Wasn't always so rosy
IT IS only a couple of weeks more than 12 months ago to the day - February 20 to be exact - that Rosaleen McGrath went to watch John play...
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Daragh Ó Conchúir
Any Sport Will Do
Blog
Blog
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- May 16, 2020
- 4 min
"If everyone waits until they find out the money's not there, it will be too late" - Nallen calls fo
LEGENDARY point-to-point producer John Nallen has called on racing’s superpowers such as Coolmore, Godolphin and the Aga Khan to forego...
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- May 9, 2019
- 4 min
I feel like I get more done when I have more things to do - Chloe Foxe
CHLOE FOXE is taking time out from completing a college assignment to chat. The conversation flows, the 21-year-old at ease with...
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- Dec 20, 2017
- 8 min
The man who makes the big decisions
RACING is all about opinions but some count more than others. When it comes to rating horses under national hunt rules, senior...
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- Dec 20, 2017
- 4 min
Noel O'Brien Q & A
NOEL O’Brien is the Irish senior national hunt handicapper, responsible for rating every horse that runs under national hunt rules. It...
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- Aug 16, 2017
- 3 min
Auction For Adrian
I MOVED to Kildare the week before Christmas in 2002, to take up a new job as sports editor of The Kildare Nationalist. It was exciting...
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- Jul 22, 2017
- 12 min
Dr: Adrian McGoldrick: Guardian of the track
"That man should be made a saint. Words can't describe how amazing he was, and still is, for me.” Mark Enright “The only standard is the...
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- Jul 14, 2017
- 14 min
More than a player with skill and talent - Johnny Doyle
LUKE WADE is an 11-year-old from Old Parish, Co Waterford who is entranced by football and so you would expect his favourite footballer,...
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- Jul 6, 2017
- 11 min
Kate Kelly: parting from her great love of camogie
“Someone told me when the time is right to give up you’ll know and that’s what I’ve gone on. It never crossed my mind this winter but you...
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- Jun 9, 2017
- 4 min
"If you see somebody pulling on one of your sisters it's like a red flag in front of a bull"
ANNA FARRELL has noticed a transformation towards camogie among the general public in Kilkenny. It had been difficult to gain any...
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- May 26, 2017
- 3 min
McDaid and Okunbor to trial at AFL Combine
GALWAY senior Cillian McDaid and last year’s All-Ireland minor winner with Kerry Stefan Okunbor have been invited to attend the annual...
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- May 24, 2017
- 6 min
Zach on the up with fresh challenge
ZACH Tuohy chuckles at the memory of that first phone call from AFL scout Gerard Sholly. At 17, he didn’t know an Australian accent from...
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- May 20, 2017
- 3 min
Walsh rejects criticism of AFL's recruitment of Irish players
FORMER Cavan footballer and current AFL coach Nicholas Walsh has rejected criticism of the recruitment of GAA players by AFL clubs. Mark...
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- May 16, 2017
- 10 min
Holden out for a hero
AROUND Kilkenny, if the names Shefflin, Cody and Holden come in conversation, the likelihood is that hurling will be the topic, with...
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- May 5, 2017
- 9 min
Murphy looking to unleash the magic
OISÍN MURPHY seems to have been around a long time but then he was so young when he shot to prominence. He handled that meteoric rise...
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- Apr 23, 2017
- 5 min
"The hardest part was just not playing" - Niamh McCarthy
THERE was a time, even as she had barely entered her teens, when it seemed inevitable that the Niamh McCarthy would play for Cork. “I...
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- Apr 21, 2017
- 4 min
Dunphy relishing combination of work and play
IT WAS the second minute of injury time when Aisling Dunphy entered the fray. Kilkenny were four points clear of Cork, their supporters...
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- Apr 21, 2017
- 3 min
Non-Trier Rule for punters rather than horses, says Power
IRISH Grand National-winning jockey Robbie Power says that the updated Non-Trier Rule means that jockeys will be riding for punters and...
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- Apr 14, 2017
- 2 min
Sligo without key players for potential Big Apple banana skin
SLIGO manager Niall Carew must plan without a number of key players when his side make the journey to New York for their preliminary...
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- Apr 14, 2017
- 7 min
"I had him in a slatted house in Ballintubber and when the lads came to get him he was eating a roun
IT IS another of those quintessential national hunt stories that captures the very essence of jump racing. “Katie has done a great job...
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- Apr 9, 2017
- 2 min
"Shut your mouth or you will be given a black card" - Carew claim
NIALL Carew has called on the GAA to facilitate the provision of specific boxes for management and coaching teams in grounds around the...
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- Apr 8, 2017
- 3 min
O'Connor makes 16,000km round trip for Killarney cause
IN ANOTHER year, Padraig O’Connor might have been preparing with the Kerry squad for Sunday’s Allianz Football League Division 1 final...
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- Mar 28, 2017
- 3 min
Derry defeat a positive on Kildare's promotion march says Sweeney
KILDARE coach Ronan Sweeney has pinpointed the Lilies’ last-gasp defeat to Derry in round 3 of the Allianz Football League as an...
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- Mar 21, 2017
- 10 min
Never give up
THE congratulations cards are wedged above the fireplace, battling each other for a good posi. Room is tight, particularly with the...
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- Mar 17, 2017
- 2 min
For rugby, how big is too big?
IT WAS notable how even former Ireland and Lions skipper Paul O’Connell was remarking on the shudderingly physical nature of the...
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- Mar 14, 2017
- 13 min
Sell pity somewhere else - the inspirational JT McNamara
"This wasn’t meant to be no sad song. We’ve heard too much of that before." - Paul Brady, The Island “I’d be a lot worse if it happened...
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- Mar 13, 2017
- 10 min
Renaissance Roger
“Do you think you’ll ever get outta here?” “Me?” Red sighs. “Yeah. One day, when I’ve got a long, white beard and two or three marbles...
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- Mar 12, 2017
- 13 min
Ruby on the rise
HE WELCOMES you at the front door, the smoke he exhales more vivid in the zero-degree night. You not given those up yet? “For Lent” comes...
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- Mar 9, 2017
- 9 min
Johnny Martyn: "I want to finish on my own terms"
“OH FOR fuck’s sake. Not again.” When you are a 34-year-old inter-county footballer recognising the symptoms of a stroke, having suffered...
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- Mar 9, 2017
- 12 min
Cooper's Choice
BRYAN Cooper seems to have been around a long time but one look at the cherubic face and you are reminded that he is only 23, giving the...
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- Mar 7, 2017
- 2 min
Doyle determined to pull her weight
CIARA Quirke won most of the plaudits as a result of scoring a goal and nine points in Myshall’s 1-10 to 1-9 defeat of Eglish in the AIB...
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- Mar 7, 2017
- 2 min
"You never see your friends and maybe you've lost friends over it. But it's all worth it in the end"
SOME players have a knack for scoring goals and Mary Kelly fits into that category. It has ever been thus. Mary Kelly wheels away after...
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- Mar 7, 2017
- 4 min
"He'd be a massively proud man. It's just unfortunate that he missed the biggest match of our lives"
“NÍ NEART go cur le chéile!” Slaughtneil skipper Aoife Ní Chaiside lifts the Bill & Agnes Carroll Cup (Photos: INPHO/Tommy Grealy) These...
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- Mar 4, 2017
- 8 min
"You don't know how good any of them are going to be until they get broke up and come back" - Ruby W
RUBY Walsh is one of the greatest jump jockeys the world has ever seen. Everyone has different criteria for judging the best. Even the...
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- Mar 3, 2017
- 2 min
Allen sings Molly Malone as "horse of my lifetime" Romanov retired
IRISH riders were in fantastic form yesterday, scoring a hat-trick of wins against top-class opposition in the Middle East, Europe and...
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- Mar 2, 2017
- 9 min
Lynam's Power grid
WHERE to start with Eddie Lynam’s season? The norm is to go with the beginning, isn’t it? “When I was standing at the parade ring on...
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- Mar 2, 2017
- 6 min
Outsider Lynam crashes the party
WHEN Sole Power blitzed a high class field in the Nunthorpe Stakes at York’s Ebor meeting last August at the eye-popping price of 100/1,...
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- Mar 1, 2017
- 5 min
New game, same Katie
IT IS undeniable that turning professional has brought change in Katie Taylor’s life, but only around the edges. The really important...
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- Feb 24, 2017
- 3 min
Any Second Now looks special but Labaik a potential fly in the ointment at Naas
A FIELD of seven have been declared for the Grade 2 Paddy Power Onside App Novice Hurdle headed by the Ted Walsh-trained Any Second Now,...
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- Feb 24, 2017
- 14 min
The Walsh wonders
IN HORSE racing, breeding carries as much weight for the human protagonists as the equine ones. Being a Mullins, Carberry or Taaffe is...
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- Feb 20, 2017
- 3 min
Nguyen in European Young Player of the Year race
IRELAND’S badminton squad bowed out of the European Mixed Team Championships in Lubin, Poland last Wednesday, after defeats to Sweden and...
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- Feb 13, 2017
- 11 min
Taking CARE of business
SERENDIPTIOUS is how Patrick Ryan describes the sequence of events that saw Carol Nolan tell her interviewers at Horse Racing Ireland...
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- Feb 13, 2017
- 4 min
Irish spend 22m euro at Cheltenham Festival
AN ECONOMIC Impact Analysis has revealed that people visiting from Ireland spent €22.3m (£19.23m) at the Cheltenham Festival last March,...
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- Feb 10, 2017
- 2 min
Kerry's Okunbor dreams of pro life
WHILE many in Kerry are decrying the so-called poaching of the county’s top players by Aussie rules clubs, teenage AFL hopeful Stefan...
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- Feb 8, 2017
- 2 min
Baker and Narbon on the double for Thunder
GRIFFITH Swords Thunder will be celebrating once more this week, as the club has been awarded both the Men’s Super League Player of the...
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- Feb 3, 2017
- 2 min
Douvan to attract racegoers to Punchestown
IRELAND'S highest-rated chaser Douvan will be the star on show at Punchestown on Sunday when lining up in the Boylesports Tied Cottage...
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- Feb 3, 2017
- 10 min
The Next Episode - Joseph O'Brien
THE quiet village of Owning nestles in a small valley, resting neatly between two inclines. Descending from the Carrick-On-Suir side, a...
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- Feb 3, 2017
- 3 min
House of Commons committee to host "no confidence" debate in FA
THE Culture, Media and Sport Committee has secured a debate on the governance of football governance in the House of Commons. This...
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- Feb 2, 2017
- 2 min
Nash makes debut as Erasmus rings the changes
RASSIE Erasmus has made 11 changes for Munster's Guinness PRO12 game against Edinburgh Rugby tomorrow evening in Myreside (7.35pm). A...
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- Feb 2, 2017
- 2 min
Strickland makes first appointments to coaching staff
NEWLY-APPOINTED head coach of the Irish senior men's basketball team, Pete Strickland has today announced the first two appointments to...
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