Exclusive Interview with MARK FOLEY of Limerick and Adare.

I spoke to Mark about facing into another year with the Limerick Hurlers and what it might hold in store. We also touched on his successes with his club Adare and the thin line between success and failure at County Level.

Mark is still optimistic about the future and I started by thanking him for coming back to have another crack at it for Limerick.....

Running Time: Approx: 12 min.

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JACKIE CAHILL: Review of the Hurling Year 2008

Jackie and Kieran look back on a year when one of the greatest teams of all time played some of the best hurling ever seen and of course there was the small matter of Tipp restoring some pride, Waterford losing theirs, An U-21 game to remember and eh, the Limerick hurlers get a mention as well....

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Review of the Football Year with Jackie Cahill

Ok, so it's not exactly Run DMC versus Jason Nevins but I spoke to Jackie about the highs and lows of the Gaelic Football Year 2008.

Jackie Cahill is a freelance GAA writer and the author of Pride and Passsion, the Autobiography of David Fitzgerald as well as Final Whistle the best selling autobiogrpahy of referee Paddy Russell.

It's fair to say that the man has the inside track and I've played a bit of Under 16 football for Limerick myself back in the day so there's no shortage of knowledge.

I began by suggesting to Jackie that it's hard to believe people were calling for Mickey Harte to be sacked in June....

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JOHN O'DONNELL: So What difference does it make....who Graham Gartland plays for?

John O'Donnell laments the reaction to Graham Gartland's proposed move to Rangers and why we all just need to chill out.

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LISA CROWLEY: Quit Your Whining and Play for Ireland, Stephen.

Listen to Lisa Crowley on what it means to represent your country and why Stephen Ireland and Co. should be honoured to throw on the national jersey.

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Interview with Republic of Ireland International Defender Paul McShane

I spoke to Paul on Christmas Eve while he was still a Hull City Player and I started by congratulating on a great season for the club.

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Interview with the New Limerick Hurling Manager Justin McCarthy

I spoke to Justin in early January about his appointment as the Limerick Hurling Manager. I began the interview by asking Justin if he was looking forward to the Challenge.

Be Careful mind, he doesn't want to talk about Waterford or the Cork Hurlers, Limerick on the hand...bring it on!

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Come Back Any Time Stephen, Any Time!

Tony O'Donoghue is standing there on the news from outside the RTE studios probably, reporting on the announcement of the Ireland squad to face Georgia. Tony is being suave as ever, standing in the dark on a cold, wet night obviously suffering for our benefit. What can you say, the man is a total pro. Tony proceeds to speculate on the consequences of the continued absensce of Stephen Ireland from the squad.

The gist of what he said, along with what probably ever other journalist in the country wrote on Sunday is that if Stephen Ireland doesn't come back now it will be difficult for him to do so for the rest of the campaign. They said that it would cause unrest among the other players in the squad if he returned when "all the hard work had been done".

Stephen Ireland's absence from the difficult away games would apparently cause resentment among the players if he came in for the big games at the end but missed the possibly less glamourous, though equally important games coming up.

Let's get one thing straight- who cares what the players think? I see the players as being a bit like soldiers and Trappatoni is the General. The players are fighting for Ireland and our enemies are the other teams in the group. The purpose of this "war" if you will, is to qualify for the World Cup Finals in South Africa in 2010 (whether they are capable of hosting it is another story).

We must use all and any means at our disposal to ensure that we qualify. In Jack's time it meant making up stories about Tony Cascarino's lineage and somehow convincing UEFA that Andy Townsend is "Irish". The same principle applies today in trying to make sure that the best possible players eligible to play for Ireland are available for selection.

It is then up to Trappatoni and Trappatoni alone to decide who the best 11 are. It is for Trap to decide who wears the green shirt, not the players or their sensibilities. The unrest the media are trying to stir up already should Stephen Ireland decide to return in the autumn or later is sure to turn him off. The media are once again putting their sales ahead of the best interests of the national team. The fact is that no unrest has been caused by something which has not yet happened and to say it will only increases the likelihood of Stephen Ireland staying away.

It is purely up to Trappatoni to decide what impact Ireland's return would have and however he decides to deal with it, you can be sure he will have the Irish teams results at heart. I don't know what the players would have to be pissed off about. If Stephen Ireland did return, it would immediately make the team better so in that sense the players would immediately benefit.

He would probably take Aidan McGeady's place in the team. I'm sure McGeady would be unhappy about this. What I would say to him is to put his head down, work harder and if he becomes a better player than Stephen Ireland then he might get his place back. I hate this attitude that only the players who turn up should be played. It's the same right down to Junior football.

What I say is that if a player is going to improve the team for a particular match then put him in the side. The reason teams train is to improve themselves as individuals and collectively. So to follow that logic, if having trained you are still not better than the players who haven't shown up then frankly you don't deserve to be in the team if it is trying to win a competition.

If Stephen Ireland refused to play in friendly matches I'd still play him in the big games. Squad players and less established first teamers should be delighted at the opportunity to play in a friendly because it gives them a chance to impress the manager and it gives them a game which is more than most of them are getting at their clubs (Joey O'Brien take note). Players like Stephen Ireland have nothing to gain from these matches and the most important thing is that he shows up for the games that count.

If Stephen Ireland announced his return the night before the World Cup Final and Trap decided to put him in the team, the players could have no complaints because in the eyes of the manager they have not proven themselves better players. Like I say Trap is the General and the players are soldiers. For the team to be effective, they must follow orders.

There is no suggestion that Stephen Ireland has ever caused any hassle within the squad so I don't see how his return would be the cause of unrest. Paul McShane said as much recently and that he has always gotten on great with him. Unless Tony O'Donoghue and Co. think his presence will cause the other players to bully him over his hair again.

This story over Stephen Ireland not wanting to play the away games doesn't make sense because he has been in Tenerife all this week with Man City at a training camp. We don't know for sure why Stephen won't come back, God knows we all want him to but we do know that his family situation is complicated and that needs to be respected. I'm also certain that Trap, Tardelli and Chippy have done everything in their power to try to get him back.

Hopefully he will return someday but we have to leave the door open. It's like the story of the Prodigal Son. The media are threatening to scupper any possible return with their lazy journalism drumming up perceived unrest to fill their column inches. Try reporting the facts for a change and leave the character assassinations to the British media where it belongs.

Interview with Ireland and Reading Striker Shane Long

I spoke to Shane last March after Reading beat Middlesborough. He went on and scored against Man City the following Saturday (I'm taking the credit). Unfortunately it wasn't enough to keep Reading up but the interview itself gives an insight into life in the Premier League as well Shane's views on the appointment of Don Giovanni.

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Interview with Cork City Striker Denis Behan

I spoke Denis a few weeks ago about winning the Setanta Cup, the turmoil at Cork City and in the Eircom League and what the future holds.

It's a frank and honest account of where Denis found himself at the end of the season. I started by congratulating on Cork's success in the Setanta Cup.....

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Will Irish Fans Desert Sunderland Now that Roy is Gone?

I wrote this article for the Sunderland Fanzine "A Love Supreme" and it appeared in their Christmas edition (No. 176). It ran under the headline "Has the Guiness Gone Sour?"


So will all Irish fans stop coming over to Wearside now that Roy's talked the talk and walked the walk?


If Sunderland’s Irish supporters gave up on the club now that Roy Keane has left what would they do with all that spare time? Maybe they’ll settle down, spend more time with the family and grow out of this football malarkey. It is a sign of arrested development after all. Are they really just going to retire back to their gaffs and walk their dogs until Roy finds a new job and the whole circus of hysteria and Euphoria starts all over again?


Irish people are quite simply obsessed with English football and the Premier League in particular. I met a taxi driver in Dublin last year who told me he spent £18,000 year supporting QPR of all teams. You might remember that last year’s Match of the Day Fan of the Year went to a Manchester City supporter from Ireland who not only attended all the matches but used to fly over during the week to watch them train. He did actually come across as being slightly tapped and he was suitably unimpressed about being interviewed by the Beeb because he was missing City’s pre-match warm-up. These cases show the height of the Ireland’s obsession with the English game which should be all the more surprising given that no one in Ireland has any local connection with the teams.


The Irish are massive subscribers to Sky Sports even though Sky generally ignore the fortunes of the national team and the Irish players in the Premier League. It’s a bit like the girl you love so much because she treats you like shit. There is this idea permeating through the Premier League that Irish players are squad players only in so far as they are thought about at all.


Even last Saturday on Match of the Day after Andy Reid had played out of his skin scoring a header and brilliantly setting up Kenwyne Jones, the only comment that snake Alan Shearer made about Reid was to slag him off over some Country ‘n’ Western shirt he was wearing in the post match interview.


It’s all Petr Cech this, Petr Cech that even though Shay Given is obviously the best goalkeeper in the Premier League. The fact that he is still playing at a half way house like Newcastle just proves that teams have no interest in Irish players. In spite of this the Irish flock to Premier League games like Muslims to Mecca during Ramadan.


It’s funny how you can almost trace the success patterns of different clubs by the age profile of their Irish supporters. Liverpool, for example have an enormous following in Ireland but most of their supporters are in their late thirties and forties now and like the club itself, they have that sort of bedraggled look which comes with not quite being as well successful as you once were or as you thought you’d end up. I know people with Liverpool tattoos even though they’ve hardly even been to Anfield and this is in the west of Ireland. We’re hardly Scousers, now are we?


Man United, having dominated for the last 15 years are the team of the teens but they would also have supporters from that generation who can remember that won the European Cup in 1968. Liam Whelan’s death in the Munich air crash in 1958 created a bond between Dublin and Manchester United and many families have followed United since.


It’s not all about success though and an Irish connection in a club attracts Irish supporters as much as anything else. Liam Brady’s brilliance for Arsenal in the late 70’s and 80’s together with the presence of Frank Stapleton, Pat Rice, Pat Jennings and dare I say it David O’Leary and big Niall himself brought Arsenal a large and loyal Irish following. London was full of Irish immigrants at that time and that contributed too with shirts, programmes and other memorabilia being sent home.


Indeed Aston Villa too generated a large Irish supporter base in the 1990’s when Paul McGrath, Steve Staunton, Andy Townsend and Ray Houghton were playing at Villa Park. The Irish people love to see their players doing well and they will often follow a club just because their favourite Irish player plays for them. It can get confusing if there is ever a move.


Football in Ireland has always been a working class game prospering in the cities. Dublin didn’t have its own team and typically Dubliners would load onto the ferry of a Saturday morning to get over to watch Liverpool or Manchester United. That demographic began to change somewhat with the success of the national team under Jack Charlton and the emergence of Ireland as an economic force. Football fever swept the country like never before and now people had the money to spend on it too.


Big Niall gave the Nuevo Riche Ireland supporter an outlet for this love of good football. Quinn sold the idea of Sunderland as great place to have the crack and watch great football for the weekend by maintaining the Irish connection.


Roy Keane is a cultural icon in Ireland, a bit like Che Guervara to the Cubans but I’d be surprised if that played any part in Quinn’s thinking when he offered him the job. Quinn is the real Irish face of Sunderland and he is what attracts the punters. He’s affable, intelligent and the kind of guy we’d all like to see do well.


He enjoyed his finest spell as a player in a Sunderland shirt which first attracted attention and when he took over Sunderland backed by an Irish consortium, it was then that the whole country began to take notice. Ireland is a very small country and it was a bit like we were all involved in the takeover. Everyone seemed to know someone who either worked for the investors or knew them personally.


If anything is going to stop Irish supporters travelling to Sunderland I’d imagine it will be the recent collapse of our economy. Like I said Niall is attracting the Nuevo Riche Irish from the Property Developers and businessmen who bought the club right down to the construction workers and bankers who go the games. Many of these people will be losing their jobs in 2009 if they haven’t already and it’s that rather than the departure of Roy Keane that might cause the number of Irish supporters at the Stadium of Light to decrease.


The manner in which Roy left Sunderland might already have diminished his reputation among Ireland supporters. In many ways it proves Mick McCarthy absolutely right over the Saipan issue which even now continues to rankle in Ireland. There is a feeling that Roy quits too easily and it’s clear now that he should have stayed and played for Ireland in the 2002 World Cup instead of deciding on a whim that he wasn’t able for it just as he did when he walked out of Sunderland. Since then I think people have questioned Roy Keane’s mentality and while he will receive massive media attention, I doubt he will attract the same following from Ireland when he returns to management.

The Eircom League- A Microcosm of Where It All Went Wrong.

I wasn't sure if I should write this post because I didn't think I knew enough about it. Then I thought why not- how much is there to know? Plus it's been bugging me, playing on my mind which is really the only criteria of coming up with a subject.

First things first. How can Drogheda's players demand anything from their contracts. They were awarded contracts on the basis that either the money would be generated to pay them or someone else would. The public certainly spoke and decided that Drogheda's players weren't worth the sort of money they were being paid. The way in which businesses work (as far as I know in my limited experience) is that employees pay for themselves. Some weeks can be quieter than others and that's when overdrafts kick in and if you keep delving into the overdraft you quickly go out of business. On liquidation staff are paid as much as possible out of what's left and they can claim the remainder from a social insurance fund.

If the club is broke which it is, then the players haven't got a leg to stand on and should take their share of the responsibility for running the club into the ground in the first place.

Mind you, whoever refused Drogheda permission for their stadium has a lot to answer for. I don't know the exact deets but it sounded like a fine idea which would have generated business, investment and would undoubtedly been good for the morale of the place. I don't know why it was refused, Drogheda isn't exactly a UNESCO world heritage site is it? The only thing the refusal has done is ruined the club and any hope they had of making this ambitious project work.

Let's get back to business for a second. A budget is based on your projected earnings. Your expenditure has to be at least the same as income or else you need a sugar daddy to make up the difference. A lot of Eircom League clubs have had that in this decade. The assumption being that they could sell the grounds for massive sums and everyone would make a profit.

The League of Ireland has existed for a long time. Senior soccer has been in Limerick since 1937 (hence the name) and yet they and most other clubs have absolutely nothing to show for it. Around Limerick they boast of getting crowds of 15,000 in the Market Fields in the 70's and 80's. They still don't own their own ground, Jackman Park would test the loyalty of any fan and they've managed to pare those attendances down to the 500 mark. I don't mean to single out Limerick, nearly every other club is as bad or worse.

Cork City, the best supported club in the league don't own their own ground either and almost every club has managed to squander whatever cash has come their way, whenever and however it came their way. There was no attempt to invest in the infrastructure of the stadiums, instead all the money went to players in the form of wages.

How come Rugby clubs up and down the country have decent bars attached, training pitches, stands, don't make headlines for financial irregularities...you get the picture. Even the GAA have their house in better order.

Alan Matthews is demanding that his contract be paid off and this seems to be preventing Cork City appointing a new manager. Alan Matthews is employed by a bank and took a career break to manage Cork. I have to assume that now that he is no longer manager of Cork, he is free to return to his cushty job at the bank. What is going through his mind when he tries to extort money out of Cork for work he hasn't done when he already has a job?

Essentially he would be getting paid twice and yes, I realise that he is under contract and so legally bound to be paid. I suspect the league of Ireland weren't smart enough to put any restrictive clauses, covenants or conditions into his contract to ensure this situation wouldn't arise.

As the league itself goes, the games couldn't possibly be on at a worst time if attracting crowds is the aim. Friday evening at 7.45 is incovenient because most people with lives are doing other things at that time. It's difficult to make games because of trying to negotiate rush hour traffic. Most people are too tired after a weeks work to want to stand around in the cold and rain (usually) for two hours at the end of a tough week. It's near impossible for away supporters to travel unless they take half days. It beggars belief really.

What was wrong with 3 o'clock on a Saturday again? It doesn't interfere with the Premier League because the big games are always either early kick offs or on Sundays. Do we even have a tradition of Saturday games in this country? I can't remember it.

As far as I can see, stadiums in the league of Ireland are shitholes (I've been to Dalymount, Richmond Park, Terryland, Jackman Park, Tolka, Turners Cross, St. Colemans and Belfield), the players are signed up to contracts for monies they can not and will not generate and the clubs are complaining about being in financial difficulty. I'd just love to know the mentality of the people in charge of the clubs. What goes through their minds? What goes on at the meetings? Isn't there anyone there with an education or common sense?

I can see why the players were paid so much and the stadiums weren't developed. The developers in charge wanted to sell so there was no point doing them up and the profits would have been so big that whatever they paid the players would look like small change in that context. That doesn't explain Cork's situation mind.

How could the league have seen the benefit of the players being paid high wages and no effort being made to improve the stadiums? It just doesn't make sense. Surely all overheads should have been paid first, the stadiums worked on to at least bring them into the 21st century thus securing the future of the league and then you can divide whatever is left (if anything) between the players. Instead it would appear that just the opposite was done. There is a whole lot more to building a football club than just having overpaid, overrated players on the field.

In fairness what has happened is just a microcosm for the money which was swindled and squandered by our friends in Dail Eireann for the last ten years with their Quangos, pay agreements and absolutely nothing to show for it right now. We need business people and professionals in positions of authority in both the Government and the League and we have neither of either.

Ireland Must Bid for Euro 2016.

I see that Poland and the Ukraine are hosting Euro 2012. That ought to be fun if they ever get the stadia finished. Mind you I wouldn't fancy the drive between a game Gdansk and another one in Donetsk or Odessa. Then there is the issue of changing currencies and languages. Could either the Ukraine or Poland not have just hosted the competition themselves? I would have thought either of them would be big enough to have managed it on their own.

How hard can it be to host such a tournament. Surely the will would be there politically and economically to make sure it's a success. The European Championships are such a wonderful occasion and I'm sure any country snap your arm off for the oppertunity of hosting it.

Which brings me along to the year of 2016. To cut to the chase I think Ireland should make a bid to host the tournament by themselves. Yes, I believe that it makes complete sense that the Republic of Ireland in the guise of the FAI make the bid to host Euro 2016 all by their lonesomes. I actually think it would be foolish not to and a successful bid would represent our salvation from this nasty recession we find ourselves in.

I'll let you in on the plan. Croke Park and the new Landsdowne Road would be the two main Stadia obviously enough. One of them would host the final and the opening game and whatever other matches in between. The same as Wembley was used in Euro 96.

After that you can take your pick from the following stadia;

In Limerick you have the Gaelic Grounds (Cap. 50,000) and the famous Thomand Park (about 27,000 I think). The Gaelic Grounds is terribly underused. It has only been close to full once (last year's Munster Hurling Final) and Thomand is obviously top class.

Pairc Ui Chaoimh in Cork would be available, Semple Stadium in Thurles (both can take between 50,000 and 60,000 people), Pearse Stadium in Galway, Clones, Castlebar, Nowlan Park in Kilkenny, Portlaoise, Fitzgerald Stadium in Killarney. There are 8 stadia in this paragraph alone each comfortably able to hold over 30,000 spectators. To my mind there are 12 grounds (I hate the word stadia) capable of hosting a game in the Eurpean football Championships.

A certain amount of work would need to be done on each of course but not as much as you'd think either. In Croke Park, temporary seating is already put in for the International soccer games without any hassle. In fact there is hardly ever anyone even sitting on them. Borrussia Dortmund used to have temporary seating in the Nord Tribune, the biggest terrace in Europe when they used to play in the Champions League. (I had the privilege of being there myself one night when they played Real Madrid but that's another post).

Who knows, by 2016 UEFA might have rolled back on their anti terracing stance. They can surely be made safe. In fact they are already safe and are used in many grounds without incident or fear of it. Managing crowds properly is the key to safety and surely that can be done in this day and age.

The stadiums might not all be up to scratch. So what, improve them. Renovate them, do whatever it takes. We have 7 years to do it for God's sake and it's not like there aren't any builders out there scratching their arses just now.

The second point is that we might not have the infrastructure to handle such an event. Of course we do and again whatever improvements need to be made, we have still have 7 years to do them. If we need more hotels, a better road or rail network we should build them and when the tournament is over and the whole country has gotten rich off the back of it, we would still have all this fantastic infrasture in place which would attract investment into the country for years to come. The Olympic effect they might call it.

The GAA can't possibly have any argument against it. First of all, they have already opened Croke Park to other sports so any moral objections have already long gone out the window. It's only for about six weeks anyway so it's not going to make that much difference. Secondly and much more importantly though is the fact that the country is on it's knees economically and let's face it, there is no prospect of a recovery in sight.

People are already emigrating in their droves and it's about to get a whole lot worse, it's in the national interest that the GAA throw their full support behind this proposal. It would save us from recession and make the GAA a lot of money as well. On a practical level, it would undoubtedly disrupt the GAA championships of 2016 but you know what disrupted the championships of 1916, a couple of little things called the Easter Rising and the Battle of the Somme so it could be worse. The championships could just be postponed during the Euro's, they could start them earlier and finish a little later. The off season in the GAA is long enough to handle such disruption.

As a venue, Ireland would be an amazing place to hold the tournament. It is actually a beautiful country with very friendly people who love having a laugh. Essentially this is true even if we forget it sometimes. I'm sure our European cousins would be totally psyched at the idea of spending their summer holidays roadtripping around Ireland following the footy. Plus Ireland is so small that once you get here it wouldn't involve too many long trips. The towns and cities could handle the crowds. They are used to it. Thurles is tiny yet it regularly caters for over 50,000 people entirely without incident on glorious championship Sundays.

Scotland are already bidding for the tournament. We are a far more attractive proposition than they are and we already have much better stadiums in situ. We are the logical choice to host this tournament. It has already been given to Austria/ Switzerland, Belguim/Holland but I think we could actually handle it on our own and I can't think of a single reason why not. There would be a lot of work involved but isn't that exactly what we are looking for right now.