Search Results for 'Paul Mannion'

When Mayo needed a man to show the leadership in a clutch situation, their star man came good right at the death. Cillian O’Connor showed why he was picked by Stephen Rochford as his captain, when he created the space he needed to shimmy inside and drill the ball through the drizzle over the bar and electrify the Mayo faithful in Croke Park to haul his side level at the death.

It is past midnight on Wednesday night, going into the small hours of Thursday morning. My wife and the four kids are all tucked up and gone to dreamland for the past few hours. Only Caesar our faithful dog is keeping me company, as I start to type this column on why Dublin should win the All-Ireland final in a few days time. However, I am having strong flashbacks to the second of September in 2012 and the All-Ireland semi-final.

It’s game eight of Mayo’s 2016 championship campaign and the biggest one of all, the All-Ireland final against the reining champions and hot favourites Dublin. Mayo are priced at 3/1, the Dubs are 4/11 while the draw is available at 10/1. In layman’s terms the bookmakers don’t see Dublin been beaten. The handicap betting is set at -3 points meaning the expert odd makers feel Dublin will win by about three.

"Some people think I'm mad, facing the car for home on a Friday evening at 4.30pm, but during the summer where else would you rather be than at home in Louisburgh, as long as the weather is good of course." Austin O'Malley has been there and done it all before but he is still making the long trip home from his home on the east coast each weekend to try to help get Louisburgh back over the line in the junior ranks of Mayo football.

There is so much going on in the sporting world it's hard to keep up. The football championship is in full swing, the Euros are around the corner, the passing of Muhammad Ali has grabbed all the front and back pages and then there is the not so small matter of the Mayo hurling team's fantastic win in the Nicky Rackard Cup last Saturday evening in Croke Park. Things look very rosy in the Mayo GAA world and we are still only in the second week in June and yet we have two national titles in the bag.

There was some good news for students and recent graduates of construction and built environment courses attending a construction conference in GMIT last week with a number of speakers highlighting the existing demand for highly-skilled professionals and the opportunities for them in Ireland and abroad because of the current skills shortage in the construction industry.

The Galway U-21 footballers head to Kiltoom tomorrow evening (Friday) to take on the current Connacht champions Roscommon in the first round of the Connacht U-21 championship at 7.30pm.

Following their impressive and well-deserved victory over Derry in Celtic Park at the weekend, the Galway senior footballers face Meath in Pearse Stadium this Sunday (2pm) in round four of the National Football League.

The sixth annual GMIT International Construction Management Day Conference will take place in the institute on Tuesday March 8, from 9am to 3.45pm. The annual conference is the largest construction event in the west of Ireland and provides a meeting place for professionals, contractors, and academics to meet and discuss matters of concern to the industry. The event draws delegates from Ireland and abroad.

Last Saturday can only be described as a Super Saturday within Mayo GAA circles with three big games on — However none of the results matched the excitement within the county. The All-Ireland champions Dublin travelled to Elvery’s MacHale Park for what was meant to be a walk in the park for them, given Mayo’s performance the previous week in Cork. What ensued was everything but as a very different Mayo made them fight to the bitter end, only for Dublin to scrape home by two points.