Cathal Dervan

GAA: The ladies football finals at Croke Park dominated the GAA calendar on Sunday when Dublin, otherwise known as the Jackies, captured the senior title to finally bring some joy to the Hill. Just as interesting and definitely more amusing were the pre-match comments from Donegal defender Diane Toner ahead of her team’s victory over Waterford in the intermediate decider.

Diane will marry the Donegal footballer Frank McGlynn in a couple of months, but her pending marriage clearly wasn’t on her mind ahead of Sunday’s win.

“Somebody asked me the other day when my big day was and I told them it is on Sunday!” Diane joked before the match. “Wedding plans are put on hold, taking a back seat for a little while. I have an All-Ireland soccer final with Lagan Harps the following Sunday, so it is a busy time, but I am loving it.”

Christy O’Connor Junior was on the national radio airwaves on Tuesday morning, and a fine interview it was ahead of this weekend’s Ryder Cup formalities at the Celtic Manor resort just outside Cardiff in Wales.

Now there’s one topic that is guaranteed to come up in conversation wherever and whenever the junior member of Ireland’s greatest golfing family takes center stage – that two iron to the 18th at the Belfry in 1989.
Hard as it seems to believe, for me anyway, that Christy hit the greatest golf shot of his life all of 21 years ago this weekend, and it is still the stuff of Irish golfing folklore.

And so RTE’s Darren Frehill, a fine young man, went into the archives and replayed the BBC commentary from the 1989 match for us when Christy’s two iron went to the soul of Europe’s challenge that day, never mind to the within a few feet of the flag.

You probably don’t get the Evening Herald in New York, not on a regular basis anyway, so it’s unlikely you’ll have seen the full page advertisement that caught the eye in Monday’s edition announcing the winners of a silly competition called “Your Country Your Call.”

This farcical contest has been ongoing for some months now and is designed to get the country up and running again in the wake of the disgraceful neglect of our economy by those idiots the nation voted into power.

The prime mover behind the Your Country Your Call campaign is a man by the name of Martin McAleese, a man who has been happily living under the taxpayer’s roof as the president’s husband for the past number of years.

Wayne Rooney was center-stage on Tuesday night, the man of the people once again as Manchester United took on Glasgow Rangers in a Champions League Battle of Britain at Old Trafford.

The England international was back in Alex Ferguson’s team for the first time since sordid revelations about his private life and his dalliances with prostitutes made for very public headlines.

Left out of the squad that travelled to Everton last Saturday for a quite thrilling 3-3 draw, Rooney was the top draw in what was effectively a second string United side against the Scottish champions.

Heartfelt commiserations to King Henry Shefflin, who limped out of Sunday’s All-Ireland hurling final after just 12 minutes of a game that, even then, seemed beyond his Kilkenny and beyond the call of history.

Shefflin has been betrayed as some sort of villain in many quarters since Sunday’s eight-point defeat, simply for having the cheek to start the biggest match in the GAA’s recent history.

Those who claim to know better -- many of whom have never won one All-Ireland in a row, never mind four -- believe Shefflin did Kilkenny some sort of disservice by trying to add his considerable weight to the Cats famous Drive for Five on Sunday afternoon.

Malahide was beautifully resplendent on Tuesday afternoon as Ireland’s soccer heroes went through their paces on the perfectly manicured training pitch at Gannon Park.

Robbie Keane could have no excuses about the state of the surface as he fired shots at second choice ‘keeper Keiren Westwood.