Sunday, All-Ireland Final
A TRIP to our Nation’s Capital today for Kerry’s 59th All-Ireland appearance, this year against our great friends from Mayo.
As ever, there are always nerves, but the older you get, you learn to enjoy the occasion more and take it all in.
I leave Listowel at 7.30am with Caroline Marie, Aoife and Jack and we are outside the Palace Bar on Fleet Street for 11.15am to meet Siun and my nephews Sean and Adam, along with what seems to be the whole of North Kerry, with the next few hours sorting out tickets with plenty of swops to be done.
The game itself is a humdinger and by now ye don’t need me to tell ye the result! I am sitting in the Lower Hogan, where I have for a lot of finals, but today I experience scenes and emotions I have never witnessed.
Mayo’s success ends their 75-year famine and all around me men, women and kids of all ages are crying. I mean balling! To be honest, I cry myself, not because Kerry lost, but out of pure happiness for the Mayo people.
It’s always a balls of drive back home when you lose an All-Ireland, but today’s loss to Mayo does feel different and on the way down the road I call and send messages of congratulations to all our Mayo friends.
Monday, Galway
The circus wagons roll into Galway City this morning for the biggest show of the year. Seven days of craic, banter, dreams coming true and, of course, nightmares and heartbreak.
I arrive at 11am and meet up with my landlord for the week to get the apartment sorted. Just off Eyre Square, sure it’s a perfect location for getting home at night and having the morning stroll. At the track this evening, the weather is overcast and a bit misty, but it doesn’t dampen the atmosphere and the feature event, the Connacht Hotel (QR) Handicap is won by local man and riding legend Derek O’Connor, aboard Comfort Zone for owner J.P. McManus and trainer Joseph O’Brien.
At odds of 18/1, it’s a sixth career success for the horse and a second win in the race for 44-year-old Derek after Rapid Deployment in 2003.
After racing, I pick up Berkie Browne, Spike Murphy and Patsy Browne and we head an hour up the road to Castlebar for the Mayo homecoming celebrations. Shure, we have to! This is history and will be remembered for generations.
We arrive at 11pm and head straight to Mick Byrne’s pub on Bridge Street, where you can’t swing a kitten never mind a cat. The atmosphere is electric even at this hour of the night.
Mick is a mighty character, an “aul stock” character, and a great GAA and racing man and we have been slagging each other for decades over the football. In the pub, people are seven-deep, up and down the bar counter, but he stops everything when he spots us and welcomes us to the ‘home of Football’!
With the boys drinking a gallon of porter each, we meet and have the craic with so many locals and we get back to Galway in time to see the milkman making the first of his deliveries for the day.
Tuesday, Galway
The skies stay overcast and misty this evening with the feature Colm Quinn BMW Mile won by Orandi under Robbie ‘Chatty’ Colgan for trainer Tony Martin and owners C.J. Murtagh from Trim and Bertie Hourihane from Cork.
Robbie is probably the quietest fella in the weigh-room, hence his nickname, and also one of the most popular and he earns high praise from Tony Martin, calling him the most underrated rider around.
He tells us afterwards: “I got about 15 different instructions and I don’t think I carried out one of them!” It’s also a red-letter day for Longford native and well-known New York publican John Mahon, who leads in two winners on the card with his son John Jnr.
First is Frankie John in the beginners’ chase trained by Denis Hogan and later in the fillies’ maiden, Samnina trained by Jessica Harrington brings up the double. John has 14 bars in America and two in Dublin and shows us a pair of rosary beads that he had in his pocket and also lets us know that he gave the priest €100 this morning for some good luck!
Eddie G is a poignant winner for local owner and well-known hurling man Padraig Connolly and his family, after his wife Delia passed away last month and he is represented by his son Aidan and brothers Joe and Tom.
After racing, I head to Monroe’s Tavern, where there are plenty of racing heads including Chips, Fran ‘Doctor’ Berry, Dublin John, Shaggy Leavy, Denise O’Brien and John Dunne.
The highlight of the night though is the singing prowess of Caroline Kane, daughter of Hugo and Anne, whose horse Lady Arwen won the final race tonight for trainer Conor O’Dwyer, also here with wife Audrey.
Wednesday, Galway
Today is many people’s highlight for the week with the Galway Plate and a field of 22 face the starter. King Alexander wins an exciting contest under 21-year-old Daniel King for trainer Willie Mullins and owner John Neocleous.
Willie tells us how much he loves ‘The Plate’ as a race, calling it “the race of the summer” and is sorry that his owner, who is from Cyprus but living in Dubai and on holiday in Switzerland, is not here to enjoy the occasion.
Also on the card, we have a first Galway success for jockey Harry Cobden for his new boss J.P. McManus with Venusienne.
John Nallen of Minella Hotel fame, is thrilled to watch son Jack lead in Minella Rocket for their success and we have English owners celebrating with Cock And Bull winning for Sarah and Wayne Dale.
It’s back to Monroes tonight, where I catch up with bookmakers Justin ‘Spartacus’ Flood, Marty McCrudden, and Mulvaney bookmaker team of Eoin Fitzgerald with Jack and Billy Rodgers, along with Ross O’Sullivan and wife Katie, Aidan ‘Scobie’ Fitzgerald and wife Aisling and James Nolan and wife Tara.
Thursday, Galway
As always, wherever you are in the massive Galway enclosure, there are plenty of food and drink outlets.
In the bars, a pint of Guinness is €7 with Carlsberg €7.70, a brandy is €7.50 or a bottle of water is €3.50. The Real Irish Burger Company will serve you a Bacon and Cheese Legend for €13 or a Chicken Legend for €11, washed down with a coke for €3.50.
In The Claddagh Restaurant, a plate of roast beef is €19, bacon is €18 and three jumbo sausages with beans and chips is €14.50.
Today’s feature, the Guinness Galway Hurdle is won by Putapoundinthejar, owned by Glenamaddy native Ray Gehan, trained by Tony Martin, giving him a fifth Galway Hurdle success and ridden by yesterday’s Plate winning jockey, Daniel King.
This makes Dan the eighth rider to complete the Plate/Hurdle double in the same year and the first since the much-missed Joe Byrne in 1984 and Jonjo O’Neill before him.
For the past few months, Tony Martin has been letting us all know his thoughts on Dan, telling us ‘he is the best since Ruby Walsh’. What a way to cement that statement.
Every year, the Galway Festival provides us with great tales and triumphs for the smaller outfits and the success of Shadow Paddy typifies this.
Owned by Complete Package Syndicate, led by Kilmallock man Paddy McAuliffe, ridden by Limerick man Gary Noonan and trained by Athea man Eoin McCarthy, they bring great colour and atmosphere to the winner’s enclosure for their celebrations. As ever, the Galway Festival stands tallest when it comes to getting it right, but I leave you with the lyrics to The Saw Doctors song that, from sunrise to sundown, we heard all week in the city…
Oh, the Green and Red of Mayo, I can see it still
It’s soft and craggy boglands, it’s tall majestic hills
Where the ocean kisses Ireland and the waves caress its shore
Oh the feelin’ it came over me, to stay forever more forever more