1. Then, as McCarthy was distracted to another conversation with another caller, O’Gara leaned in and spoke softly to him. “I looked him in the eye and said ‘I have to say thanks to you’. He was saying would you f*** off, shut up.
“I said ‘no, you need to hear it. Thanks for everything you did for me’. I could tell he was getting emotional, but I was really happy with myself I got that out.”
A few weeks later O’Gara helped carry O’Toole’s coffin.
Michael Foley sits down with Eoghan O’Gara for The Times as the recently-retired Dublin star reflects on his career, and his relationship with the late Anton O’Toole.
2. Worthing is a place steeped in mythology. Early stories of the area were dominated by cults, dancing skeletons, haunted woodland, and knuckers—sea monsters that lived in deep pools of water by the beach, only venturing out at night to gobble up livestock and unsuspecting local residents, particularly misbehaving children. But contemporary Worthing’s woes were less magical. Their team was running out of time.
George Dowell was left paralysed following a car crash at the age of 17. At 21, he became the youngest club chairman in England. Sam Diss of Mundial heads to Worthing to hear his story.
3. The obvious question seems to be whether this chain was ever in danger of breaking. The answer is yes – and quite ironically one occasion came when Ferguson was manager.
“It was before Ferguson had got his youth policy going,” says Park. “In the late Eighties and early Nineties it was only Mark Hughes and Clayton Blackmore in the team who had come through. There was one game when Hughes was injured and it was Blackmore on the bench who kept the run alive. If it hadn’t been for Blackmore it would have been done.”
Sunday’s meeting with Everton will mark the 4,000th successive game where a youth-team graduate has been named in Manchester United’s squad. Laurie Whitwell delves into this incredible statistic for the Athletic.
4. For the players, staff, volunteers, business dragged through the mud by association and supporters who gave everything to make the club a success when it would always be dictated by ego regardless, today doesn’t even offer some form of justice nor respite.
But it does feel like wages unpaid, manners un-reciprocated and effort unrewarded is a thing of the past. No more players can commit to a contract that would see them miss mortgage payments. No more managers will leave the comfort of their homes and families because a seemingly-licensed opportunity presented itself.
A difficult week for supporters and staff at Limerick FC, but one that has been a long time coming, as Andrew Cunneen explains in the Limerick Leader.
5. Newly empowered, she said she found herself approaching sports with a different level of focus. She reoriented her nascent wheelchair racing career from triathlons and marathons toward sprinting. She thrived.
The pain was still there, deepening. But she also imagined herself using it as fuel for competition. Her days were no longer consumed with dark thoughts of how her life would end. Mentally, she felt free.
“Because of those papers,” she said, “I started to live again.”
Belgian Paralympic Marieke Vervoort made international headlines when her decision to apply for euthanasia papers became public. Andrew Keh spent over three years charting her remarkable journey for the New York Times.
The42 is on Instagram! Tap the button below on your phone to follow us!
