Month: September 2021

FIVE ALL-IRELAND senior medals in the pocket now for Con O’Callaghan and his influence on Dublin’s run of success shows no signs of abating.

Saturday saw him once again hit the net in a critical game for Dublin, slapping in the second goal of their win against Mayo.

Just like he did against Tyrone and Mayo in 2017, Galway in 2018, and Mayo twice in 2019, O’Callaghan raised a green flag when it mattered most.

But reflecting on his individual input is overtaken for the Cuala man by his appreciation of the group he plays with.

“We are very much aware of the lucky and privileged position we are in. And it’s something that we do regularly talk about in our bunker in DCU, or wherever we train. 

“I love playing and I am blessed to be playing with so many good players, lads that I looked up to. To be playing with Stephen Cluxton, James McCarthy, even Mick Fitz(simons) from my own club. It’s something I cherish and I know the lads do inside.

“We also have a really, really strong connection and bond within the team.”

They drew on that sense of unity to manage their way through the first half on Saturday, Mayo posing the fiercest challenge Dublin had faced in 2020.

“It’s something that always happens with Mayo,” admits O’Callaghan.

“They bring such a fierce intensity. It’s a different story speaking about it and actually being out there.

“You can review all the tapes that you want and say there are goal opportunities but when you are in the white heat of battle, and someone is facing you down, putting you under pressure, getting contact on you, it’s much different.

“You are forced to make mistakes and that’s something they do really well. We struggled to come to grips with that early on.”

Dublin responded in the manner that they always do and found a route to success. They got their hands on Sam Maguire after a volatile season as O’Callaghan acknowledged.

Con O’Callaghan scores his side’s second goal against Mayo.

Source: James Crombie/INPHO

“Even when we came back, when we were allowed to train in the little pods, I know a lot of lads were a little bit hesitant for their own health and stuff and their loved ones’ health.

“And even when you have that time off, some people were kind of thinking through things and maybe some people lost a bit of motivation because there is no end line in sight. 

“But definitely then it started to grow that bond again, here’s a date we are going to be playing this date. It’s winter football. So what? That kind of bond and motivation and momentum starts to build and once it builds, it’s something powerful.

“I wasn’t able to see my closest friends, some of my brothers and my sister had moved out of the house. To be able to play and train two and three times a week, they really are your brothers, your family, the backroom staff.

“We do recognise that we are in a really, really privileged position. We were really grateful for that and it’s something we definitely touched on a lot.”

Saturday’s win in a largely deserted Croke Park was unusual but the absence of a packed house was not something on O’Callaghan’s mind once the action was underway.

“Once you get into the game you kind of get lost in the game. The warm-up is strange, you are coming out to that same music and there are no cheers, there is no atmosphere, there is no nothing.

“As soon as the ball is thrown in, you really do get lost in your own performance and the team’s performance, what is working, what is not working.

“It is a little bit different but once you get into the thick of it, you are just lost in it. Fear and flow, it’s a good way to be.”

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LEINSTER AND CONNACHT GAA have confirmed the fixture details for their minor and U20 finals over Christmas and the New Year, after the weekend’s semi-final action.

The schedule will begin in Connacht with the minor football decider next Tuesday 29 December between Roscommon and Sligo. Throw-in is at 7.30pm for a game in the Connacht GAA Centre of Excellence in Bekan.

Roscommon booked their place with a 2-13 to 0-11 semi-final victory over Galway on Friday night while Sligo defeated Mayo by 1-9 to 1-7 yesterday afternoon.

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Three Leinster provincial finals have been pencilled in for the first weekend of the New Year on 2-3 January.

The main game will be the Bord Gáis Energy Leinster U20 hurling final with Galway facing Dublin on Sunday 3 January in O’Moore Park in Portlaoise at 4pm. Friday night’s semi-finals saw Galway overcome Kilkenny by 0-19 to 1-11 and Dublin take down Wexford on a scoreline of 1-19 to 1-10

Then in the Electric Ireland minor championships both finals will be held that weekend. The minor hurling decider is down for Saturday 2 January with Kilkenny playing Offaly in Portlaoise.

Yesterday saw Kilkenny defeat Wexford by 0-23 to 1-14 in their semi-final while Offaly ran out 2-18 to 1-8 victors over Westmeath.

And the minor football showdown is on the Sunday with Meath playing Offaly in Parnell Park at 2pm. Meath saw off Laois by 2-10 to 1-7 in their semi-final on Saturday while Offaly beat Kildare by 2-10 to 2-7.

A DOZEN GAA legends will all feature on the new series of TG4′s GAA documentary ‘Laochra Gael’ in the early months of 2021.

The line-up for the 19th series has been announced with six hour-long episodes starting in January and then another six to be broadcast in March after it has taken a break.

The first run will feature Donegal’s Kevin Cassidy, the Tipperary and Dublin hurler Ryan O’Dwyer, Galway camogie star Therese Maher, Roscommon’s Shane Curran, Offaly All-Ireland winner Johnny Pilkington and Kildare football great Dermot Earley.

It begins with the Cassidy episode on 7 January at 9.30pm and each episode airs in turn every Thursday night until the Earley episode on 11 February.

Tá sé ar an mbealach…

Fillfidh an tsraith shuntasach #LaochraGael go @TG4TV in 2021.

Here are the 6 stars who will kick-start the series that travels well beyond the 4 white lines👇

⭐@KCASS7
⭐Ryan O'Dwyer
⭐Thérèse Maher
⭐@shanetcurran
⭐Johnny Pilkington
⭐@dermotearley pic.twitter.com/WdhZdjTNwq

— Spórt TG4 (@SportTG4) December 21, 2020

The series will then return in March with Kilkenny’s Eoin Larkin, Down’s Pete McGrath, Cork camogie and ladies football legend Briege Corkery, Meath footballer Bernard Flynn, Tyrone’s Seán Cavanagh and Wexford’s All-Ireland winning boss Liam Griffin all in the spotlight. The dates of those epsiodes have yet to be released.

“TG4 are very proud to be broadcasting another great series of Laochra Gael which marks the great achievements and stories that our Gaelic Games legends have to tell,” said TG4′s Head of Sport, Rónán Ó Coisdealbha.

“This is the beginning of the nineteenth series of Laochra Gael which aired on TG4 for the first time in 2001 and it has continued as a long standing and popular part of our schedule bringing these amazing stories to viewers in Ireland and all over the world.

“I wish to thank all the participants who took part, their families, Nemeton TV, GAA, LGFA, Camogie Association and everyone in the extended Gaelic Games family for all their assistance in making this series happen in such a challenging year.”

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MARC Ó SÉ has expressed his disappointment that a role was not found to keep his former team-mate Kieran Donaghy involved in Kerry football.

It was confirmed last week that Donaghy is joining Armagh’s coaching team for the 2021 season.

Ó Sé spoke on The42′s GAA Weekly podcast about how he is happy to see All-Ireland winning attacker Donaghy get involved at the elite level of the game but feels it was ‘a mistake’ by Kerry GAA chiefs not to retain his expertise within the county.

“A small bit disappointed to be quite honest. Not for Kieran because I think Kieran’s going to get great exposure, I think he’s going to get great experience for this. I know he’s a top class guy. I’m just a bit disappointed that our own county allow Donaghy, you would hope there would have been a position for him in some area with Kerry.

“As Páidí used to always say, he did it himself and Mick O’Dwyer did it, we used to call it spreading the gospel. You’re basically spreading your tactics, your know-how to other counties and Donaghy’s obviously doing that with Armagh.

Armagh boss Kieran McGeeney

Source: Lorcan Doherty/INPHO

“And I just think that maybe it’s just a mistake by Kerry allowing somebody of that pedigree out of the county and I think we need to be doing more ourselves to try and hold onto him to be quite honest.”

Ó Sé agreed with co-presenter Shane Dowling’s view that given the volume of former Kerry playing greats, it is inevitable that some may end up moving outside the county to get relevant coaching experience.

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Marc Ó Sé in action for the Kerry footballers.

Source: Cathal Noonan/INPHO

“I totally agree and from Kieran’s point of view, he’s going to want to get more experience. Can you imagine working with (McGeeney)? One of the greatest legends of all time is Kieran McGeeney, I’ve so much time for that man. I think what he achieved on the field, even off the field, he’s just a top class guy and I think that it’s a huge opportunity for Kieran (Donaghy) to gain huge experience working with Kieran (McGeeney).

“From our point of view, I’d just like to think you’ve one of the top players that played with us in the last few years, you’d like to think that the county board would be trying to get him in, in some capacity. I’m not talking about minors or U20s or seniors, even at development squads level. Just get these former players on board and I think it’s an area where we’re slipping a small bit.”

• Check out this week’s The42 GAA Weekly podcast for full analysis of Dublin’s All-Ireland final win over Mayo.

STARTING WITH COUNTY matches in the 2021 season before club fixtures was ‘a no-brainer’ according to GAA chiefs.

The GAA today officially unveiled their programme for next year after the plan was officially endorsed by Central Council on Friday.

The football and hurling leagues are pencilled in for a start date of the weekend of 27-28 February before the championship begins on 17-18 April with the All-Ireland senior hurling final on 11 July and the football equivalent a week later on 18 July.

Club action will then commence in July and Feargal McGill, the GAA’s director of club, player and games administration, has explained the reasoning behind the decision to go with county first.

• GAA set to unveil plan for 2021 season with inter-county February start and July All-Ireland finals

“If you took a short-term view you would say there is no guarantee we will be able to play club games in the first quarter of the year. We aren’t allowed do them now.

“If we look at the longer term, if the GAA are going to bring in a split season and it will be on the agenda for Congress in February, I think the right decision is still to put the county game first.

“A couple of reasons for that, if you ran with the club game first you could end up playing county finals at the end of April, the early part of May because then you have to run the provincial and All-Ireland club championships.

“That would be very early for the flagship team in every club to be finished their activity, we don’t think that would have been a good approach. There would be less appetite for teams to play in leagues and non championship competitions once they are eliminated from the county championships.

“The third obvious thing is that if you ran with club first towards the end of the club season with the inter-county return to training would be eating into the time available for clubs. For all those reasons we think county first is a no brainer to be quite honest.”

Feargal McGill, the GAA’s Director of Player, Club and Games Administration.

Source: Morgan Treacy/INPHO

McGill stated the return of crowds is not within the GAA’s control but is hopeful supporters can attend games next year.

“Will depend on what NPHET and the Government allow us to have so we would love to give some positive news on that (but) we don’t have positive news on that. It will be just a case of wait and see, at some stage with vaccines we have to be a little bit optimistic that some supporters will get back in 2021.

“That also feeds into the question around county first and if we had looked at this purely from a financial point of view, would have run with club first in the hope that towards the end of next year, attendances would be back, that would have been short-sighted because it wouldn’t have been what would have been in the best interests of 450,000 club players.

“There was certainly a financial temptation there to run with club first from a financial perspective but it wouldn’t have been the best thing for 450,000 and that has to be our priority. The big thing we are happy about is to see the provincial and All Ireland club championships being back in there. We do think we have created a very good window for club competitions during summer. It is a better games programme than the one we had in 2020.”

The provincial GAA championship draws will take place in January and it will also be determined then which counties in the football league will have two home or two away games in the new regional four-team groups.

Conor Sweeney lifts the trophy after Tipperary are crowned Munster champions.

Cavan captain Raymond Galligan celebrates their Ulster final success.

Source: Morgan Treacy/INPHO

Some interesting features of the new Tailteann Cup football competition are that the 2020 provincial champions Cavan and Tipperary will be included in Sam Maguire qualifiers next year, even if they do not reach their provincial finals in 2021. Both are operating in Division 3 next year but have that safety net due to their brilliant successes in November.

The Tailteann Cup final will be held on the weekend of 26/27 June as a curtain-raiser to the All-Ireland hurling semi-final. The semi-finals will be played as a Croke Park double-header on Sunday 6 June.

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THE NUMBER OF 2020 county finals around the country that have yet to be played, has been described as ‘the one festering sore’ from this year by the GAA.

The inter-county senior championships were wrapped up at the weekend but several counties are still waiting to complete their flagship senior competitions since the club action was suspended in early October.

In football the finals in Cork, Waterford and Donegal are still to be played while there are semi-finals still down for decision in Carlow, Laois and Longford. In hurling the finals in Kildare, Laois, Offaly and Meath are still outstanding.

Those games have been provisionally pencilled in for early 2021 but with increasingly volatile Covid-19 situation, there is still huge uncertainty about when those games will be played.

Feargal McGill, the GAA’s director of club, player and games administration, admits it is a regret they have when reflecting on the 2020 season.

“For all the success we had this year, the one outstanding sore for me is we had a number of club teams who embarked in good faith on their championship journey and were caught at final stage in particular. We have a couple of semi-finals that are outstanding as well.

“It’s really, really hard on club players and teams, and the uncertainty around it hasn’t helped, but unfortunately it’s out of our hands.

“It was an additional reason for keeping January and February free, that we would be able to hand it to the counties to use if for their 2020 clubs, but unfortunately, until restrictions change, those outstanding games can’t be played.

“It is the one festering sore from this year, to be honest.”

McGill revealed the GAA are likely to approach the Government for financial assistance in running their championships in 2021 but is conscious that is something all sporting bodies are in need.

Fergal McGill from the GAA.

Source: Laszlo Geczo/INPHO

“Look it, we will find a way, as we always have, of financing the competitions. It would be terrific if the government helped us again, but we’ll just have to wait and see on that.

“Obviously, everyone in sport is looking for help, it’s not just the GAA at the moment. Down the road, I’ve no doubt those conversations will take place. Time will tell. We haven’t had any conversations around this with the Government yet but in due course we’ll see where that lands.

“I would hope people recognise the success the GAA championships were and the role they played in hopefully distracting people and giving them something to look forward to at the weekends.”

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THE GOVERNMENT HAS today announced new restrictions aimed at tackling the spread of Covid-19.

The restrictions – which come into effect on Christmas Eve and will be reviewed on 12 January – may not have a considerable impact on the sporting calendar that was already in place. 

Non-contact training in pods of up to 15 can continue outdoors, but all other training activities should be individual only. Gyms, leisure centres and swimming pools may also remain open for individual training. No exercise or dance classes are permitted, but outdoor tennis and golf can take place.

Professional and elite sports, horse racing and greyhound racing can continue behind closed doors, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said this afternoon.

That could be good news for rugby and GAA, with several notable fixtures scheduled to take place during the aforementioned timeframe.

In the Guinness Pro14 on St Stephen’s Day, Munster will play Leinster at Thomond Park, with Connacht hosting Ulster at the Sportsground the following day. Another round of inter-provincial fixtures is also due to take place on 2 January.

On the GAA front, Roscommon and Sligo will meet in the Connacht minor football final which has now been brought forward to 26 December at 4.30pm. The Leinster minor hurling final between Kilkenny and Offaly is also due to be played on 2 January. The football decider, in which Offaly clash with Meath, is scheduled for the following day, as is the Leinster U20 hurling final involving Galway and Dublin.

The Christmas racing festivals at Leopardstown and Limerick will both go ahead from St Stephen’s Day, continuing daily until 29 December.

In light of the ban on travel from the UK, however, Horse Racing Ireland announced this afternoon that no Irish-trained horses or Irish jockeys should go to the UK to compete between now and 31 December, when ban is due to expire. Declarations for UK-trained horses to race in Ireland will also not be accepted during that time.

“We are advising that no Irish-trained horses or jockeys should travel to the UK for competition between now and 31 December, and no UK horses or jockeys should travel in the opposite direction,” said Brian Kavanagh, chief executive of Horse Racing Ireland. 

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THE END OF the line was reached in anti-climactic fashion.

14 seasons as a Wexford senior hurler and the last day out for Éanna Martin was spent watching the TV footage on a mid-November Saturday afternoon as Tony Kelly unleashed his magic for Clare.

It had been a strange stop-start season. Injury struck last winter, a pandemic called a halt to games as a spring return beckoned and by the time of the winter resumption in the winter, he had just been nudged to number three in the Wexford goalkeeper pecking order.

“The disappointing thing was I watched the Galway game on the couch at home and the same for the Portlaoise one. Didn’t make the 26 and couldn’t travel to the grounds with the way things were. So not the way you would want it to end.

“We came back from our holiday to New York and Orlando last year, went training and I’d a wicked pain in my leg, couldn’t straighten my left leg. Had to go to Santry to get scans, turned out I’d tendonitis in my left hamstring. Was told I’d to get a couple of injections and it’d take about four months to get it right.

“I did an awful lot of training on my own during lockdown, treadmill in the house, bike work, running drills out in the back garden. Lot of strength and conditioning stuff with the aim to come back in best as shape as I could. I really went at it. I just didn’t get back in to the squad then.”

He had always figured this would be his last go as a Wexford player. The temptation was there at the close of 2019 to pull the plug. But a season of Leinster glory and narrowly missing out on a spot in an All-Ireland final, fuelled the drive to push on for another year.

Wexford players celebrate after being Kilkenny in 2019.

Source: Tommy Dickson/INPHO

During lockdown he toyed with the idea of dropping out quietly but instead is glad that he redoubled his efforts to get his leg right and return to the inter-county training ground.

“I’m 35 next year, I don’t know could I have put in another year like I did this year in terms of the manic training that I did myself to get back. One of the reasons I was able to do that psychologically was that I said in my head this was the last chance, so give it everything.

A father figure for me when I started out. He sat beside me on my first day, something we continued ever since. He defined commitment & desire. Wore every jersey number throughout his career. Alway put the team first! You’ll be missed

Enjoy hurling on the ditch chief @eanna_1 pic.twitter.com/cMdSK0frNo

— Jack O'Connor (@JackOConnor_) December 17, 2020

“It’s rare lads leave on a high and then other people don’t even get the opportunity to retire, they’re told they’re retiring.

“I’m glad I got to make the decision and Davy was very good that way. I rang him nearly a month ago at this stage. I was talking to him one of the Saturdays, there was still hurling matches on TV. I told him and he said, ‘There’s no hassle and it’s great that it’s your choice.’

“That’s good and I really enjoyed working under him. It feels right, it’s time. I had a ball.”

Eanna Martin in actino in the Walsh Cup for Wexford against Kilkenny.

Source: Laszlo Geczo/INPHO

And so the longest-serving member of the Wexford squad moves on. Maybe the departure is not accompanied by national fanfare but it’s the conclusion of a remarkable  career in its’ own way.

How many other modern inter-county players retire with the record of having played senior championship in goal, in defence and in attack?

If 2020 is the official end point, the date of 30 July 2019 felt like a worthy culmination as well.

A Leinster hurling title secured in Wexford colours at last. The understudy to Mark Fanning, Martin did not see gametime in Croke Park for that landmark win over Kilkenny but no Wexford person cherished the success more and no player had put in as much toil to secure the medal.

Not just senior service since the outset of 2007, it was the run of underage outings before that with a few U21 championships, a couple of minor campaigns and stretching all the way back to his debut for the U14 side in 1999.

“It was an unbelievable day personally and as a team and as a county after years of work. Coming home on the train, going into Connolly Station the place was packed with Wexford fans. Then we got off the train in Arklow, got the bus down then, in through Gorey, the bus took an hour to get up the street with the crowds.

“That’s a thing you’ll never forget seeing, what it meant for the people of Wexford. The wait of 15 years added to it. It was just amazing.”

Amidst the pure joy of the post-match celebrations, there was a standout moment when he met his family, spotting them in the stand. His wife Jackie. His father Terry.

His brother Traolach with his wife Jennifer and their daughters Honor and Laoise.

Source: Eanna Martin

“It was hugely emotional when I saw Dad and everyone. You wouldn’t have the photo planned. We did a lap of honour. All the Kilkenny crowd were gone at that stage, just Wexford people left and I was able to see them. Great to get that opportunity.”

The emotion was increased by thoughts of a guiding presence who was not there, his mother Honor who passed away in 2013.

“The Leinster final was an unbelievably great day but sad as well at the same time. Would have started Tony Forristal when I was 13 and it was Mam who brought me to trials and to training. Like all mothers do, they’d sit and wait in the car, read a book, until you’re finished, bring you home and bring you down the next day.

“You wouldn’t be there only for what your parents do for you and every player is the same. That’s the great thing about the GAA, the family side of it.

“A huge shock, it was just hard to take when she passed away. I remember going through the 2013 season, we were playing Clare in Thurles. I didn’t travel on the bus with the lads because we were down in hospital with Mam. I just text Liam Dunne that I was going to drive up myself and he was super.

“One of the first things we did after Mam passed away, the three of us – me, Traolach and Dad – was go to the All-Ireland final replay in ’13, Clare and Cork. That was really emotional, we would have always went to All-Irelands every year the four of us. Up to the Kilmacud Sevens the night before, stayed up.

“You were surrounded by Clare people who were very emotional because Clare were after winning and they’re crying. I was nearly the same for a different reason. You’d be thinking back to all that.”

Home was in New Ross, where his father grew up. His mother hailed from the Rower, just over the border in south Kilkenny. Her brother Pat Kavanagh, part of the crew watching on for last year’s Leinster final, was a Kilkenny All-Ireland senior winner in 1969 who later ended up through his work as a vet living in Tipperary and winning county senior medals with Borris-Ileigh.

Congrats to @eanna_1 on a great career not many can say they played in goal backs midfield and forwards for their County.Exemplary attitude at all times,a huge role model and a real leader within the group through thick and thin.A man who bleeds purple and gold pic.twitter.com/ff6ZLU9Yw0

— Rory Jacob (@RoryJacob) December 16, 2020

“Huge hurling family and we love it. I remember when we were younger we went to Walsh Park for the Waterford finals and semi-finals, you saw Mount Sion and Ballygunner, up in Nowlan Park seeing the Kilkenny finals, went to Thurles for the Tipp final. I was at the Cork county final when Na Piarsaigh won, the one Setanta came back for. Just constantly going to matches.

“We were very lucky and grateful to everyone in Geraldine O’Hanrahans club. I started out there as a kid and played right up until end of 2010. It’s a club with a great history, you’d have had Tom Neville, Ned Colfer and Jimmy O’Brien from there on the Wexford team that won the All-Ireland in ’68. My grandad won 4 senior counties, Dad won an intermediate county and Mam was secretary in her time.

“I loved playing for them and was very proud to be the first person from the club to play senior championship for Wexford in over twenty years. In 2016 when I moved to Dublin, I went back playing with them and was delighted I did.

“Dad and Mam were huge hurling fans, they instilled that in us. You can see my brother Traolach, he’s obsessed with it. He’s involved everywhere he goes, when he was in Dublin teaching he was with the Dublin underage squads. He’s down in Cork now, involved with the Cork ’20s and Christians Harty. Just a super hurling person himself.”

Martin in action against Tipperary’s Ronan Maher in the league in 2018.

Source: Ken Sutton/INPHO

The hurling path was mapped out then, county recognition the clear target to aspire to. Senior recruitment came in November 2006 from John Meyler.

“Getting called in back then was unreal. There was still lads from ’96. Damien Fitzhenry was in goal, absolute hero of mine, my idol growing up. Rory McCarthy was there, Declan Ruth, Mitch Jordan, they were still part of it.

“I know a lot of people go on about ’96 but I was ten, the ideal age to be caught up in it. It drove on from there. So that was great to share a dressing room with them and get to know them. There was a lot of other lads on the panel as well that you would have looked up to from the 2004 Leinster final.

“John was great, I actually used to travel up and down with him to training from Cork as I was in college there. Looking back now, I probably didn’t understand the significance that you’re driving up and down with the senior manager twice a week. He saw something in me to put me outfield.”

Former Wexford manager John Meyler with goalkeeper Damien Fitzhenry.

Source: Dan Sheridan/INPHO

After playing in goal for Wexford underage teams, his senior league debut came outfield against Antrim in 2008 in Belfast. The late Paul O’Connor, a great coach of UCC hurling teams, had a major impact in encouraging Martin that he had the potential to flourish in different positions.

So began a nomadic inter-county hurling existence. Consider his championship appearances. Full-forward against Limerick in 2009 under Colm Bonnar. Persuaded to return to goal in 2012 by Liam Dunne, starting that summer against Offaly, Carlow and Cork. Then for Dunne’s last year at the helm he was wing-back in 2016 for a rousing win in the rain in Thurles as Wexford ended a 60-year barren championship streak against Cork.

Action from the Cork-Wexford game of 2016.

Source: Cathal Noonan/INPHO

“Looking back on it now, maybe I should have stayed in goal for ’13 or a bit longer. Probably put a lot of pressure on myself in terms of thinking I’m in goal for Wexford now, I should be as good as Damien Fitzhenry. Just was training mad, doing extra bits and probably doing too much. Subsconsciously putting so much into the game, put a lot of pressure on myself on match days then that everything should be perfect.”

There were defensive appearances initially under Davy Fitzgerald before he returned as a goalkeeper contender from the start of 2019. The stock answer amongst GAA players is they’re happy to play wherever the manager tells them. During his time with Wexford, Martin lived up to that as he got handed most types of starting jerseys in a dressing-room.

“It’s not something I was planning on doing. I was just wanting to hurl for Wexford. If a manager asked me to do something that he thought would improve the Wexford setup, I’d do it. I would have trusted the manager and said, ‘No problem at all.’

“It was probably to the detriment at some point in that you were all over the place. But I enjoyed it and if it improved the team at all I was open to it.

“You want to play the whole time. The day you’re not picked you’d be disappointed. I was in and out a bit but just have to put the head down and drive on. The collective is the big thing.”

Full-forward action against Limerick in 2009.

Source: Donall Farmer/INPHO

That admirable attitude of persisting during some lean years for the county was more commendable given where life was taking him. After college he stayed working in Cork until 2014, then spent a couple of years in Dublin before a move to Kilkenny where he now lives.

Pharmaceutical company Phoenix Labs were his employers in a variety of roles before he became Wexford GAA’s commercial manager in March 2018.

“In 2008 I got a car and was driving myself from Cork. (Eoin) Quigley moved down around 2010 and spent a good few years going up and down training with him. Great friend of mine and we would have got very close, a huge help to me in terms of everything with hurling and work.

“We’d take it every second night with the driving. We’d leave early enough, around three o’clock. You’d be up for six. Always tried to get up an hour before training because you’d have been in the car for so long. Then we’d be back down around one in the morning.

“Looking back on it, it was madness but great to be able to do it. At the time you never questioned it, you just did it. Lucky enough to have great employers because you need that. My boss there Larry McGowan was a super help, a great hurling man in Ratoath in Meath.”

The notion of the inter-county player leading an unappealing life of painstaking commitment with little reward is not one he agrees with.

“There’s lot of people say it’s a big sacrifice you’re making, I don’t think it is. It’s a choice, it’s either for you or it’s not. The way we looked at it, is we wanted to play for Wexford. It’s your family members make the sacrifice, your loved ones, you miss out on events. It’s a great opportunity to be able to do it, a privilege.”

Not many can say they lined out for their county in the forwards, backs and in goal. Narky at times, but overall one of good guys who always put Wexford first. Enjoy the paddocks! @eanna_1

— Liam Óg McGovern (@Mogster12) December 16, 2020

The support close to home was crucial though during it all.

“Jackie would have first of all liked to see me doing what I like doing and enjoy, same as anyone really. Having the understanding of the GAA structure and calendar is the big thing. Like our holidays every year were in November and December. We got married in December because that’s when you can enjoy it.

“There is a lot of understanding there but Jackie comes from a big hurling family. Her father Pat was secretary for Carrickshock for years, her sister Mairead played for Kilkenny camogie and an All-Star. Richie and John Power are her first cousins. They all just get it and it’s great to have that support.”

Being on the move provided different hurling opportunties. Living and working in Cork, he made the switch in 2010 to the Sarsfields club, friends with a bunch of their players from college. Between then and 2015 he packed in a couple of county senior medals, other final appearances and formed strong bonds.

Source: Cathal Noonan/INPHO

“I’d huge friendships in Sars, still do. There’s just a connection there, super lads. Would be onto them the whole time. Had a ball down there and they were very welcoming to me and the family.”

Living in Hugginstown now, he has thrown in his playing lot of late with local side Carrickshock. Himself and Jackie are expecting their first child in February, 2021 will be a new chapter.

After over two decades turning out for various Wexford teams, he’s content with his lot.

“It was super, made friends for life. Got some very nice comments last week, phone calls and texts from lads in other counties, lads in Cork, a few Kilkenny players, Limerick, Tipp. Also a couple of messages like parents you’d meet them and their kids after matches. Things like that hit you a little bit.

“I had an absolute ball and loved being involved.”

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A MAN IS standing on a bridge in Limerick, peering over the edge.

Goalkeeping coach Noel Considine.

Source: Noel Considine

He’s jobless, homeless and down to his last €3. It’s Christmas Eve, 2013, a day he usually spends out shopping with his partner and his son. It’s their little annual custom.

But today, he’s alone and seeing no road ahead.

There’s been too many let-downs. Too many times when he didn’t come home. Too many stories about his antics that his loved ones have had to endure. Too many times when he gave into the compulsion that was too strong and too dark to fight off. A world where the illogical was logical to him.

He’s just come across a family making their way across the bridge, carrying their Christmas shopping. All together and all smiling for what is probably their own little holiday tradition. 

Inches apart on the pavement but inhabiting different worlds as the family passes by. And now he’s standing on the edge of the bridge.

So often he has sought comfort at the bottom of a bottle. Now it awaits at the bottom of this drop off the Sarsfield Bridge in Limerick city.

For the briefest time, he’s ready to go. But something prompts him to step back down, get on his knees and pray for a way out.

Everyone who enters the palace is a threat

Noel Considine was born into goalkeeping. His father played between the sticks for Clarecastle and is one of just three players to hold the number one jersey for the Clare minors over three consecutive seasons. Davy Fitzgerald and Stephen O’Hara are the other two who hold that feat.

From an early age, goalkeeping was an obsession for Considine. Along with his father, nine-time Kilkenny All-Ireland winner Noel Skehan, and recently deceased Liverpool great Ray Clemence were his first heroes of the trade.

Considine graduated to senior hurling for Clarecastle when he was only a teenager, a mark which would have put have put in a strong position to be the next great goalkeeping prospect for the Banner.

He won three senior county championship medals as well as an All-Ireland junior title with Clarecastle.

But his time happened to crisscross with a diminutive goalie called Davy Fitzgerald from Sixmilebridge.

“In 1986, I was in goal for Clarecastle seniors,” Considine recalls to The42 about his first sighting of Fitzgerald.

“I was only 16 and a half, and we won minor and senior that year. The minor was to be the curtain-raiser to the senior final, but it had to be cancelled because I was playing in both. The curtain-raiser then was the U15 final between Wolfe Tonnes and Sixmilebridge.

I was in the dressing-room getting ready for the senior final and I spotted this small fella in goal for Sixmilebridge and I said to somebody, ‘That’s the guy I’m going to have to watch out for.’ And how right I was.”

Considine still hurls a bit at 52, but has also branched into coaching. He was just working with clubs at the start, until about four years ago when he was invited to be the goalkeeping coach with the Wexford senior hurlers. Once again, the stars aligned to put him alongside Fitzgerald.

Wexford’s first-choice netminder Mark Fanning is among the players who have passed through Considine’s tutelage. He also works with the Wexford U20s and continues to work with other goalkeepers at club level, including Galway’s Eanna Murphy through his local side, Tommy Larkins.

The celebrations after Wexford’s Leinster success last year.

Source: Noel Considine.

Goalkeeping even gets a dedication on the wall of Considine’s home through a picture of former USA goalkeeper, Hope Solo.

“It’s a massive picture of her,” he explains. She describes how she treats the goal like a palace and that everyone that enters is a threat.

“She’s the best women’s football keeper of all time and I just loved it. It’s so relevant to me and has pride of place for me in my sitting room.”

However long it takes

It’s not through his goalkeeping skills that Considine’s name has come into the public domain recently. 

After decades spent battling an alcohol addiction, he decided it was the right time to speak publicly about his experience. He first spoke about his past on the Player’s Chronicle, and was also featured on RTÉ Radio 1′s Today With Claire Byrne.

He talked about how his unhealthy relationship with alcohol started as a teenager, when he was socialising with older team-mates instead of people his own age. On the night of his debs, Considine was drinking elsewhere.

His lowest points are frightening to hear. By the age of just 21, he had been dried out nine times. When his son Aaron was a baby he suffered from eczema, and Considine was asked to go to the shops to get goat’s milk for the pain. He didn’t return for days.

While drinking during his younger days, the guards were sometimes called to deal with his behaviour. His father had to borrow money to go over to London where Considine was living at the time, and bring him home.

Considine sold his medals, including his All-Ireland one, to pay for drink. When he was at his worst, around the time he was contemplating suicide on that bridge, Considine’s skin was yellow and he was passing blood.

He was a binge drinker in pubs for most of his life, but was having almost uninterrupted drinking days at this point, and consuming over 20 vodkas with a small dash of coke some nights.

“The toughest part to talk about was the way it affected the people that I care about,” says Considine as he reflects on his decision to open up about that dark chapter of his life that lasted over 30 years.

Considine having fun with his three german shepherds.

Source: Noel Considine.

“Those people saw the very worst of me. Everybody thinks it’s that night on the bridge in Limerick. It wasn’t. 

“They didn’t want that in their life, they wanted me in their life. What I exposed them to, they didn’t deserve to see it. I’m talking about my son, my ex-partner, my Mum, my Dad, my brother and my sister. Their families and anyone who would have been involved in my life.

It still knocks me in the stomach to this day when I think about what I put them through.”

Praise from the public was never Considine’s motivation for speaking about this. He simply wanted to acknowledge the people who supported him throughout his struggles.

But he has received some positive feedback in the aftermath of his interviews, while others have contacted to share their own story of addiction with him. 

He’s glad he decided to expose that part of his life to help others, and he appreciates what his journey with alcoholism taught him about himself. But being enslaved by drink is a burden he wish he went without.

No, I’m not at all grateful I’m an alcoholic but I’m very grateful [that] I know who I am and I can do something about it. I suffer from the third-biggest killer disease in the world.

“The World Health Organisation recognise alcoholism as a disease and it’s behind heart disease and cancer as the third-biggest killer in the world.

“If you were to take the amount of heart disease and cancer that drink causes, I would say it’s probably higher than three.

“So, I’m not grateful that I’m an alcoholic, I hate the word. I use it at times to tell myself what I am. I don’t like the word but I’m grateful that I know what I am.”

During those interviews, Considine also recounts the start of his recovery at Bushy Park treatment centre on 7 January, 2014, just a few days after he almost ended it all on the bridge.  

This was his fifth attempt at conquering his alcoholism. The woman he was lodging with at the time gave him some money as he headed for the entrance.

He went through some slips in the first year of that recovery effort before eventually hitting his stride and never looking back.

“That woman and her family in Limerick that I lived with, they saved my life,” Considine explains.

“Bushy Park wasn’t different, I was. There’s a difference between accepting this thing, and admitting it. It was my third time in Bushy Park.

“All the other times, I was in for the wrong reason. I was in to keep people happy or get people off my back, or to keep jobs, or to sort out things at home because maybe a few times I got into trouble with the law. There was always a reason.

This time, I went in because I knew [that] three things happen: you either get sober, end up in jail or in a brown box. I wasn’t far away from any of them. Thankfully, I got sober. But I wanted it. When I went up the steps of Bushy Park, I closed the door and put my back to the door and just said, ‘Whatever length of fucking time this takes, you’re going to get right this time.’

“I stayed an extra week in there because I knew it was my lifeline. I’ve tried to get sober so many times since I was 18.

“There isn’t another recovery in me. If God forbid this was to go wrong this time, I’m just going to give up on it. I know I would. This is to keep me alive. That’s not to be dramatic or exaggerating. The effort I’ve put into this recovery, I don’t think that would be in me again.

“I have to mind it like a baby, and I do.”

Higher Power

Every morning starts the same way for Considine. He offers up a few prayers, reads a passage from the book he received through his AA programme, and makes his bed.

Considine with his granddaughter Ava.

Source: Noel Considine.

Those conversations with God are no longer a cry for help. They’re more for upkeep now.

He’s in good health despite the years of abuse he inflicted on his body, and has enough energy for his three gorgeous German Shepherds; Bod, Cara and Shadow. He has his own house too, and is a successful car salesmen working in Galway.

The goal is to get through the day without a drink, rather than vow to never touch a drop again.

It’s one day at a time,” Considine reasons. “But I’m pretty sure if I keep doing the right things, the right things will happen.”

His ongoing recovery is not about avoiding the pub either. Sobriety is to be enjoyed rather than endured. He can happily stand at a bar or go to watch his favourite country music bands without even feeling the flicker of temptation.

“There’s nothing with drink,” he says. “There’s nothing wrong with people who drink, there’s nothing wrong with pubs.

The problem is, I’m an alcoholic that can’t drink. I’m the problem. And if I was to confine myself to, ‘I can’t go into a pub, can’t be around people who drink,’ I might as well be dead. The world doesn’t have to revolve around me, I have to fit into the world.

“A person that’s off drink for other people, places or things that doesn’t want to be off it for themselves. I have been that soldier more than once and that person can be harder to live with than the practicing alcoholic.”

Trusting the path he’s on has brought further rewards to go with his health and happiness. Some of the medals he sold to finance his drinking bill have been recovered.

He has his mother to thank for that.

One of the other medals is in the safe possession of his father who has passed away, but Considine suspects that his All-Ireland medal is gone forever.

He’s not sure if the medals made their way back to him after his recent interviews, and he doesn’t need to know either.

“I don’t know where they came out of but I have them. I haven’t put them back into their case yet. I had a little glass case with my medals in it and the gaps are in it. I must put them in over the Christmas.

“My All-Ireland medal didn’t come back, I’ll never get that [back] and I know that. Another one of my championship medals will never be got [either]. My father never won a county final with Clarecastle and when he was coming down to my house, he’d be looking at the championship medals.

My father’s coffin was closed and I dropped one into his hand and I know it’s the safest medal in the world because it would never fall out of his hand. Nothing ever fell out of it.

“But yeah, the mother got them back and it’s great.”

Over the bridge

It’s exactly seven years since that night in Limerick. Considine has passed by that spot on the bridge several times since then, but recently, he decided to throw up a post on Facebook. He included the lyrics of a Mick Flavin song to articulate his feelings about it and sent a text to an important person who played an integral role in his recovery before hitting the publish button.

“Pretty different place,” he writes, “very different person but the knot still hit my stomach hard passing it.”

It’s a different world he inhabits now.

Relationships have been repaired and Considine admits he’s blessed to have such compassionate people in his life. Changes in his work life forced him to withdraw from his coaching role with the Wexford seniors having played a big part in their Leinster success last year.

The long commute to Wexford, coupled with the commitment required to work with an inter-county team, left him with no other choice. He leaves with nothing but good memories of the Wexford people and the coaching environment created by Davy Fitzgerald. 

“I’ve nothing but good to say about them. If Davy finds it difficult to get a goalkeeping coach and wants someone part-time, I’m still available,” he laughs.

He’s eager to work with an inter-county team again in the future for nothing else apart from his passion for goalkeeping. He doesn’t accept a single cent for his contribution. Imparting advice to the bright young talents in goalkeeping is enough for him.

After years of chaos, Considine lives a quiet and simple life now. The people he hurt most during his drinking years all get several mentions throughout our chat, including his grand-daughter Ava.

His greatest gift to her is that she has been able to see Noel Considine 2.0 since the day she was born.

“She has been a huge part of my life,” Considine says.

“I swore the morning I held her in my hand that she’d never see what Aaron saw. Or what Aaron missed seeing. I wouldn’t have been one that went home and abused [former partner] Cathy and Aaron, but there were lots of times that I didn’t go home, which was nearly worse.

“Thankfully she hasn’t. We’ve a fantastic relationship and she’s a treasure.”

If you want to talk or have any concerns about alcoholism, you can contact Pieta House, Alcoholics Anonymous Ireland or the HSE Addiction Services.

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Denise Gaule, Sarah Dervan and Grace Walsh have been included in our team of the year.

Source: Photojoiner/Inpho

THERE WERE SOME head-scratching moments to suffer through here.

The camogie championship came to a dramatic conclusion last Saturday night, as Kilkenny banished the hurt of three consecutive All-Ireland final defeats to reign supreme again.

It took a late Denise Gaule penalty to ultimately settle the tie and take the O’Duffy Cup from the 2019 champions Galway.

Of course, you don’t have to accept our word on this. If you feel a worthy candidate has been omitted from the selection, do let us know in the comment section below. 

The newly crowned champions Kilkenny lead the way with seven representatives in the team. Defeated finalists Galway follow closely behind with five inclusions while semi-finalists Cork and Tipperary occupy the remaining spots.

We agonised over some of the positions while others were simply too impressive this year to be in any danger of missing out.

Denise Gaule

One of the first names we put down and a potential player of the year candidate. Between the semi-final and final, she posted a combined 1-13 to help Kilkenny get back to the top of the pile again.

She converted some high pressure frees as well as that crucial penalty with just three minutes of normal time remaining in Croke Park. She also linked up with Anne Dalton for an important goal in their semi-final win over Cork, where Kilkenny had to claw their way back from a six-point deficit at early doors to force their way through to the decider.

The42 Camogie Team of the Year 2020

1. Sarah Healy (Galway)

Subscribe to The42′s new member-led GAA Championship show with Marc Ó Sé and Shane Dowling. 

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