Big inter-county games

Local writer Willie McHugh was on RTE this morning – delivering a piece he wrote earlier this week for the Mayo News. You can listen to it in full HERE

From Our Man in Rennes, Niall Murphy: “Exciting week! I hope all is well. Rennes GAA is going very well. We just played in our first Euro tournament of the year and we put in some good performances. We beat Frankfurt (only Irish players) which we are very proud of. Lost by a point to Lyon and got beaten by Brussels who are the best team in Europe (they went on to win the tournament). “Next Euro tournament for us is the weekend of the 19th/20th of October in Athlone for the Euro finals which involves all the clubs around Europe. “Anyway the players are all excited about the Mayo v Dublin match. We will be watching it all together in ‘The Wesport Inn’ in Rennes city centre. “Have a look at the photo, the only Mayo man in the photo is the one with the Kerry jersey! His father is from Kerry. Allez the green and red!” Who can forget the Rennes visit to Ballinrobe earlier this year – but just in case you did forget it, details are HERE. Actually, one of their number, Caimin Browne, was in Ballinrobe last week – his father Richard hails from the Neale and now lives in Kilkenny. Caimin spent a year in Rennes and teamed up with the lads. He’s back in Ireland now. And we better get Niall (and Harry) Murphy home soon too. Niall has a 30th birthday in the offing, a little bird called Ken tells me.

The draw for two All Ireland tickets has just taken place here in Costello’s. Lucky winners: Seanie Lydon, Tourmakeady (stand) Brian Golden, Rahard, Ballinrobe (terrace) Beanie hats and club tops to a few others, as follows, please don’t be disappointed: Beanies – Ella Finnerty, Ballinrobe (daughter of Celine and her lesser-known husband, Mike, who apparently does a bit of broadcasting); Michelle Finlay, Creagh Road; Breda Keane, Carrowkeel; David Flannery, husband of Eimear Grimes, Glebe St; Siobhan Heaps, Roxborough South (daughter of Bernadette McCormack and husband Peter, cousin of our emerging stars James and Matthew McCormack). Ballinrobe tops: Darina Kneafsey, Cross; Stella Owens (mother of Conor and Shane), Ballinrobe. Next Friday night we give away two more in Inch’s. Buy your tickets during the week. All tickets purchased for tonight’s draw are entered for next Friday night’s draw. Tickets a fiver, three for a tenner. Support Ballinrobe. Support Mayo. Thanks for your support.

UPDATE: Don’t forget tonight’s draw (Saturday, Sept. 14) in Costello’s Bar, at 11pm.   Ballinrobe GAA club and Mayo GAA board are raffling four All-Ireland football final tickets. Full details are available below, plus tickets are also available in a number of local shops. We are looking for volunteers to help out selling tickets at the following times: Wednesday, September 4, various times: People needed to sell at Ballinrobe Livestock Mart Saturday, September 7, 10am-2pm: People needed for Ballinrobe Country Market (the Library), Corrib Oil, Cummins’ and Tesco. Please contact treasurer John Culhane (087 694 9455) if you can help out. Please make a special effort to assist. If you can just do an hour, that will help.  

UPDATE: The video is out – well done, folks. Brilliant. And a great night at the shoot too. Quality Street’s Mayo song The fast-growing-in-popularity Quality Street are more or less the musical wing of Ballinrobe GAA club. Three of our own and one from out the road. Martin Farragher and Iron Mike Ansbro have both played with the club for many years, though Iron Mike seems to have gone into what we hope is temporary retirement since Quality Street started to shoot the stars out. Ailise Burke is there too and she played for Ballinrobe in her younger days, and she now plays for The Neale, given that we don’t have a ladies team anymore in Ballinrobe. She is daughter of Billy ‘put down an egg for ya’ Burke, who played with Ballinrobe for about 30 years, and managed to look younger at the end of it all. Gerry Heneghan is the fourth member of the band. He’s from Partry. That’d make him a Tourmakeady man for GAA purposes. But, right now, we’re all the one: Green & Red. Here’s an interesting note we got from Quality Street today about a recording they’re making tomorrow evening here in Ballinrobe, sound fascinating. See you there. Treat is as your first real All-Ireland warm-up (oh, boy, will we ever get through the next fortnight of anticipation…): “Right guys we’ve decided to make a video to support the Mayo team. We’ve recorded our Mayo song and we want to make a video this Friday involving everyone! Basically we would love if you could all make it down to the Water towers in Ballinrobe (beside the cycling club) on Friday at 8pm. Bring everyone and anyone. Your granddad, your nephew, your 2nd cousin once removed, your mother, great grandchildren, anyone at all. It’ll be a bit of craic and it will be a good way to support the team. We’re also going to play a few songs down there. Wear a jersey if you have one and bring flags, posters and anything ‘Mayo’ Also we have a bit of a competition for the kids so be sure to bring them along. We have a football sponsored by Vaughans Shoes and it’s signed by our very own Donal Vaughan! The best poster or sign wins it! We hope to see a load of you at it. The more people in the video the better.” By the way, lads, there’s a junior game Saturday v Parke-Keelogues-Crimlon, so easy on the all-night apres-party lark. It might even be Iron Mike’s comeback girl, sorry gig: ‘Comeback Girl’ was a song by the Republic of Loose, wasn’t it? Anyway, we’re on the Quality of Street now and worrying only about the Republic of Sam.

This week you can buy raffle in our All-Ireland tickets draw in the following places: Local shops – Martin Murphy’s, Jarlath Connaughton’s, Tom Treacy’s, Petals’n’Buds, Walkin’s, McHugh’s Cafe, the Valkenburg, Corrib Oil, Cummins’ Super-Valu, Ken Murphy’s, All About You Beauty Salon. ‘Street’ sales: Corrib Oil and Cummins’ Super-Valu, Saturday, 10am to 4pm If you can help with sales, contact John Culhane on 087 694 9455

Our ‘good luck’ sign is ready to roll – keep an eye out for it around the town over the next few days.