Latest news with #CathalMcCarthy
Irish Daily Mirror
15-07-2025
- Sport
- Irish Daily Mirror
Ireland underage star compared to Barca legend after Hull City friendly display
Ireland Under-19 international Cathal McCarthy has been cheekily compared to Barcelona and Spain legend Sergio Busquets - after a brilliant display in midfield on Tuesday. McCarthy completed his move from League of Ireland side UCD to Championship outfit Hull City late last month. And after impressing in a pre-season friendly against Lincoln City, he was included in the first-team squad for their training camp in Turkey. Centre-half McCarthy played the second-half against Turkish side Istanbulspor on Tuesday afternoon, in an unfamiliar role. And his performance had Tigers fans purring, with one leading fan account posting a meme comparing him with Busquets, now at Inter Miami with Lionel Messi, along with the comment: 'What a half from young Cathal McCarthy.' Hull announced the double signing of UCD pair McCarthy and Hugh Parker last February. And while Parker left straight away, McCarthy opted to remain with the League of Ireland side on-loan until he completed his Leaving Certificate. He told MirrorSport at the time: 'Some lads would be chomping at the bit and would go straight away, but everybody is different. 'My classmates kind of respect it as well - fair enough, you want to do the Leaving Cert. I'm sure it will come in handy down the line. Click this link or scan the QR code to receive the latest League of Ireland news and top stories from the Irish Mirror. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice . 'When I said it to Hull that I'd love to finish the Leaving Cert, they knew how important it was to me so they said it would be no problem.' McCarthy played schoolboy football for local side Caragh Celtic, then moved to Newbridge Town in the DDSL and later he went to Klub Kildare to play in the Under-13 League of Ireland. UCD snapped him up for their Under-17 side and he played in the UEFA Youth League, before his first-team breakthrough came midway through last season. He completed his move to Hull on June 26, after finishing up his exams. McCarthy added of his decision to move to the Tigers: 'Making the decision to move to Hull was a no-brainer. I knew I could fit in there, because they understand me as a person as well as a footballer. They are helping me out in life as well as in football.' Get the latest sports headlines straight to your inbox by signing up for free email .
Irish Examiner
15-06-2025
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Cork Hurling League round up: Champions Sarsfields secure place in Division 1 final
There will be plenty of drama in the final round of Divison 1 of the Red FM Cork Hurling League in two weeks' time after the penultimate round was played out over the weekend. Reigning champions Sarsfields secured their place in the final with Douglas, St Finbarr's, Glen Rovers and Charleville all in contention to join them. At the other end of affairs, Kanturk and Carrigaline have been relegated. Sars booked their place in the decider with a 0-24 to 0-21 win over Blackrock in Church Road on Thursday. They were boosted by the availability of their Cork men, Jack O'Connor, Cathal McCarthy and Daniel Hogan who shot 0-7, 0-4 and 0-2 respectively. Colm McCarthy also hit 0-7 for Sars and Bryan Murphy clipped 0-2. Robbie Cotter played for the Rockies and helped himself to 0-7, Gavin Connolly and Michael O'Halloran both scored 0-3 while Tadhg Deasy hit 0-2. Douglas are a point behind Sars after they beat Fr O'Neill's by 1-21 to 1-17 on Sunday morning. Alan Cadogan showed his class for Douglas by hitting 0-9, Conor O'Donovan fired 0-6 from full-forward and Niall Hartnett bagged the goal. Kevin O'Sullivan scored 0-11 for O'Neill's, Mikey Wall raised the green flag and Rob Cullinane clipped 0-2. St Finbarr's remained in contention to make the final after they bested Carrigaline by 1-26 to 0-16. Ethan Twomey and William Buckley were in form for the Barrs, with Buckley hitting 1-12 with 1-7 coming from play. Cathal Crowley and Scott Callanan both fired 0-3 for the Barrs and Colm Keane landed 0-2. Brian Kelleher shot 0-9 for Carrig but other results confimed their return to the second tier. Charleville kept their hopes of reaching back-to-back finals alive by beating Kanturk by 1-22 to 1-18 on Sunday morning. David Forde and Zack Biggane led the way for Charleville, with both men clipping 0-6, Rob Carroll fired 1-2 and Andrew Cagney delivered 0-3. Ronan Sheahan had 0-9 for Kanturk, Ian Walsh struck for 1-2 and Brian O'Sullivan contributed 0-4 but it wasn't enough to save them from the trapdoor. Glen Rovers also gave themselves a chance of making the final when they played out a 3-15 to 1-21 draw with Carrigtwohill on Sunday night. In a game that was level on six occasions, Dean Brosnan hit 1-3 for the Glen, Luke O'Connor bagged 1-2 and Stephen Lynam hit 1-1 from the bench. Sean Walsh hit 1-10 for Carrig, Mark O'Connor pilfered 0-3 while Jay Horgan was outstanding in defence. The race for promotion from Division 2 will go down to the final day with Erin's Own and Midleton locked on fourteen points and Killeagh two behind. The Magpies will play Killeagh in the final round in a fortnight. Midleton kept their fate in their own hands when they beat Ballymartle by 1-21 to 0-13 last Tuesday. Brion Saunderson manned the posts for the Magpies, Cormac Beausang fired 0-7 and Pa White clipped 1-2. Ryan Deasy scored 0-5 for Ballymartle and Luke O'Callaghan scored 0-4. Erin's Own joined them on top of the pile when they beat Ballincollig by 2-18 to 0-18 on Thursday. Conor Lenihan hit 1-6 for the Caherlag based side, Cian O'Callaghan bagged the other goal and Finn O'Brien fired 0-4. Brian Keating led the way for Ballincollig with 0-6, while Mark Oldham and Cian O'Driscoll both hit 0-4. Killeagh kept in touch with the top two with a 2-15 to 1-15 win over Valley Rovers on Sunday morning. Ryan McCarthy hit 1-8 for Killeagh, Richie Long clipped 1-1 and Evan Lane fired 0-2 while Matthew Woods raised the green flag for the Rovers. Éire Óg keep their survival hopes alive with a 1-25 to 1-13 win over Fermoy. Eoin Kelleher fired 0-14 for the Ovens men, Mark Kelleher bagged the goal while Johnny Galvin, Lar Considine and Jerome Kelleher all contributed. The result condemned Fermoy to relegation. Finally, Newtownshandrum ensured that they will finish in fourth spot after they beat Na Piarsaigh by 2-18 to 0-21 on Saturday. Eoin O'Mahony and Conor Twomey had the goals for Newtown, Jamie Coughlan hit 0-6 and Bill Collins clipped 0-4. For Na Piarsaigh Keith Buckley hurled well in defence while Daire Connery and Cian Hogan did well in attack.
RTÉ News
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- RTÉ News
'Big Skygazer' sculpture to be unveiled in Mote Park
A 13-metre-long wooden sculpture, which is part of the restoration and rejuvenation of Mote Park in Roscommon, is being unveiled today. The 'Big Skygazer' is a curved wooden bench, which will allow visitors to enjoy the beautiful surrounding woodland. Mote Park, close to Roscommon town, sustained significant during Storm Éowyn in January. It is hoped the artwork, which is part of efforts to transform and rejuvenate the park, will attract more visitors to the area. The artwork was created by Mayo artist Cathal McCarthy, in collaboration with designer Michael McLaughlin, and has been crafted from sustainably sourced Irish Douglas Fir timber.
Irish Times
01-06-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
‘He is 13 and he's huge. He will be the next Wayne Dundon': Limerick on edge as a new generation takes over gangland
Cathal McCarthy has aged well in the past 13 years, despite what he has been through. In 2012 the father of three had faced down Limerick's most violent criminals and withstood threats to burn down his family home. McCarthy, now 55, still lives at number 5 Weston Gardens, a terrace of nine homes overlooking Hyde Road, the heartland of organised crime in Limerick . But his fears have returned over the return to violence in this part of Limerick city. READ MORE In 2012 he had survived a decade of threats from criminal gangs. He had moved into Weston Gardens in 2001, and within 18 months, his neighbours – in houses one, two, and three – had been burned out. Local associates of the Dundon crime family, who moved from England to Limerick in 1999, offered a simple choice: €20,000 cash to sign over the deeds or they would set fire to your home. McCarthy and a neighbour at number four faced regular threats but they refused to leave, even as teenagers acting for local criminals stripped neighbouring burnt-out houses of copper and then used the husked homes as drug dens. After threats at knifepoint, that neighbour eventually left. McCarthy, who was studying for a master's in sociology at the University of Limerick, refused, even when six men kicked down his front door in 2004. Cathal McCarthy showing the needles he has found in his area near Hyde Road. Photograph: Brendan Gleeson Much has happened since then to end the gangland violence that plagued Limerick for more than 20 years – but much has failed to happen, leading to a new wave of violence, in the view of the local community. The Government promised €1.6 billion to regenerate four crime-ridden Limerick estates. It funded 100 new gardaí. But the 2008 economic crash curtailed spending by the State. When the regeneration programme ended in 2012, only €116 million had been spent, less than 10 per cent of what was promised. The fight against specific criminals was more successful. In 2012 two of Limerick's most infamous criminals, brothers Wayne and John Dundon, were imprisoned by the Special Criminal Court for threatening to kill three members of their rivals, the Collins family, neighbours of theirs on Hyde Road. Wayne Dundon, who is serving a life sentence for the murder of businessman Roy Collins at the Coin Castle Amusements Arcade on April 9th, 2009 Cathal McCarthy hoped the implosion of the Dundon gang would present an opportunity to reclaim Hyde Road, an estate that had been lost to crime for 40 years. Now that hope seems forlorn. This week, Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan , on a visit to Limerick, promised gardaí in Limerick the resources they need to quell three new violent feuds in the city and county. People in Limerick thought they had seen the back of violence following the end of the feud between the McCarthy-Dundon, the Keane-Collopy and the Ryan gangs that gripped Limerick in the 1990s and 2000s – which cost the lives of 20 people. But gangland violence has re-emerged and Hyde Road has, once again, become a flashpoint with a fresh round of violent tit-for-tat attacks. Thirteen years after testifying against the Dundons, April Collins – the daughter of their one-time-partner-turned-rival – remains their prime target, especially since she moved to Hyde Road in 2023. April Collins, wife of Thomas O'Neill. Photograph: Liam Burke/Press 22 She is now married to Thomas O'Neill, who was convicted of a 2004 gang rape of a woman in Cratloe Woods in Co Clare. O'Neill, who is currently serving two years in prison for drug dealing, is a leading figure in the Collins drugs gang, whose members are being targeted by the McCarthy-Dundons. Since April Collins's return to Hyde Road, there has been a series of gun, petrol and pipe bomb attacks on homes linked to the Collins gang. While intensive policing in areas controlled by the crime gangs and the imprisonment of leading criminal players helped to end the feud, underlying social problems were not fixed. In Cathal McCarthy's view, the State failed to act and now, the next generation of the rival criminal factions is in place. Gardaí have a dossier with details and photos of eight named children aged 12-16, who, it is claimed, are foot soldiers for the Hyde Road gangs. John Dundon is serving a life sentence for the murder of Garryowen rugby player Shane Geoghegan (28), in Limerick, in 2008 Four of the eight have already received antisocial behaviour orders. These children together with a then 11-year-old boy, the son of a local heroin dealer, attacked a local shop owner while armed with wooden posts two years ago. Within weeks of that assault, which was captured on CCTV, a local pensioner was forced to use an iron bar to defend himself after being surrounded by these youths, one of whom, the 11-year-old, was carrying a taser. 'This 11-year-old is notorious. He is now 13 and he's huge; he's really sprung up of late. He will be the next Wayne Dundon,' says McCarthy. In October 2023, shots were fired at the home of Jimmy Collins, the father of April and one-time partner of Wayne Dundon's until his daughter April turned State witness against the Dundons. Arson attacks on cars and houses on the Hyde Road continued throughout the next 12 months, prompting Limerick's most senior police officer, Chief Supt Derek Smart, to warn in October 2024 that people would be killed. 'They are not random attacks – they are very targeted in what they are trying to achieve,' he said. More shots were fired at a Collins-owned home on the Hyde Road in November 2024, and in two separate attacks in January 2025. Since then, there have been a dozen violent incidents, including pipe and petrol bomb attacks. The Garda Emergency Response Unit now conducts nightly armed checkpoints in flashpoint areas. The gangs appear undeterred. In February , a lone attacker was caught on CCTV throwing a pipe bomb over a wall into the rear of Jimmy Collins's home. It exploded but caused no injuries. Between February and April, the Cork-based bomb disposal unit was deployed on multiple occasions to deal with pipe bombs seized in Limerick's criminal strongholds. In April, more than 100 gardaí conducted 17 searches at properties in Ballinacurra Weston, Southill and in Co Clare, seizing cash and designer items worth more than €235,000. Then, in the early hours of May 8th, two masked men in a stolen Audi staged a drive-by shooting, firing nine shots indiscriminately at houses on the Hyde Road, including at April Collins's home. The people carrying out the attacks are proud of their work: they posted videos of these attacks on WhatsApp groups. The footage of the drive-by shooting is particularly chilling. A passenger in a stolen Audi car films the masked driver, wearing blue latex gloves and holding what appears to be a Glock pistol in his right hand. The driver lowers his window and fires nine shots as he drives past April Collins's house on Hyde Road. 'He's just firing away at any house. They say they were targeting April Collins, but it's a miracle no one was killed or injured,' says McCarthy. Footage circulated online captured a masked driver shooting at houses on Hyde Road in Limerick Despite the Minister promising to resource Limerick gardaí with whatever they need, McCarthy points out basic policing resources have been cut. There used to be 20 community police in the area; now there are 10. Limerick county no longer has a dedicated drugs unit, despite recent violent drug disputes in Kilmallock and Rathkeale. Local politicians are acutely aware of the risks and concerns over increasing gangland attacks in the Hyde Road area. 'The atmosphere there is very tense; it's not how people want to live their lives,' says veteran Fianna Fáil TD for Limerick City Willie O'Dea, who has been asked in the past to mediate between rival gangs. 'The vast majority just want the violence to end.' Fr Richard Keane, who took over as parish priest in Our Lady of Lourdes Parish Church on the edge of Hyde Road last September, said the increasing feud violence was forcing parents to remove schoolchildren from the local Our Lady of Lourdes National School 'to avoid the conflict and flashpoints'. 'The vast majority of people here want to live in peace,' he says. 'This feud has had a big effect, even on the local school where certain parents will take their kids to another school because they want to avoid each other. It's a shame. The school struggles because of it. Only for the foreign children from Africa and India the school would struggle.' Detectives believe the attacks on the Collins family are being perpetrated by associates of local criminals the O'Donoghues, who rent a house from Limerick City Council on Hyde Road. Several of the O'Donoghues have been named in court proceedings as participants in organised crime. One brother, Aaron O'Donoghue (25) was described in court proceedings as the 'main instigator' of the violence on Hyde Road since 2023. Det Eoin Dillon told Limerick District Court that O'Donoghue was 'actively involved' in the feud in the Hyde Road area and remained a 'serious and active threat, including loss of life, to homeowners in the area'. The O'Donoghues are considered proxies for the Dundon gang as they are cousins of the infamous McCarthy crime family, one part of the McCarthy-Dundon organisation. With the Dundons decimated, the McCarthy faction, now headed up by brothers Edward 'Eds' McCarthy and 'Fat John' McCarthy, is now the dominant force, considered among Ireland's most violent gangs. Syringes found by Cathal McCarthy, of Weston Gardens, overlooking Hyde Road. Photograph: Brendan Gleeson Locals such as Cathal McCarthy continue to lobby for more CCTV, policing and security fencing to protect law-abiding citizens. Those measures have worked in Weston Gardens, where McCarthy's neighbouring burned out houses have since been refurbished, and one recently sold for €145,000. It's still a case of buyer beware – two minutes away on Hyde Road, up to 25 heroin addicts gather daily to buy from the next generation of Hyde Road dealers.
Irish Times
23-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Times
Kerry beat Cork to retain Munster minor football title
Munster MFC final: Kerry 0-18 Cork 0-9 Eight points from Kevin Griffin went a fair chunk of the way in helping Kerry beat Cork for the second time in three weeks and retain the Munster minor football title. Indeed, this was a third provincial crown for the Kingdom in three years, and a win that will send Kerry to an All-Ireland quarter-final against the yet to be determined beaten Ulster finalists in good fettle. Three weeks ago it was a 10-point win for Kerry in Cork, and this nine-point win in Tralee simply underlined the champions superiority over the visiting Rebels. Playing with a strong wind in the first half, Cork needed to get to the interval with a decent lead, but instead it was Kerry who made it to half-time four in front, 0-8 to 0-4, and there seemed little way back for Cork. READ MORE That quarter-final three weeks ago in Páirc Uí Rinn saw Kerry win by 10 points and gulf in class was still present in Tralee, albeit Kerry needed a bit of inspiration from Griffin in the second half to see the champions push through. Cork finished with 14 men after Cathal McCarthy's sending off in the 53rd minute, which made little difference to the outcome but will see him miss the All-Ireland quarter-final. Kerry's Nick Lacey is challenged by Cork's Matthew Kiernan. Photograph: Laszlo Geczo/Inpho Kerry took the lead early through points from Danny Murphy and Ben Kelliher before Cork replied through Eoin Maguire and Ben Corkery Delaney but the visitors never led in the game. Kerry 0-5 to 0-3 to the good after 20 minutes, but Cork could ill afford a missed two-point free and a decent goal chance from Ben Corkery Delaney. Mark O'Carroll and Maguire exchanged scores before Griffin pointed twice late in the half to give Kerry that four-point lead at the break. Griffin's long-range two-point free pushed Kerry six clear early in the second half, and another orange flag from the full forward had Kerry well clear by the 50th minute, 0-14 to 0-7. There was little hope of a Cork revival at that stage, and much less so with McCarthy's red card three minutes later, with Kerry sub Tadhg O'Connell franking Kerry's win with a brace of points. KERRY: R Kennedy; R Sheridan, E Joy, T Ó Slatara; D Murphy (0-0-1), D Sargent, M Clifford; M Ó Sé, J Curtin; M O'Carroll (0-1), G White (0-0-3, 3f), A Tuohy; N Lacey, K Griffin (0-2-4, 1tp, 1tpf, 1f), B Kelliher (0-0-3, 2f). Subs: T O'Connell (0-0-2) for Lacey (46 mins), P Ó Mainnín for Tuohy (50), C McGibney for Clifford (53), J Kissane for Ó Sé (57), T O'Sullivan for Griffin (58). CORK: R Twohig; B Coffey, A Keane, M Kiernan; E Looney, C McCarthy, B Cronin; S Kelleher Leavy, R Hayes; T Whooley (0-0-1), D Flynn, N O'Callaghan; S O'Sullivan, B Corkery Delaney (0-0-3, 1f), E Maguire (0-0-4, 2f). Subs: J Miskella for O'Sullivan (h-t), E O'Sullivan (0-1) for O'Callaghan, J O'Leary for Looney (both 37 mins), J Hanrahan for Kelleher Leavy (53), L O'Mahony for Whooley (58). Referee: T McGrath (Limerick).
