Latest news with #Clones
The 42
22-07-2025
- Sport
- The 42
Donegal and Armagh turn down proposed €7,500 fines from Ulster final row
DONEGAL AND ARMAGH have refused to accept the GAA's proposed €7,500 fines arising out of the on-field clashes at the end of the Ulster senior football final. The counties have also requested that the disciplinary process be adjourned until after the end of the inter-county season, which has been agreed by the GAA. Advertisement After Donegal's extra-time victory in Clones, players from both sides became involved in an altercation. This then spread with members of the management teams and some spectators also becoming embroiled. The incident was subsequently investigated by the Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC). Footage recorded by media present at the game clearly showed striking actions between players, but the GAA will not use such evidence in the course of their investigations if it wasn't recorded by official broadcasters. After conducting their deliberations, the CCCC sent their proposed punishment to the counties. Within the disciplinary processes, Donegal and Armagh are entitled to decline the initial proposed punishment and seek a hearing, which they have now done. Incidentally, the €7,500 figure is the same that was awarded to Cork in the wake of their pre-match row with Clare before they met at Semple Stadium in the 2007 Munster hurling championship. Clare were fined €5,000, while players Barry Nugent, Colin Lynch, Andrew Quinn and Alan Markham, along with Cork players Sean Óg Ó gAilpín, Diarmuid O'Sullivan and Dónal Óg Cusack were suspended for four weeks. The suspensions were appealed, but were upheld by the GAA's Central Appeals Committee at the time. Check out the latest episode of The42′s GAA Weekly podcast here
BBC News
06-07-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Armagh joint-managers Feeney and Parkinson step down
The Armagh senior ladies footballers will begin the search for new management after it was confirmed Darnell Parkinson and Joe Feeney have stepped pair took over from Greg McGonigle at the beginning of the year, having served as members of the Derry native's backroom team last year when the Orchard women won the Division One and Ulster titles and reached the last four of the All-Ireland Senior retained their provincial crown with victory over Donegal in May's final at Clones, bust lost the Division One final against the All-Ireland Championship, a shock defeat by Kildare meant they failed to progress from the group stage. On Saturday, retained their senior status thanks to a 0-15 to 0-5 victory over Donegal in a relegation semi-final."On behalf of Armagh, we extend our sincere thanks to Darnell, Joe and the backroom team for their contribution to our senior team for the 2025 season," said Armagh chairperson Sinead Reel in a statement."We thank all those involved on the management team, their partners and families for their time and commitment to the Armagh cause."We wish the entire management and backroom team all the best in their future endeavours."Back-to-back Ulster titles and senior retention leaves a strong foundation for the future of Armagh football."
Irish Daily Mirror
08-06-2025
- Sport
- Irish Daily Mirror
Barry McGuigan reflects on an 'incredible night' 40 years on from Pedrosa fight
It is 40 years today since Barry McGuigan beat Panama's Eusebio Pedroza to win a world title at Loftus Road on 8 June 1985. Set against the backdrop of the Troubles, the Clones man was a beacon of hope during perilous times, and his world title victory was a moment that defined a boxing era. McGuigan, 64, told BBC Sport: "Those sort of vivid memories are so burned into your brain that you'll never forget. "Winning the world title against Pedroza, having an audience of almost 19 million people. Winning BBC Sports Personality of the Year, the year that Dennis Taylor won the snooker. It was an amazing year for sport, and yet there were lots of tragedies and people dying here because of the Troubles. "Walking to the ring took us 12 minutes to walk 60 yards because the fans were so fanatical. "Then Pedroza came out to some sort of Spanish music, and he took him all of 25, 30 seconds to go from the away dugout dressing room to the ring as opposed to mine. "But it was the fanatical support that we had. You know, we reckon 14,000 people travelled over from Dublin and Belfast and Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland. "It was an incredible night. It just fizzed and the old man got in and sang Danny Boy and everybody sang it back, and then the bell went, and off we went and it was flat out." After many defences of his European featherweight title, McGuigan finally got a shot at the world belt. But he was taking on a boxer who had held the world title for seven years, defending it against 18 different fighters. "I knew I had to pressurise him because technically he was much better than me," McGuigan said. "I had to beat him with pace and pressure, and I just was on him from the start, putting him back, backing him up, making him fight at a pace that was uncomfortable for him. "And that's how you take away their technique advantage, just being on them non-stop, and that was my style. "Then whacking the body when I could, and then the round that changed it all was round seven, bang, down. "Suddenly everything went bonkers. The noise was deafening. Stanley Christodoulou was the South African referee, and he was looking around for me. I ran to the neutral corner immediately because I knew I'd hurt him, and then he counted him and then waved us on ."I came in and I went, I'm going to throw a right hook at him. And I went left side, right side, left side, and I swung, and he just went, shh. I went whizzing past him, missed him by about that much. "But that told me that he wasn't that badly hurt. So I knew at that stage, you know, he was very alert and he was stunned, but he was still very compos mentis. "I tried a right hook and I chased him back, hit him with a couple of left hands, but I never hit him with that right hand again in that round. "Then I had him in real trouble in the 9th round, and then he was out on his feet in the 13th. Legs went, but again, he was a formidable champion. He just stayed in there to the end of the 15 rounds. "But that night I was on such a high, I could have fought 20 rounds. I was just so up for the fight. I was so emotionally fired up for it."
RTÉ News
08-06-2025
- Entertainment
- RTÉ News
Enigmatic Galway seek to prevent Kilkenny sextet
Kilkenny v Galway in the Leinster final. Think up something new to say about this one. Not easy. It's the ninth time that the pair have met in a provincial decider since Galway were welcomed into Leinster back in 2009. Or, to put it more precisely, since Mammy and Daddy on Central Council insisted that the other Leinster counties were going to have to let Galway play with them. Kilkenny, with their masterful self-confidence, were the only Leinster hurling county to signal their approval for Galway's entrance into the province. Although past comments from 'Taggy' Fogarty suggest that Brian Cody may not have been consulted on this. "Brian would be a traditionalist," 'Taggy' said on Newstalk a few years ago, before indicating that the notion of Galway winning the Bob O'Keeffe Cup sat about as well with Cody as the prospect of a new Casement Park sits with the publicans of Clones. This latest edition of the fixture isn't thrumming with as much back-story as when Henry Shefflin wore the Galway manager's shirt. The Leinster hurling championship became the unlikely home of soap-opera melodrama back in the summer of 2022. Cody's post-match handshake with his greatest ever player after the Salthill round-robin game had all the warmth of the Bull McCabe's initial interaction with the Yank at auction. The many super slo-mos could have been overlain with the Eastenders outro sequence. If this were the States, 'The Handshake' would be a blockbuster ESPN documentary. But Shefflin is gone from Galway now after three seasons in charge. Two of his campaigns consisted of respectable runs to the All-Ireland semi-final - in which they managed to soften the cough of the Munster supremacists in successive quarter-finals. His third and final season, however, was damningly abject. Galway's 2017 All-Ireland winning manager Micheál Donoghue has returned, as one always envisioned he would at some stage. The big regret for most of their supporters is that he was ever gone from the role. Kilkenny are leading 6-2 on the head-to-head on those Leinster finals. Galway's victories came in 2012, after that stunning first-half blitz which left people rubbing their eyes at the scoreline, and the 2018 replay in Thurles, when Taylor Swift and her fans were occupying Croke Park. A couple of those Kilkenny victories were pure larceny. The 2020 Covid final belongs up there with the 1990 All-Ireland final in the Tribesmen's 'how-the-hell-did-we-lose-that?' hall of fame. Richie Hogan's genius is one reason. Even more sickening for Galway was the 2023 decider when Padraic Mannion's booted clearance off the ground somehow managed to fly straight into Cillian Buckley's paw. The 2022 Leinster final, Cody's last as manager, was more stop-start than an NFL game and probably the dullest televised hurling match of the 21st century. These two have traditionally not brought a great following to provincial final day, none more so than in '12 when a tiny crowd from the west were there to witness their historic ambush. Only 24,483 were there for the last Leinster final between them in '23. A perusal of the Leinster final attendances over the past 15 years indicates the two biggest by a distance were in 2017 and 2019, which were also the only two in that span to involve Wexford. While the Munster Council are cranking up the price to capitalise on demand, the Leinster Council are in outreach mode, with 20,000 free tickets made available to Under-16s. Galway seem to have finally recovered their standing among their public after the insipid opening day display in Nowlan Park. No assessment was gloomy enough after that particular no-show. Remarkably, it was Galway's fourth 12-point defeat of the year, all three of their league losses coming by that margin. (So far in 2025, Galway have either won... or lost by 12 points). Worst of all, they were devoured by a Kilkenny side without TJ Reid and who lost Adrian Mullen to injury after 15 minutes. The fallout was ugly from that one. Galway hurling supporters, never averse to bouts of cosmic negativity, were consoling themselves that they might at least beat Antrim to stay in Leinster. Coming on top of last year, it was confirmation that Galway were in the depths of 'transition' with no quick fix on the horizon. The Offaly game in Tullamore - viewed with rare trepidation beforehand - panned out roughly like every other Offaly-Galway game has since 2012. An imperious Cathal Mannion floated over 0-17 as they beat Wexford to at least ensure progression from Leinster. The Antrim game was a turkey shoot which doesn't warrant much analysis. It was hard to find a pundit beforehand who was tipping Galway in Parnell Park. Partly this was due to their spotty and careless record in that fixture. Niall Ó Ceallachain's team appeared to hold far greater allure to the punditry class than a Galway side still harbouring many of the same old faces from the mid-to-late 2010s. In the end, the five-point margin over Dublin in the finish grossly understated their superiority. One echo of Donoghue's triumphant 2017 season is the dearth of a Galway goal-scoring threat. They scored just one goal in the three relevant fixtures, which arrived very late against Wexford with the result already more or less settled. In the second half in Parnell Park, a couple of serious goal opportunities went completely unexplored in favour of tap-over points. In the context of the game, it probably made sense. With the backing of a big wind, the shoot-on-sight policy was a wild success and the remorseless rat-a-tat of points was killing Dublin in the third quarter. Amid all the talk of transition, the Galway team has a time-stood-still aspect to it. Micheál Donoghue seemed to give every able-bodied twenty-something male in south Galway a run during the league. John Fleming is one newcomer to nail down a starting spot but the team has a familiar feel. The Mannions remain prominent. Five-time All-Star Daithí Burke - who "could play full-back without a hurl," as Cyril Farrell is wont to say - is still relied upon in defence. Conor Whelan, struggling for form earlier in the season, embraced his blue-collar side with a scoreless but workmanlike display against Wexford, in which he turned over ball repeatedly. The scoring touch returned in the second half in Donnycarney when he looked to be motoring again. The venerable David Burke, indisputably one of the county's all-time greats, was superb against the Dubs, a model of awareness and game-intelligence. The Cats' heavy win over Galway in Nowlan Park in April was in fact their first round-robin victory in the fixture in six attempts, a detail that might trigger a double-take given Derek Lyng's side are pursuing a sixth Leinster title on the trot. Hogan previously suggested that they were a tad lukewarm about the whole round-robin business. Perhaps given that Kilkenny, more than any other county, know they will be in the All-Ireland series, giving to the provincial league process the air of an extended preamble. This might explain why they have yet to muster a 100% record in the group stages, despite hogging Bob O'Keeffe for the past half-decade. In 2025, they probably would have done so had they not put out an experimental side in the dead rubber against Wexford. Typically, they've shaken off any round-robin listlessness in time for Leinster final day in Croke Park, last year's frightful demolition of Dublin being a prime example. The busy midfield duo of Jordan Molloy and Cian Kenny were especially effective against Galway, hitting 0-05 from play between them. Mossy Keoghan, Kilkenny's designated scorer from play for parts of the league, has hit a goal a game in his four appearances so far, with 1-02 each against Galway, Dublin and Antrim. Significantly, he took TJ Brennan for 0-07 from play in the Nowlan Park league game. Mullen, recovered from his injury in the opening round, started the Wexford game in the odd location of centre-back though that's been written off as consequence-free experimentation. However, the absence of the still-injured Eoin Cody is a major loss for the defending champions. We're up on a decade since Kilkenny last claimed Liam MacCarthy, their longest barren run since 1947-57. The irritation at tossing away last year's semi-final against Clare may still rankle, especially in light of Limerick's exit the following week. In the eyes of the traditionalists, backing against Kilkenny in a Leinster final would be deemed as attention-seeking nonsense. Logically, they look like the more secure shout. But would be entirely in keeping with the enigmatic beast that is Galway hurling for them to turn up and win having taken a pasting in the fixture two months earlier.
Irish Times
01-06-2025
- General
- Irish Times
Monaghan turn seven-point deficit around to beat Clare in Clones
All-Ireland SFC: Monaghan 1-25 Clare 1-16 Group 3 of the All-Ireland SFC will boil down to a top-of-the-table decider between Monaghan and Down , plus an effective knock-out clash between Louth and Clare , following a real game of two halves in Clones. Producing a reaction to their heavy loss to Down, Clare made a mockery of the prematch odds by building up a double-scores half-time lead with the wind at their backs, but Monaghan outscored them by 1-18 to 1-2 after the restart to remain behind the Mourne men on score-difference heading into the final round of the group stage. Monaghan could afford to kick 14 wides and still get the win, helped by 0-8 from Jack McCarron, a goal by Conor McCarthy. Monaghan manager Gabriel Bannigan felt his side had been 'flat' in the first half after beating Louth the previous weekend, but they got a significant impact from their subs as they eventually went through the gears. READ MORE Bannigan noted that too many of his players 'weren't at the pitch of it' for the first half, but they were 'a different animal' in the second, with their subs bringing 'a lot of energy and drive'. Monaghan had started brightly with early points from Conor McCarthy, Ryan McAnespie and Mícheál Bannigan, while Daniel Walsh kicked Clare's only score of the first 13 minutes. But the Banner grew into the game in some style towards the end of the opening quarter. Clare's frequent raids down the right flank led to two-pointers from Conor Meaney (two), Eoin Cleary and Mark McInerney, which propelled them into a healthy lead. Clare's Conor Meaney celebrates scoring a two-pointer. Photograph: Andrew Paton/Inpho Dessie Ward ended 13 scoreless minutes for Monaghan, who also saw corner-forwards Jack McCarron and Stephen Mooney open their accounts late in the half, but Aaron Griffin replied to leave Clare in command at half-time, 0-14 to 0-7. Monaghan began the second half with much more purpose, as McCarron kicked 0-5 inside the first 10 minutes, including a brace of two-pointers, before McCarthy scythed through to drill home the opening goal, edging them ahead for the first time since the early stages. David Garland also found his range from outside the arc and was joined on the scoresheet by fellow subs Aaron Carey and Andrew Woods, with veteran Darren Hughes joining them in making an impact off the bench. Clare took 23 minutes to get their first score of the half from McInerney, but Peter Keane's side gave themselves a glimmer of hope when a point from Dermot Coughlan was swiftly followed by a palmed goal from Aaron Griffin. Monaghan's cushion was down to four on 66 minutes, but Rory Beggan converted a pair of two-point frees late on to see the hosts finish with nine to spare. MONAGHAN: R Beggan (0-2-1, 2tpf, 1'45); D Byrne, K Lavelle, R Wylie; D Ward (0-0-1), R O'Toole, K Duffy; M McCarville, G Mohan; S O'Hanlon (0-0-1), C McCarthy (1-0-1), R McAnespie (0-0-1); M Bannigan (0-0-3, 1f), J McCarron (0-3-2, 1 2-pt-f, 1f), S Mooney (0-0-1). Subs: A Carey (0-0-1) for Lavelle (ht); D Hughes for Mohan (inj), D Garland (0-1-0) for Mooney (both 41 mins); C McNulty for McAnespie (52); A Woods (0-0-1) for Duffy (61). CLARE: É Tubridy; R McMahon, R Lanigan, M Doherty; A Sweeney, I Ugwueru, F Kelleher; B McNamara, D Walsh (0-0-2); C Meaney (0-2-0), D Coughlan (0-0-1), S Griffin; M McInerney (0-1-2, 1f), E Cleary (0-1-0), A Griffin (1-0-3, 0-1f). Subs: J Stack for McMahon (56 mins); E Cahill for Walsh (63); D Nagle for Sweeney (67). Referee: J Henry (Mayo).
