William Grogan tells a good story about racehorse trainer Dessie Hughes, who passed away at the age of 71 this week:
A good few years ago a group of us had a couple of horses with Dessie. We had some great fun. The stable jockey was Charlie Swan. I often tell of the day one horse was running in Clonmel and for various reasons I got delayed and knew I’d missthe race so I stopped off in Urlingford to see what the betting on him was. I expected 16/1 but the horse was priced at only 7/1 on the board in the small bookies. Thinking the lads were piling into him I had a ton on it. I was delighted when it won. When I got to the track the first person I met was Dessie, I thanked him and I told him I’d backed it. He said, “The lads nearly killed me, I told them I didn’t think he had much of a chance.” It just shows you. It’s sad to see him go so soon but he had a great life and brought incredible pleasure to many people. RIP
Wondering what USMNT stands for? Well now you know thanks to John Smith (okay, it actually means US Mens National Team):
Ireland vs USMNT…. what is USMNT? U.S. Mutant ninja turtles?
Maybe Tommy Walsh will head to the MLB after retiring from intercounty hurling this week considering the huge salaries they are on offer:
Surely there’s one of the countries top hurlers looking at these guys getting paid big salaries and saying I could hit a baseball.
After winning 8 Munsters, 3 Allstars and 5 All-Irelands, Declan O’Sullivan called it a day this week. Paul Keady’s father remembers seeing the Kerry legend playing as a young man:
2002 hogan cup semi final between colaiste na sceilge and st jarlath’s… My dad says he knew o’sullivan would be a star after seeing that game. Wish I was old enough to remember it.
We ranked the 8 most memorable Irish international footballing debuts and Robert O Farrell felt the need to pay tribute to former striker Bernie Slaven:
No one will ever compare to the peerless Slaven. Who could forget his seminal performance against Turkey in the Italia 90 WC friendly in a sweltering Izmir. Scored a goal … But it was offside. Wasn’t his debut either, irrelevant details when we are discussing true greatness and genius at work.
Donal Treacy believes Michael Cheika is taking far too much credit for the development of Jonny Sexton:
You’d swear he developed Sexton. He was glued to the bench until Contepomi injured himself in the semi finals. If it was up to Cheika, Sexton would never have made it. Schmidt is the coach that knows how to use Sexton.This would be like Matt O’Connor talking about all the game time he gave Madigan …….at fullback.
And behold, on this day, son of BOD is born.
With talk that the UFC could be holding an event at the Aviva Stadium next summer, Joe Bourke has some advice for Dana White:
They better start talking to the resident’s now so!
