Search Results for 'Joe Byrne'

A conference to mark the first international construction management day will be hosted by the GMIT Department of Building & Civil Engineering at GMIT’s Dublin Road campus, Galway, on Monday next March 14. The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB), the International Project Management Association (IPMA) and the Construction Management Associations of America (CMMA), Japan (CMAJ) and Korea (CMAK) promote International Construction Management Day.

Even as late as yesterday afternoon the storm over the exceedingly unfair fixing of the All-Ireland u-21 final between Galway and Tipperary for Semple Stadium in Thurles on Saturday evening at 7pm had not fully abated and Galway will fulfil the fixture under protest.

Castlecomer under 16 basketball girls’ team are on their way to Dublin this weekend in an effort to secure yet another all Ireland victory.

For there to be any bite in a GAA match there usually needs to be something at stake. Competition is what makes the juices flow. Hence next Sunday’s NHL game between Galway and Cork is unlikely to send anybody to A&E with chest pain, which is just as well considering the cut-backs in health.

As the National Hurling League gets under way, Galway has been boosted with its long-time sponsor Supermac’s agreeing to continue its financial support for another two years.

Palatine 0-8

Palatine, Eire Og and the Conlon Cup will form a great partnership at 3.45 on Sunday afternoon at Dr Cullen Park, when they meet in the Michael Lyng Motors Carlow senior football championship final, in a repeat of last years county final.

Brian “Skeach” Kelly will more than likely line out for his beloved Palatine as they try to dethrone reigning champions, Éire Óg, in next Sunday’s county senior football final. Nothing unusual in that you might think. Sure hasn’t he been playing senior football for Pal for the best part of a decade and a half. Well three months ago, Skeagh was in no position to take to any football field. In actual fact his very life was under threat! Following a clash of heads in the Palatine’s clash with Kildavin/Clonegal he was left with quite a bruise on the side of his head. He went to hospital immediately after the game as a precaution but was discharged that evening and told to take it easy for a few days. That he did and was ready and willing to return to the training field. However he was still complaining of headaches and blurred vision. He thought nothing of it but the Pal management team were not happy to let him return. That first night back he was practising a few frees before training when Mick Lillis Pal’s trainer told him he was unhappy to let him resume. The club arranged an MRI scan in Dublin to make sure everything was alright and it was from there that things began to get interesting! He returned home but almost immediately was summoned back to Beaumont hospital where he was informed that he had a life-threatening clot on his brain. As he said himself, he still didn’t realise how serious the situation was. He felt fine. It was only when he asked a member of the medical team attending him to rate the severity of his condition on a scale of one to ten that it really became clear to him. She told him it was at least nine and a half! At that moment all thoughts of playing in this year’s county final disappeared from his mind! The doctors told him that if he had taken part in that training session and received even minimal physical contact, it could have been enough to have killed him. If the clot had moved as much as one milimetre it would have been fatal. He was immediately put on clot busting drugs in the hope of avoiding surgery and thankfully these were successful. Still he was not to go near a football field for at least the rest of the year, if not for ever. But once he was on the road to recovery like any GAA player, the lure of the game was too much. He was back for the latter part of the championship and apart from the unusual sight of him sporting a rugby scrum cap, everything is back to normal and he will be looking for his second county medal on Sunday. That possibility was far from his thoughts three months ago when, as he put it, “they were thinking of opening my skull!” Brian’s story may be an aside but it is just one of those things that add to the occasion of any county final. Every club has its own stories. Reasons why they just cannot afford to let this opportunity slip. I’m sure Éire Óg have their own. As I said here last week, it’s one of the things that makes a county final unique. 

The Michael Lyng Motors Carlow senior football championship final, between the top two teams Palatine and Eire Og ended level 1-10 a piece on Sunday last. The game provided the passion, the spills and thrills, and all that is good in a hard-fought sporting encounter at Dr Cullen Park.