It's interesting to note that United's Darren Fletcher has strong Irish roots. His mother is a native of Achill island off the coast of County Mayo and like so many others was forced to emigrate. She went to Scotland where she married Bobby Fletcher. Apparently the family - including Darren - regularly visit Achill where they are highly regarded.

Saturday 4th August
Connacht champions Sligo travel to Croke Park this Saturday to face Cork in the quarter-finals of the Bank of Ireland SFC, throw-in 2.00pm.
The game will be followed by the quarter-final clash between Tyrone and Meath at 4.00pm and preceded by the Tommy Murphy Cup final where Wicklow and Antrim go head to head, throw in 12.15pm.

Sunday 5th August
Sunday's action involves three hurling matches with the Christy Ring Cup Final between Kildare and Westmeat at 12.15pm, followed by the Guinness All Ireland SHC semi-final between Wexford and Kilkenny at 2.00pm.
The SHC quarter-final replay between Cork and Waterford will throw-in at 4.00pm.

Saturday 11th August
The Nicky Rackard Cup final between Roscommon and Armagh has been pencilled in for Headquarters on Saturday 11 August at 1.15pm.
And this game will be followed by the Bank of Ireland SFC quarter-final clash where Dublin and Derry come face to face, throw in at 3.00pm.

Sunday 12th August
Action on Sunday 12 August will see Kerry take on Monaghan in the SFC quarter-finals, throw-in 2.00pm, followed by the second SHC semi-final between Limerick and the winners of Cork and Waterford with a throw-in time of 4.00pm.

When will this year's All Ireland senior hurling championship cease to produce the phenomenal? At Croke Park today we were treated to an epic. It finished at 3:16 each, they were level on seven occasions throughout the game. A draw was a fair result. The manner of arriving at 'level pegging' was controversial. Did the Cork goalkeeper Donal Og Cusack foul the ball or was he fouled after a truly memorable save? Referee Gavin will certainly not be awarded the freedom of Cork city for awarding a free to Waterford from which Eoin Kelly tied up the scores. Why were the umpires not consulted...? But let us concentrate on the previous 70 minutes? Waterford raced into a five point lead by the 20th minute. That man Dan (Shanahan) being the architect scoring a brilliant goal and two gargantuan points. Cork inspired by the elegant Sean Og O'Halpin and the dextrous Ben O'Connor rallied to go in level at half time 0-10 to 1-7. Waterford had played with the assistance of a strong breeze and one felt they needed the cushion of a few points of a lead to stand any chance of putting the Leesiders to sleep. They again started brightly. A goal by the improving Paul Flynn set them on their way to a four point lead. Then Cork rallied again. A goal from Murphy, great long range shots from Gardiner and O Halpin brought them level. We were treated to some amazing fielding by Waterfords redoubtable centre half back Ken McGrath. Had Waterford not been prodigal in their shooting they would have put the game away. You let Cork in a game at your peril and in the 64th minute, Ciaran Murphy slammed a goal followed by a point from Neil Ronan. It now looked as though Cork were through to another semi final but Waterford were not to be denied. The unusually named Molumphy was on hand to tap home when Donal Og effected another great save. The last point will be talked about for many a day by the banks of my own lovely Lee. We can't wait for the return game next Sunday.

We are the boys of Wexford

Who could believe that this was the same Wexford team that were humiliated by Kilkenny in the Leinster final. Tipperary were raging hot favourites to advance after their sensational win over Cork in the qualifying round. The spirit of Vinegar Hill was in evidence as the Slaney Siders snatched a dramatic victory when goalkeeper Fitzhenry blasted an unstoppable free to the Tipp net with just two minutes remaining. So it's the Old Firm again, as they face Kilkenny in the semi final. The cats held on to deny a gallant Galway team. Limerick easily accounted for Clare in the other quarter final. The rest of the Championship promises to be a nail biter. Any of the teams remaining are capable of lifting the Liam McCarthy Cup. Roll on September.

Now there's nowhere to hide

Back door or front door - now it does not matter, the serious business has begun!
The quarter final draw for the All Ireland senior football championship has thrown up four very interesting games. At the beginning of the year, Kerry, Tyrone, Dublin and Cork were on everybody's shortlist as potential champions. They have survived but are accompanied now by some surprise packets. Sligo are the sole Connaught survivors. They meet Cork who will be favourites to advance. Tyrone will lock horns with the resurgent Meath. This game may come a year too soon for the Royal County but Meath never know when to accept defeat. Kerry are paired with Monaghan who have surprised everybody. The Farneymen will not go down without a fight. The final pairing brings Dublin face to face with Derry. A repeat of the 1958 final when Dublin proved too crafty for the Northerners. Will history repeat itself on August 11th?

There's a fascinating article in The Guardian today, in which Paul Doyle discusses the way in which GAA clubs in Britain have developed in recent times. He notes that, because of the decline in Irish emigration, teams can no longer rely on Irish-born players and so are making great efforts to attract those born in Britain.

In fact that process has been going on since the 1980s when clubs here started to develop their underage teams. Certainly in this city it is to the great credit of the GAA clubs that they have put such effort into developing the talents of Manchester-born players over many years.

The article (and the discussion that follows it) is well worth a read here.

If it gets you thinking about playing gaelic games, or getting your children involved, then check our Directory for local clubs.

Saturday 21 July 2007 at Portlaoise :
Louth v Cork 2.00pm
Galway v Meath 4.00pm

GAA round-up:

The Central Competitions Control Committee of the GAA have confirmed that All-Ireland football champions Kerry will travel to Croke Park for their quarter-final match in this year's Championship.
Pat O'Shea's side will face one of the teams who come through the third round of the football qualifiers on Sunday August 12 with their throw-in time to be confirmed.

Meanwhile, GAA headquarters will also host an All-Ireland Hurling semi-final also on Sunday August 12 - Waterford or Cork will play either Clare or Limerick, while the curtain raiser that afternoon will be the ESB All-Ireland Minor Hurling quarter-final.

Dublin's next match in the Football Championship will take place on Saturday August 11 in Croke Park against one of the third round qualifier winners, while the Nicky Rackard Cup Final will be the curtain raiser that day.

Babs Keating makes two changes to the Tipperary side to face Cork in Saturday's SHC All-Ireland qualifier.
Alan Byrne comes in for defender Paul Curran, who suffered a broken jaw in the win over Dublin last weekend.
John Carroll takes the place of Ryan O'Dwyer in the half-forward line. Benny Dunne swaps midfield for the centre forward role, while Lar Corbett is shifted to right corner-forward from the left wing. Toomevara's Francis Devaney is the only other positional change and he linesu up alongside Hugh Maloney in the centre. Diarmuid Fitzgerald is unavailable and Paul Ormonde has quit the panel.

Leinster PRO Tom Farrell has confirmed that no tickets will be on sale for the Leinster final in the vicinity of Croke Park on Sunday next (15 July). He said: 'It will be another full house of 82,500 people. There will not be any ticket sales points near Croke Park in the hours before the match.'

Despite crisis talks with management, Graham Geraghty will not return to the Meath panel for this weekend's SFC Qualifier against Fermanagh. There had been widespread speculation that the player would be brought back in after a series of crisis meetings, which included an apology by Geraghty to management and an assurance that he would apologise to the rest of the squad if he returned to training. Geraghty was initially excluded from the panel by Meath manager Colm Coyle over a training ground clash with teenage squad member Stephen Sheppard.
After Geraghty's expulsion, Meath went to Down and scored an excellent win and it is thought that the 34-year-old's return to the fold is being blocked by senior players on the panel who do not wish to see recent good team spirit disrupted. Geraghty himself is understood to still be keen to re-join Meath.

Qualifiers - Sat 14 July:
Derry v Mayo - Celtic Park
Westmeath v Donegal - Cusack Park
Kildare v Louth - Newbridge
Meath v Fermanagh - Navan

Fixtures - Sun 15 July :
Leinster: Dublin v Laois - Croke Park
Ulster: Monaghan v Tyrone - Clones

There was an interesting piece in The Guardian this week as Jack Charlton reflected on Ireland's campaign in the USA 94 World Cup:

"There are two reasons why we didn't go further in that competition: the heat and our formation. On the eve of the World Cup Fifa changed the rules so that the goalkeeper could no longer pick up the ball, and that knackered us up completely. Our game was all about playing the ball behind our opponents' defence and putting them under pressure, but we wanted their keeper to pick the ball up if our attacks broke down because while the ball was in his hands you had a few seconds to readjust your players and get back into position. If we pushed up and the goalkeeper kicked the ball straight away, he could knock it behind us - and our centre-backs weren't the quickest. That rule, that simple little rule, totally knackered everything."

My main recollection of that World Cup was spending one of the happiest evenings of my life watching Ireland beat Italy in The Grove in Longsight (long since closed). A great Manchester-Irish band by the name of Rattle & Reel played straight after the game and the place was buzzing, packed full of young Manchester Irish. Hopefully Stan can bring back the good times so that a new generation can experience such nights.

Do you have any recollections of watching Ireland over the years? Let us know here.

Kerry and Kilkenny finished the day toasting success after contrasting victories in Killarney and Dublin today.

Kerry regained the Munster SFC title after they beat Cork at Fitzgerald Stadium in Killarney this afternoon.Two late points from Kieran Donaghy and Sean O'Sullivan saw the Kingdom see off the gutsy challenge of a Cork team that will fancy themselves to do well in the qualifiers.

Kilkenny retained their Leinster SHC title with an emphatic 2-24 to 1-12 victory over a disappointing Wexford at Croke Park.