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The Galway footballers produced a solid workmanlike performance in horrible conditions at Pearse Stadium on Saturday evening to deservedly beat Derry by 1-11 to 0-8 in Round 3B of the qualifiers. 

BARRY MCGIVERN is a self taught guitarist who first saw Rory Gallagher on TV in 1969 performing with his power trio Taste, before eventually seeing the Irish blues legend more than 30 times in concert.

The Mayo club championship finally gets under way at the weekend and I have no doubt the two most nervous spectators will be Pat Holmes and Noel Connelly especially as the games are on a week later than planned as it will give their county players a week less to get over any niggles or strains picked up to be fit in time to face Galway.

After hearing Joe Brolly on the Saturday Night Show a few weeks ago on about player burn out and injuries because of over training it made for a fascinating listen and really struck a chord. I’m having my fourth surgery in six years today in the Beacon hospital in Dublin. I put my body through the mill for club and county and played games that I really shouldn’t have, most notably in 1999, when my injury nightmare started.

Church gate collection for multiple sclerosis

What a performance by Castlebar Mitchels against Corofin. Hands up, I didn’t see that coming. I was very unsure about the quality of club football in the county but at least now I know we have one team capable of competing. Pundits and bookmakers didn’t give Castlebar a chance (4/1 in some places). Upon seeing Kieran Fitzgerald in the press box fully clothed before the game and hearing about a few other Corofin players being doubtful , I promptly got on the mobile and advised punters to get a piece of Castlebar to be ahead at half time and full time at 7/1. I have to admit it was very worrying when Corofin were leading by 1-03 to 0-1 after 12 minutes, Ian Burke was giving Tom Cuniffe the run around and Neil Douglas was losing crucial ball. Every single Castlebar player upped their performance inspired by Eoghan O’Reilly who set the tone with a big hit on a Corofin player. The Castlebar goals couldn’t have come at a better time, Richie Feeney’s palm into the net was a truly brilliant team goal and when Neil Lydon reacted faster to a rebound off the crossbar to net again for the Mitchels it was Corofin who were taking on water.

James Horan couldn't but have enjoyed what he saw in front of him in Croke Park on Sunday afternoon. It was one of those days when everything fell into place, where all his decisions and ideas about how his team should and could play came to fruition. He was in flying form in the post game press conference to, but still with his eyes firmly fixed on what's coming up next over the horizon for Mayo in three weeks time. Asked about his first impressions of the game, the Ballintubber man said, “We're delighted with that performance, we're delighted to play like that in an important game. A lot of the stuff we've worked on our skills, our tackling and our movement, really a lot of the basics of the game that we put an awful lot of effort came through today. We'll take that win and prepare for the Tyrone challenge.” With Donegal weakened and not going at the same tilt as last year it was up to Mayo to exploit that he believed, which the did ruthlessly over the 70 minutes. “Donegal had a lot injuries, they had a lot of tough games but it was up to us to exploit that and to use our power and pace to maybe show up that if there was an issue today, but look we did that and I'm delighted.”

The luck of the draw pitted Mayo and Donegal against each other in next Sunday’s All Ireland quarter-final and with that James Horan will square off against Jim McGuinness once again on the sideline. The Mayo manger looked confident and relaxed at the Mayo press event in Breaffy House on Sunday night and was looking forward to taking on last year’s All Ireland champions once again.

TOM PORTMAN, the gifted guitarist whose dextrous, elegant style music draws on blues, folk, Indian, and Irish music, is about to launch his new album.

“THE BLUES had a baby and they called it rock’n’roll,” Muddy Waters declared on his 1977 album Hard Again, and from Van Morrison to Rory Gallagher to Thin Lizzy, the Irish have always had time for the blues.