Search Results for 'Aidan Higgins'

The make up of the the last eight in the Mayo senior football championships in Mayo started to take shape over the weekend. Castlebar, Crossmolina Deel Rovers, Ballintubber, Ballaghaderreen and Breaffy all registered their second win in the championships. While two wins normally would guarantee you a place in the last eight going on recent years, it may not be enough for Breaffy should they loose out to Knockmore in their final group game.

From last April until now seems like the blink of an eye, but in that time a major brand new musical has been honed, cast, marketed and brought to the stage in the west of Ireland. Yes, the much-heralded dramatic musical in two acts, On a Wing and Prayer launched boldly into the public sphere for three nights last night Thursday, November 25 and will run until tomorrow Saturday November 27, at the Royal Theatre, Castlebar. And all in aid of a great cause, the Mayo Roscommon Hospice Foundation, and specifically for the Foundation’s Palliative Care Service.

Three weeks on from the being beaten by Sligo in the preliminary round of the Connacht Championship, Mayo will roll up to the midlands for the first round of the All Ireland qualifiers. The first round of the backdoor competition, while not quite uncharted territory, is one that is still not too familiar to Mayo players and supporters. In fact Mayo have only entered the qualifier system at this stage once before, also under the tutelage of O’Mahony in 2007. That year a comfortable win over Cavan in McHale Park was followed up with a humbling inside the city walls of Derry by the Oak Leaf county in the second round.

Galway 2-12

The time to make amends for disappointments in the past is fast approaching for both Charlestown and Ballaghaderreen. This year’s TF Royal Theatre senior football championship final pits the losing finalists from the 2006 and 2007 final together in Sunday’s showdown for the Moclair Cup. Ballaghaderreen booked their place in the final two last Sunday thanks to a 3-7 to 0-10 win over Crossmolina, the side who denied them twice at the death in the 2006 final (the game went to a replay). After shaking the Deel Rovers monkey off their back with thanks to a three-goal salvo at the three-quarter mark, they have their eyes set on another border side.

With the front door closed by Galway after the Connacht final, Mayo go in search of squeezing themselves through the back door starting with Tyrone tomorrow afternoon. The two-time All Ireland champions, who were kicked to touch at the quarter-final stage of the Ulster championship by Down and have come through the first two rounds of the qualifiers, seeing off Louth and a 13-man Westmeath side last weekend, to arrive in Croke Park with a bit of steam built up.

FROM THE author of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin to the writer of Divorcing Jack, and from Canadian rappers to South African poets, the Cúirt International Festival of Literature has it all and it’s all in Galway city from April 21 to 26.

You can’t beat experience or class. Despite the flamboyance and arrogance of youth, the old experienced warhorse who’s been there, done that, invariably realises that something clever is required if his team is going to prevail. And so it was last Sunday with Charlestown edging past Castlebar, just when some might have felt a shock was on the cards. In Crossmolina’s case in our semi-final defeat to Knockmore it looked as though we had too much experience and not enough youthful exuberance. Last Sunday Castlebar had plenty of youthful energy around the field, but when the game was there to be won, Charlestown had that little bit of guile and know-how to close out the deal. With all their experience they knew how to win this game and advance to yet another county final.

There is no shortage of action this weekend on the GAA scene in Mayo with the county senior championship, intermediate championship, and Minor A championship finals taking centre stage.

CHRISTY MOORE, Liam Clancy, Virginia Kerr, Druid Theatre Company, and Opera UK are among the highlights in Town Hall Theatre’s programme for the coming months.