The end being near, the final curtain being faced, it brings an air of melancholy about the place. Not just that, it brings a stack of programmes about the place.
So before we junk them – or before some enterprising reader offer to take them off our hands for a fiercely-negotiated price – some nuggets from the match programmes of Championship 2015.
- Louth's Leinster first round fixture against Westmeath in Drogheda back in May was the county's 1,000th competitive game in all competitions. All competitions included league, championship, O'Byrne Cup, B All-Ireland, Tommy Murphy Cup, Centenary Cup, North East League, Open Draw Cup, Special League, Croke Cup, Dr Croke Cup (not the same thing, apparently), Leinster Cup and Wolfe Tone Tour.
- Kildare didn't turn up for the 1891 Leinster football final. their official reason given was that they preferred to train for their own club sports. History does not record what exactly that means.
- Longford once lost a Leinster Championship game even though they scored six goals. It was in 1927, the opponents were Wexford and the final score was 7-10 to 6-2. given that they scored 6-1 in the second half, you'd have to imagine there was a bit of a wind involved.
- Dublin celebrated the 1942 All-Ireland in Clerys on O'Connell St Paddy "Beefy" Kennedy played in the football and hurling finals that year and in the midst of the football celebrations, legend has it he hoodwinked a river of stout out of the county board. When the treasurer gave him a note to bring to the storeman for 12 dozen bottles for the team, Kennedy changed the 1 to a 7. So instead of 144 bottles, 864 arrived for the troops. No wonder, as the Leinster final programme informed us, Clerys preceded Coppers that night.
- We may think of these intercounty stars as austere and abstemious but the truth is somewhere in all of them is a slob just like us waiting to get out. Derry's Liam McGoldrick lists an XL Bacon Double Cheeseburger as his favourite meal, while Martin McIlhinney (Donegal) goes for a rusty oven funghi pizza. Declan McCusker (Fermanagh) favours a chicken fried rice with curry sauce.
Twitter twaddle
Tomás Quinn @mossyquinn Highlight of day so far, Mayo man at urinal texting, fellow Mayo man sees him & greets him with back slap knocking phone into the urinal.
Matt Cooper @cooper_m Horrible game so far #DublinVMayo if two Ulster teams produced this imagine what would be said...
Richie Hogan @richiehogan8 God it'll be hard to get a ticket for the Gaelic grounds in Limerick next week!
Ken McGrath @kenmcgrath78 Said it last year Mayo have more heart and character then anyone to keep on coming back. I'm moving to Castlebar for the week. Hon Mayo.
