice lost all self-control and barrelled at his opponent. Jim McGuinness and Aidan Forker clash. Ben Brady / INPHO Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO There is something insanely compelling about the photography of that moment. Of Jim McGuinness displaying the body language of a man trying to de-escalate tensions but at the same time getting a bit ragged all the same, of a deeply-aggrieved Aidan Forker remonstrating with McGuinness, of a veteran Donegal supporter, his 2004 Abbey Hotel jersey stretched tight over his midriff while he ill-advisedly appears to be either getting stuck in or is the only man to settle everything. And in the middle, a flare that offers a texture, haze and contrast. These pictures might be some of the most dramatic images ever captured around a game of Gaelic Games. Or maybe, maybe, maybe that's just me. Clones holds secrets. Clones holds truths. Think of the day when Tyrone won their very first Ulster title in 1956. They were captained by 19-year-old Jody O'Neill of Coalisland. After the game he washed himself and made his way down the hill towards the Creighton Hotel, on the corner of the Newtownbutler Road. Underneath the arches of the old stables, there were haybales left out that people sat on, smoking, drinking, chatting. He met his father with some Coalisland people who were eager to take a sup out of the Anglo-Celt Cup. Once they had one, they urged the county captain to do the same. He looked nervously at his father, who said, 'Whatever you like, son.' He didn't take the drink. There's a million stories like that. Of the Eoin O'Duffy Terrace, named after an Ulster Council Treasurer, IRA man, the second Commissioner of An Garda Síochána and later Fascist sympathiser who raised an army to go fighting for General Franco. Of James McCartan's boot flying into the stand, propelled by Tyrone's Paul Donnelly acting the maggot. Of the multiple Armagh pitch invasions in 1999 before the final whistle. Of the Frank McGuigan masterclass of 1984. Is there anyone out there who is insane enough to believe that a British Government – who would rather see Bridie Brown, the widow of murdered GAA official Sean Brown, pass away without ordering a Public Enquiry as ordered up by the Court of Appeal – will ever make up the shortfall of funding for a redeveloped Casement Park? Related Reads 'Why not us?' - Sam Mulroy on Louth's belief as they end 68-year wait for Leinster glory It's bananas and bonkers but Armagh-Tyrone thriller shows Gaelic football is back Armagh land 1-20 in blistering second half to see off Antrim in Ulster quarter-final If so, they need to be cared for. But let's say the money is found from wherever. And a brand new stadium that surpasses the capacity of Clones is built in Belfast. There would be a wow factor for a time. But the links back through history would be severed. No more silage fields stripped bare in the heat of summer for car parking. No more pitch celebrations, with the St Tiernach's bell tolling in the background. No more of a town becoming an Ulster final theme park for the day. No more on-street drinking, haybales, long strolls out the capillary roads leading out of an Irish country town, glowing in victory, muttering cursewords in defeat. It's been this way for 30, 60, 90 years. It traces all the way back to 'The Creamery Manager' short story by John McGahern, when Garda Casey is reluctant to arrest a local businessman for financial impropriety. Because he once commandeered a vehicle to bring a few of them to an Ulster final. 'You gave us a great day out,' said Garda Casey. 'A day out of all of our lives.' You lose Clones, you lose that.
The 42
06-05-2025
- Sport
- The 42
The days of the skort are numbered, will it even see out the 2025 season?
IN THE SCRAPBOOK at home, there were more than a few pictures of my mother's heyday playing camogie. Camogie featured heavily in their sporting diets. The Wifi wasn't great. No reference was too fleeting and all clippings were preserved like precious artifacts, even one detailing how an uncle, a former county footballer, was home from Birmingham on his holidays and spent an evening refereeing a game at short notice. Back in the late '60s and '70s, the main thing you notice was the kit the players wore. Pinafores, I believe. Boxy, stiff, restrictive, all-in-one garments that made the playing of sport less enjoyable. Not so much your Speedo 'Second Skin' concept, as explained by Billy Connolly when he described the typical swimwear of the west of Scotland family on holiday, 'but second cardigan.' Onwards then to the '80s and the introduction of jersey and a skort. Even the invention of a compound word to indicate that this garment wasn't quite a skirt, wasn't quite a pair of shorts, feels like a twisted joke that Éamon de Valera foisted on the nation before he shuffled off this mortal coil. If memory serves, the offending garment was as heavy as some offcuts of tarpaulin, with pleats ironed in so sharp that it could have severed a limb. Even armed with all these watery anecdotes, 'Skorting Around The Issue' was the column topic that was always there on the emergency list, bobbling around with others that you could, at any time, have knocked a handy 950 words from. Only, you never did. Why is that? Because it was one of those topics that just seemed too obvious, too boring, too damn ridiculous. Camogie players at a recent launch. Ben Brady / INPHO Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO Unless you played Devil's Advocate and really went for it in a BorisJohnsonification effort where you dictated that, actually, it was perfectly fine to dictate to women what they should wear and that they bloody well should get on with it. Advertisement In a pre-Weinstein world, that might have even flown. Sepp Blatter suggested that women's soccer would instantly become more popular by introducing tighter kits. In the past, some columnists have even gone as far as to suggest the same for women's Gaelic games. You'd doubt they keep a copy preserved in their portfolio. Only after the protest of Dublin and Kilkenny camogie players in the Leinster semi-final has it become an issue. If raising awareness is what they wanted, then they achieved that. It was a timely protest in that a Gaelic Player's Association survey published last week held that 70% of inter-county camogie players found the skort to be uncomfortable, while 83% felt the individual player should have a choice between shorts or the skort. Concerns around skorts include testimony from players who have been exposed in social media from pictures taking while playing, while some have stated it impacts on their play in a negative way. Almost half said they experienced anxiety around their period showing. That's not good. In fact that's awful. At underage level, within my own hurling and camogie club, the coaches tell me that a lot of young girls absolutely hate the skort and every time they take the field there are at least a couple who try to wear shorts. It takes very little to put some young girls off playing sports. Why create this barrier? We also learned that four separate motions brought to Camogie Congress in 2024 relating to playing gear were defeated. So administrators are taking the players for granted. The Camogie Association have had their say. They are not for budging. They might have to think again in the coming days and weeks. Many more protests are reputedly planned. And the thing is, it will be easy to object now. The hard work has been done by the Kilkenny and Dublin camogs. The arguments by many but most especially by Ashling Maher has painted any opponents into a corner. There is no counter-argument. None whatsoever. Dublin captain Ashling Maher. Dan Sheridan / INPHO Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO So here's the solution. The Camogie Association calls an Extraordinary General Meeting. All the delegates are directed by a vote taken among their intercounty squad. The motion is passed. At club level, one club brings up a motion at the next county meeting, to apply to camogie within their county. Every club then takes their vote. Sports administration has a habit of making out things are complicated. They really are not. Because of all the things camogie players and camogie people could get het up about, this doesn't deserve to be an issue. There are huge issues with creating a calendar of fixtures with venues nailed down. Player welfare is still not perfect in many counties. Camogie needs a little help from the Hurling Development Committee in growing the game. There's also a deeper philosophical issue about the direction of camogie. For years, players have been crying out for a greater tolerance to contact, which has only recently been relaxed. Given the choice, most would wish to play hurling, basically. A couple of weekends back, Wexford's Lee Chin went viral with a clip of him blocking down a Dublin player using his hands, having lost his hurl. While it is undoubtedly an act of raw courage, anyone who had watched Cork camogie player Ashling Thompson's episode of Laochra Gael would recall her in an insane pursuit of an opponent, sans hurl, with hands in the air trying to block a shot down. This is the game as it is: athletic excellence, courage, mad amounts of skill. It's a vision of Irish womanhood generations and worlds removed from the de Valera notion of comely maidens at the crossroads. The days of the skort are numbered. It will do well to see out this season.
The 42
05-05-2025
- Sport
- The 42
Shamrock Rovers back to winning ways as Greene nets his 100th league goal
Shamrock Rovers 2 Sligo Rovers 0 AARON GREENE SCORED his 100th league goal as Shamrock Rovers got back to winning ways against bottom-of-the-table Sligo Rovers at Tallaght Stadium. The 35 year-old, in his 17th season in the domestic game, doubled Rovers' lead in an utterly dominant first half, as they earned a first win in five to sit a point off league leaders Drogheda United, ahead of meeting them in Dublin 24 on Friday. Graham Burke, central to everything good about Stephen Bradley's side in the first 45 minutes, had earlier put them ahead from the penalty spot. Utterly outplayed in the first half, Sligo had far more about them on the resumption as Hoops lost their way somewhat. But with ex-Sligo goalkeeper Ed McGinty making fine saves to deny Matt Wolfe and Ronan Manning, Sligo couldn't come close to repeating their win over the Tallaght side from earlier in the season as they remain three points adrift at the foot of the table. Burke twice got sight of the Sligo goal, working Sam Sergeant before a second effort was deflected for a corner, as Hoops started very much on the front foot. Following some patient build up play, Jack Byrne then curled an audacious effort just wide. Sligo were creaking and their goal was finally breached on 25 minutes. Advertisement Burke was everywhere for Hoops and it was he who got to the end line to see his cross strike the hand of Sligo right-back Conor Reynolds. Referee Rob Hennessy pointed to the spot despite Sligo's protests before Burke sent Sergeant the wrong way from the spot. Shamrock Rovers' Graham Burke with Conor Reynolds of Sligo Rovers. Ben Brady / INPHO Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO Adam Matthews blazed wastefully over the bar when he should have at least hit the target ahead of Rovers making no mistake in extending their lead three minutes before the interval. Byrne and Burke were the architects, the latter chipping a sublime ball over the home defence. Greene timed his run perfectly to swivel and volley to the net for his 47th goal for Rovers and the milestone century of league strikes in his career. It might have been worse for Sligo right on the blow of the break but for a brave block tackle by skipper John Mahon on Darragh Nugent who pulled the trigger from Matthews' cross. Sligo regrouped at the interval and enjoyed a good spell of pressure early in the second half from a series of corners with McGinty denying Wolfe with his feet. Stephen Bradley celebrates after the game. Ben Brady / INPHO Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO Hoops skipper Roberto Lopes then cleared an Owen Elding header off the line from Will Fitzgerald's cross as Sligo pressed to get back into the game. Greene had a goal disallowed before bringing a parry save from Sargeant. Back at the other end, Francely Lomboto blew a glorious chance when ballooning his shot off target from Elding's through ball. Manning then brought a tip over save from McGinty as Sligo maintained their resurgence, if to no avail as Rovers' first half dominance proved more than enough. Shamrock Rovers: McGinty; Grace, Lopes, C. O'Sullivan; Matthews, Nugent, Healy (O'Neill, 67), Byrne (Noonan, 67), Grant (Ozhianvuna, 83); Burke (O'Sullivan, 67); Greene (Gaffney, 83). Sligo Rovers: Sergeant; Reynolds (Lintott, 77), McElroy, Mahon, Hutchinson; Wolfe (Patton, 77), Manning; Elding, Hakiki (Kavanagh, h-t; Mallon, 82), Fitzgerald; Lomboto (Waweru, 77). Referee: Rob Hennessy (Clare). Attendance: 4,577.
Irish Times
29-04-2025
- Sport
- Irish Times
Gerry Thornley: all four Irish provinces beaten on same weekend for first time since March 2015
All seems even less hunky dory underneath the surface after that weekend. For the first time since March 2015 all four Irish sides lost on the same weekend, on top of which the Ireland women's team suffered their most sobering reality check of the campaign. That said, for those in Clontarf, Nenagh, Trinity, Dungannon, Skerries and Thomond it was the best weekend of the season. The last time all four Irish provinces lost on the same weekend was in the old Pro 12, when the quartet each suffered defeats to Welsh opposition. As then Leinster lost away to the Scarlets, while Munster , beaten in Cardiff on Friday night, lost to the Ospreys a decade ago. Connacht had a fall off in performance after their brave effort in defeat to the Stormers when losing to the Lions last Saturday, while Ulster were worn down by the Sharks' superior physicality and depth on Saturday night. Leinster, of course, could afford just a second defeat of the season, especially as Glasgow were outmuscled at home by the Stormers on Friday night, so maintaining the eight-point gap at the top the table ahead of next Saturday's Champions Cup showdown against a dangerous Northampton. READ MORE Victory at home to Zebre a week later would ensure top seeding in the BKT URC playoffs ahead of their final game at home to Glasgow; additionally helpful if they have reached a fourth successive Champions Cup final a week later. By contrast Munster, Ulster and Connacht have all fallen outside the top eight, and there is a distinct likelihood that Ireland will only have two sides in next season's Champions Cup for the first time ever, with the possibility that this may even be one side. That would be quite a fall. Munster and Ulster meet at Thomond Park next Friday week in what is now a dog-eat-dog scrap for playoff and Champions Cup qualification between two provinces who have been ever-presents in the 30 years of the latter competition. Ireland captain Edel McMahon speaking to the team huddle after the game against Scotland in Edinburgh on April 26th, 2025. Photograph: Ben Brady/Inpho While Munster now sit ninth behind Benetton, with both on 41 points, by dint of winning less matches they have their destiny in their own hands as they also host the Italian outfit at Musgrave Park in the final round six nights later. By contrast an Ulster squad even more lacking in depth sit in 12th on 38 points, and so their need is the more acute in Thomond Park ahead of a trek to Edinburgh, who are 10th, on the ensuing Friday. Connacht's chances of the top eight are more remote as they sit 14th on 35 points and must finish with wins at home to Edinburgh and away to Zebre if they are to have any chance of a top-eight place. Significantly, the Welsh quartet finish their campaigns with two games in South Africa. The fear always lurked that for all the huge improvement in the Ireland women's team in the last 12 months some of it had to be attributed to the return of Olympian Sevens players who were unavailable in last season's Six Nations, and that while they have become a good team they are not yet a good squad. In the absence of the hugely influential Sam Monaghan, Erin King and Aoife Wafer, that lack of depth was further exposed when losing Edel McMahon and Dorothy Wall in the first half of last Saturday's loss to Scotland in Edinburgh. It's still been a campaign of progress, with more competitive displays at home to England and France, as well as the high point of the win in Parma. But Saturday's defeat is a setback psychologically, and certainly gives the first World Cup warm-up match against Scotland in Cork on August 2nd more significance. Either way while a World Cup semi-final is still a viable target, beating New Zealand again in the pool stages or overcoming France in the quarter-final looks a tall order, particularly after the stirring late comeback by Les Bleus in losing 43-42 in Saturday's Grand Slam decider against England. Clontarf's Hugh Cooney against Cork Constitution at the Aviva Stadium on April 27th, 2025. Photograph: Bryan Keane/Inpho Amid all this club rugby was seen at its best on the final weekend of the AIL as UL Bohs and Clontarf secured All-Ireland titles again at the Aviva Stadium. À la the Joey Carbery final when Clontarf beat Cork Constitution in 2016, last Sunday wasn't quite the Hugh Cooney final, but it wasn't far off it either. As a Clontarf centre who came through Blackrock, Cooney is not the first to plot such a journey, and while not wanting to saddle him unduly with comparisons to The Great One, with his leg power, explosiveness, pace and low centre of gravity the 21-year-old has similar attributes. Cooney and Hugh Gavin look like being the first of the new crop of young centres coming through to be capped this summer in Tbilisi or Georgia. Meanwhile Nenagh Ormond became the first Tipperary club to be promoted to Division 1A and Trinity preserved their 1B status with dramatic two-score comebacks at home to wilting UCC and Cashel sides. Dungannon won promotion to 1B by winning in Navan, Skerries stayed in 2B by beating Midleton at home, and Thomond reclaimed their AIL status by winning in Omagh in the only game that wasn't a one-score affair. The league has found a niche. Ten-team divisions and playoffs ensure jeopardy and a dearth of dead rubbers until the very end. But having the finals a week after the semi-finals, which are just a fortnight after the three-game rush to the season's final standings, is just too demanding a load for the mostly amateur and semi-pro players. The best final of recent times was two years ago, when Terenure beat Clontarf 50-24, which was a fortnight after the semi-finals. That's the way it should be. The AIL finals could have been held next Sunday, on the May bank holiday weekend, which would also help rather than hinder clubs outside Dublin such as Cork Constitution in bringing members and fans to Dublin. It would also afford the IRFU, sponsors and finalists two weeks to promote the finals. The May bank holiday weekend should be enshrined in the club calendar as All-Ireland club rugby weekend. If occasionally this clashed with Leinster matches or the finals were lost to either TG4 or from the Aviva to somewhere else nor would that be the end of the world.
