Search Results for 'Tom Byrne'

THE FORGE at Gort literary festival, featuring readings, book launches, music, and exhibitions, returns to the south County Galway town tomorrow and Saturday.

THE FORGE At Gort literary festival, organised by the Western Writers’ Centre, returns on Friday March 25 and Saturday 26 to the south Galway town.

Pauline Gallagher and Dessie Keegan were among the eight strong Irish men’s and ladies’ teams who competed in the one-wall Federations Cup in Imperia, Italy, last weekend. The Irish women lost in qualifying to Holland and Puerto Rico but qualified for the consolation ELA club. The Irish team saw off the challenge of the Basque Country and France to take the title in style. The team also included Roscommon’s Marianna Rushe, Kerry’s Ashley Prendiville, and Down’s Lorraine Havern. Dessie Keegan helped team mates Charly Shanks (Armagh), James Doyle (Antrim), and Robbie McCarthy (Westmeath) to a fifth place finish in the men’s team event following qualifying wins over France and Mexico. However the Irish lost their quarter-final to Puerto Rico. Twenty teams in all competed in the annual one-wall team tournament.

The results from the open men’s 18h singles on Saturday October 9 and Sunday 10 were as follows: 1 Kevin Halligan Borris 40pts; 2 Mick Fahy 39pts back 9; Gross Michael Buggy 33pts; 3 Graham Lawlor 39pts. Another open men’s 18h singles will be held this weekend, October 16 and 17 and an open four person team event from October 23 to 25.

I have fond memories of the summer of 1985. The Mayo football team was managed that year by Liam O’Neill. He was an excellent manager and coach, a driven man who really wanted nothing more than a Mayo team to express themselves in a meaningful way on the national stage. The former Galway player left no stone unturned in generating a self belief in the players in order to shake off a perceived mental weakness of the Mayo team back then. He was working with the nucleus of an All- Ireland winning under-21 team that had claimed the title in 1983. We were blessed at the time with a number of great footballers, players like Willie Joe Padden, TJ Kilgallon, Martin Carney, Eugene Lavin, Frank Noone, Jimmy Burke, and Jimmy Browne to name just a few, all talented footballers that in hindsight should probably have won lots more. We lost the Connacht final in the old Pearse Stadium in 1984. I remember big Tom Byrne scoring what appeared to be a perfectly legitimate goal in the dying minutes of that game that would surely have won us the final, but for some reason the goal was disallowed by the referee Mickey Kearins, he of Sligo fame.