One hundred years later…
It is copyright, so we can only urge you to visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BsbL3wYO2g&ab_channel=GAAMAN for something special. Those red jerseys in the film clip are of course, Cork, but who wears white-with-green-strips? That is Tipperary, paying tribute to the black day in 1920 in Croke Park when the Auxies fired live bullets at them and at the crowd.
This time there was no crowd, but Tipp won the Munster final by 17 points to 14. At the end, their half-forward Colin O’Riordan was emotional as he thanked the Sydney Swans for giving him permission to play.
And if you think there is something special about Tipperary being in the last four of an All Ireland Football championship, consider the following: the other three teams are Dublin, Cavan and Mayo. The last time those counties made up the last four was 1920.
What happened next …
In the first weekend of December, Dublin trounced Cavan 1-24 to 0-12. In the other semi-final, Mayo saw off Tipperary 5-20 to 3-13. The final will be played on Dec 19.
Meanwhile, hurling has been continuing its years of glory, with each game as thrilling as the next. This year’s final on Dec 12 will feature Waterford v Limerick.
Greedy Dublin
As if it is not enough to keep winning football All Irelands, Dublin now wants to take water from the Shannon. There is legislation before the Dail to take 350 million litres to supplement Dublin’s needs. However, there are problems, mostly legal ones and involving the EU and it seems unlikely that the scheme will go ahead.
John Banville stirring things up.
The word ‘woke’ is variously defined as being aware of matters that ‘the man does not want you to know about’ or ‘being pretentious about how much you care about some social issue’. Booker prizewinner John Banville raised some hackles recently by saying that he despised the woke movement which he said had become a religious cult. In reply, Bernardine Evaristo, last year’s Booker winner said that the the woke movement was an attempt to make society fairer and more equal, ‘so how can you despise it?’ Ouch!
Tinteán 