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In what was a strange quirk from the fixture Gods, Antrim v Down faced each other in both the senior men’s and women’s games on Sunday, 18 February, barely a half mile apart in Belfast.
In this Division 3 Round 4 game of the Lidl National Football League following last week’s win in Sligo the Down ladies would have been hoping to keep their winning run going against a high scoring, dangerous Antrim team.
Down quickly got into gear, with the impressive Niamh King creating some great chances. Natasha Ferris converted a free after a King run was halted by a foul. Down missed a good goal chance when Aine Smyth raced through on goal only for the Antrim keeper to make a great save. Antrim levelled the scores when midfielder Lara Dahunsi put the ball over from distance.
Laoise Duffy put Down back in front after a good run from Captain Meghan Doherty. Down were awarded a penalty after 14 minutes when Doherty again drove into the Antrim defence and played in Niamh McClory, however as the Annaclone forward was about to shoot the goalie was adjudged to have made a foot block. Natasha Ferris dispatched the ball into the net from the spot to give the Mourne ladies a four point lead.
Two more Natasha Ferris scores and a Niamh King point were answered by a single score from Antrims Ciara Brown, getting a lovely score from distance. Down were well on top now with Clara Mulvenna and Aoife Laverty driving them on in midfield. Downs second goal soon followed. Fantastic work on the right wing from King & Ferris, cut through the Antrim rear guard and Orla Duffy had a simple palmed finish from King's pass to further extend the lead.
Antrim, who were struggling to contain the Down kick out now pressed forward causing the Down defence problems. A Blaithin Ni Cahail free for Antrim was quickly followed by another two Brown scores. However when the highly impressive Antrim midfileder Dahunsi was shown a yellow five minutes before halftime momentum switched back to the visitors and Down soon had another penalty awarded to them when Vivienne McCormack was hauled down in the box. However, Antrim were relieved when the normally deadly Ferris put the ball wide of the post, in what was the last action of the half. Half time score: Antrim 0‐5 v Down 2-5
As the wind picked up in the second half, Antrim would have been hoping to use this in their favour. Rostrevor's Niamh Scullion was working hard for Down, making up an extra defensive player when needed but the Down back line of Green, Boyle & Smyth never put a foot wrong throughout the game and were exceptional on the day. It was the Down forward Ferris, who got the first point of the half, doing well to get a quick shot away after pressure from three Antrim defenders.
King got another score, collecting a great pass from Meghan Doherty. Laoise Duffy scored again this time from a tight angle on the right. Antrim fought back with Lara Dahunsi having a great impact on the game and cleared the bar three times from distance. Vivienne McCormack kept the score board ticking over for Down. Two more Antrim points were cancelled out by two Natasha Ferris frees to keep Down well on top. Antrim did get the goal their display deserved and it was the best goal of the match. Fast interchanging hand passes from the O'Neill sisters opened up the Down defence for the first time in the match and was finished in style by Clara McKenna. The biggest cheer of the day was reserved for substitute Sarah Dougherty. Sarah is back from a serious injury having had surgery 359 days ago. This was her first game, and she completed the scoring for Down from the penalty spot in the dying seconds. Antrims Dahunsi scored another point with the last kick of the match ,but it was little consolation for the Antrim team. Down played their best football of the season and will be looking to continue this good form when they face Offaly next time out.
Final score: Antrim 1-11 (14) v Down 3-12 (21)
Down Team: A McGivern, A Greene, O Boyle, P Smyth, N McKibbin, Meghan Doherty (C), O Duffy, C Mulvenna, A Laverty, N Scullion, N King, L Duffy, A O’Higgins, N Ferris, N McClory, K McKay, E Fitzpatrick, E Sands, K Howlett, N Loudon, V McCormack, C Byrne, A Cull, A Smyth, C McGeough, N McGrath, N Rice, E Sloan, S Dougherty & S O’Neill.
Antrim Team: S Murphy, D Coleman, E Ferran, N McArdle, C McKenna, C Brown, H Donaghy, A Mulholland, L Dahunsi, A Sheehan, L Agnew, C Logan, B Ni Cahail, E Rogers-Duffy, E Murphy, L Adams, A Kelly, C Finucane, N McKinley, G McGroarty, S Tennyson, M O’Neill, S O’Neill, C Austin, G Shannon, G McAllister, N McAllister & E Daye.
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It has been a massive weekend for Silverbridge man Jarlath Burns, who was installed as the 41st Uachatarán Cumann Lúthchleas Gael at yesterday's 2024 GAA Congress in Newry. Following the two day congress he made a celebratory homecoming to his Silverbridge club last night and found time today to take in the Armagh Donegal Game at the Athletic Grounds. Just the start of three very busy years at the head of what is now a worldwide movement.
It was quite a coup for the Canal Court Hotel to host such a prestigious event but nowhere could have done it better. Speaking about owners John and Paddy McFarland in his opening speech Burns said "As good GAA men as you will ever find. They had the courage to build this hotel in this town at a time when Newry was seen by many as a wasteland with no jobs, no industry and no hope. Newry is now a thriving city in which we can all be proud; is it in Armagh, or is it in Down? To be honest, it doesn’t matter. It’s a super hotel in a great town and it is a dream come true for its owners that we are here this weekend."
The new President said "As I stand here in this town, my local town, many places which have formed me are very close by and close to my heart. One mile away, Coláiste Cholmain, the school where Michael Cusack himself once taught and where the great Dan McCartan taught me. Three miles out the road, St. Paul’s Bessbrook, where I have spent the last 34 years as teacher and principal and to be honest, is a place I will miss profoundly over the next three.
"Next door to the school is Craobh Rua hurling club which put a hurling stick into the hands of my sons and offered them the chance to play this magnificent game; an opportunity I never got myself and of course 10 miles away, Silverbridge, the place more than most which formed me, moulded me and created the person I have become."
Currently Burns is secretary of the club, a position he intends to remain (subject to the club agreeing at their agm!).
Armagh runs deep in his veins, playing for Armagh for 13 years and captaining his team to winning the Ulster Final in 1999 under the reins of Brian Canavan and Brian McAlinden. Burns has been Principal at St Paul's High School, Bessbrook since 2013, a role that he will have to forgo for the next three years. A school spokesperson said "We extend our heartfelt congratulations and best wishes to him as he assumes this prestigious and significant national leadership role. His dedication and passion have always inspired us, and we are proud to see him embark on this new journey."
Speaking of the changes that are coming in the GAA, with the women and men's association's due to be amalgamated by 2027 Burns said "We know that our Association faces challenges every day, change sometimes arrives at our door and for which we are unprepared and in other times, we anticipate change and create strategic plans to address what we think will happen in the future. In some respects, the current talks being led by Mary McAleese between the three Gaelic associations are a mixture of the two. Our clubs are largely ahead of us and a considerable number have been operating the one club model for many years.
"My own club has been transformed since females began playing a proper role in leadership and on the field, though I acknowledge the anticipation of full integration is matched by understandable apprehension in some quarters at how this will look at the level of inter-county activity. I promise we will move decisively, but sensibly towards this goal and I welcome today the group of girls from my school who told me they were coming here to ensure I mentioned them in my speech and who will hold me to driving this project to completion."
Speaking about the current conversation on the constitutional position Burns added "The GAA’s position on the constitutional issue, as laid out in Treoir Oifigiúil, is no secret and we remain wedded to that aspiration via purely peaceful means. Our games have always been organised on an all-island basis, before they went truly global, and this approach provided succour and assurance to our people in the North when Croke Park seemed metaphorically a very long way away during some very dark days. The island is changing, and the GAA will have a role to play in that change when the time comes."
In conclusion the new President added "My plans are ambitious, they’re not fancy, or grandiose. But they are value-led and based on what you have told me what we need to do. Our amateur status, our UNESCO game of hurling, the dream of unifying our Gaelic games Associations, being realistic about our infrastructure agenda and of course, the small matter of Gaelic football and its current standing.
"All of these could be controversial, or radical or even transformational. We don’t know. But each and every one of us has the chance today to contribute and to write the next chapter of the history of Cumann Lúthchleas Gael. It will take us all – working together – to put us back in control of this great organisation so we can make it reach its full potential as the greatest sporting and cultural association in the world."
Tongue in cheek yes, but perhaps the best line of his maiden speech reflected on how he got here "My family have enjoyed the good days and also the not so good ones, on the field and off it, and because they remember me as a youngster - I know they are secretly scratching their heads wondering how the hell did our Jarlath get to be President of the GAA."
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Not many local people can claim a social media following of well over 100,000 for a project that started as a bit of a hobby.
For 31 year old Andrew McCracken though, a love of motorsport cultivated over years as a child living close to roads frequented by the Ulster Rally and the Circuit of Ireland has resulted in a massive worldwide audience for his baby 'The Motorsports Hub' which he started in 2018.
Andrew from Ardaragh Rathfriland is an avid fan of all kinds of motorsport, Road Racing, Moto GP, World Superbikes you name it, even the British Touring Car Championships. Working for Destination Newry around 2014/2015 as a cameraman and video editor he put up some rally videos on his personal page. A montage video showing Ford Escorts got over 20,000 views. "For a personal Facebook page to get that amount of interaction, I was like, Oh, wow, I wasn't expecting that. That's when I seen that window of opportunity. I wondered if I was to create a business page, what would that be like". And so it began for Andrew.
It's an absolute labour of love for the project he wants to be 'Informative, interactive, creative and unique' but he would love to turn his spare time project into a viable business at some stage.
Andrew said "You just need to get that little bit of luck, that little bit of a rub of the green. You get one business involved then another business might look on and say 'oh he's actually got this company added on to the website Why don't we keep them informed and get our target audience involved as well.' "
His figures are staggering. On Facebook alone he has almost 77,000 followers with an additional 27,000 on a Facebook Group. Over the last 90 days his Facebook has reached over 2.7 million people. For the design of his website he is forever grateful to Shaun Byrne from Design Stics and the site currently gets visited by thousands of people every day.
The site and its resulting social media pages will appeal to any motorsport fan and the ethos is to help promote local sporting news. What started it all of was a 'bit of a rant' on Facebook about how TV stations hardly promoted any local sporting events. "I created a post back around 2018, Jonathan Rea was absolutely dominating in the World Superbike series. Nobody was batting an eyelid about that, there was very poor coverage. It was the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award and Jonathan Rea won his fourth or fifth World Superbike Championship at that time. BBC never nominated him as a Sports Personality of the Year Award, which he was previously when he finished third in 2017. But then in 2018, despite winning another world title he wasn't nominated at all. I was really really annoyed with that. I put up a bit of a bit of a rant about it. I was like, hey, BBC it's a shame on you. This guy has just won another world Superbike championship and he should be recognised for his achievements, and you're not doing that at all." he said.
Andrew explains how it took off "It just exploded - over 2000 reactions by the morning. I think a quarter of a million people viewed the post and from there on that was basically lift off. It started to go bit by bit by bit by bit. I was covering local events and this was before the website was made. About a year in I seen the potential. It wasn't going to happen straight away but I just seen it just go on and on and I thought why don't I create a Twitter account, which reached more people and again it continuously grew bit by bit by bit."
He followed that with an Instagram account and he has 5000 followers on that and other platforms have followed since.
Formula One is his favourite sport and Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher is very much his idol. "I was just in awe with his real gutsy determination, he was so determined to win every single race and whatever bad situation he was in, it was never going to put him down, he was just going to go move on and go to the next week. That's like my mentality in some ways. if you get knocked down just get back up again. Any setback you take, just take it on the chin and move on. That's just a fact of life."
Ultimately the aim is to showcases local motorsport news and content via a user friendly website and popular social media platforms. Andrew adds "If you said this is just going to be primarily a Facebook page created for Formula One news, for all rally news, that's okay but there's 101 other Facebook profiles that do exactly the same thing. I didn't want to do that. I wanted to create this to help promote local motorsport news and local motorsport content. Specifically, if we were going to pick a subject like rallying rounds from the Irish Tarmac Championship, I have my sources. I have my contacts who go to specific events and they will provide me content in exchange for free advertising for them. It's a win win. You get the content, they get the credit for it. It looks professional, it looks creative, you can share it on Facebook, Twitter, and so on."
Options are limitless for The Motorsports Hub. His followers are mainly from the UK and Ireland but also Australia, North America, Brazil and more. "There's businesses out there that could reach to anywhere across the globe realistically. Ideally for me personally, it would mainly be for businesses locally here in Northern Ireland as well as the Republic of Ireland and across the rest of the UK, England, Scotland and Wales. It's there for them. If they want their businesses advertised I feel this is the perfect window of opportunity for them."
Looking back to how things have progressed with technology in the ten years since he worked for Destination Newry Andrew said "When we were doing our live shows there would have been a machine called the Tricaster and we would have used that to do our live broadcast shows. Now look at it, you can do live streaming on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. It rapidly changed so much. The couple of years prior from 2014 all the way to 2016 when Facebook Live started, the whole mindset changed dramatically. If you've got good decent internet connection, a good webcam and microphone you can produce good decent quality broadcasts. If I was out and about at a rally event, I would occasionally do live streams on Facebook or Instagram, but it's trying to find that decent connectivity at the moment. The technology in regards to the 5g network is not there yet. It's going to take a bit of time but once it does arrive that's going to change things dramatically."
Reminiscing on his roller coaster journey Andrew is very thankful to many people. " I'd just like to thank every single follower, from my from my own personal friends who liked it from the very beginning when it only had 100 followers or so from September 2018. To the people who helped achieved 1000 followers on Facebook, 1000 followers on Twitter or Instagram and then continuously expanding it. I never would have thought in my imagination that it would expand to to where we are right now but I'm incredibly chuffed about it and I'm just so thankful for everybody who has enjoyed the content so far and I hope they will continue to enjoy the content in the future and what's to come."
You can contact Andrew at info@themotorsporthubni.com
Check out the Website themotorsporthubni.com
Facebook: TheMSHub
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Armagh maintained their perfect start to this season’s Lidl NFL when they inflicted a first defeat of the campaign on reigning champions Kerry at the BOX-IT Athletic Grounds.
Armagh led by double scores at the break with a Caroline O’Hanlon goal putting them into a commanding 1-7 to 0-5 lead.
Kerry rallied in the second half as they tried to preserve their unbeaten record and managed to edge in front, but Armagh came with another rally and two goals from Aimee Macken sealed a deserved win.
Armagh won all eight games when winning promotion from Division 2 last season and they have adapted seamlessly to life in the top flight, with their fifth win in a row.
O’Hanlon’s goal from close range put Armagh in the driving seat, although two points from Emma Dineen before the break helped keep Kerry in touch.
The reigning league champions started the second half strongly and Niamh Carmody and Anna Galvin landed good points.
And they got back on level terms eleven minutes after the restart when Katie Brosnan found the net for Kerry to tie the game at 1-8 apiece.
Hannah O’Donoghue edged Kerry in front with a point before Corinna Doyle equalised and then Armagh’s Niamh Henderson and Brosnan exchanged scores to leave them tied at 1-10 each going into the final quarter.
The game was there for the taking for both sides but it was Aimee Macken who took over from there. She pushed Armagh back in front with two points and then slotted home a penalty to put five between them going into the closing stages.
Armagh didn’t relent and kept pushing forward at every opportunity to claim another superb win.
Kerry were unable to mount another comeback and the issue was sealed when Macken got through to shoot her second goal and Armagh’s third to maintain their brilliant start to the campaign.
Scorers - Armagh: A Mackin 2- 6 (1-0 pen), C O’Hanlon 1-1, A McCoy 0-2, N Henderson 0-1, C Doyle 0-1, L McConville 0-1, N Coleman 0-1, E Lavery 0-1.
Kerry: K Brosnan 1-2, N Carmody 0-3 (1f), Emma Dineen 0-3, A Galvin 0-2, H O’ Donoghue 0-2, L Ni Mhuircheartaigh 0-1 (f).
Armagh: A Carr; G Ferguson, C MCambridge, R Mulligan; C Towe, L McConville, D Coleman; N Coleman, C O’Hanlon; E Drus, A McCoy, C Doyle; A Mackin, N Henderson, K Mallon. Subs: S Quigley for Mallon (42), E Lavery for Henderson (55), C O’Hagan for Doyle (55) M McCann for McCoy (58)
Kerry: C Butler; E Lynch, D Kearney, F O’Donoghue; A O’Connell, K Cromin, C Lynch; M O’Connell, A Galvin; N Carmody, N Ni Conchuír, A Harrington; K Brosnan, E Dineen, H O’Donoghue. Subs: C O’Brien forF O’Donoghue (half-time), D O’Leary for Ni Conchuír (39), L Ni Mhuircheartaigh for Dineen (45), C Murphy for Lynch (50), C McCarthy for O’Connell (56), S Burns for Harrington (58).
Referee: John Murphy (Tipperary).
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Down were too strong for an Offaly side looking to use home advantage to get back on level terms with the league leaders, with a win against in form Down yesterday at Ferbane GAA grounds.
However Down had to win to keep them within touching distance of the top two and leave them with any chance of promotion.
Natasha Ferris opened the scoring from a free that was quickly cancelled out by Offaly's Elle McEvoy converting a free of her own. Bredagh's Vivienne McCormack finished off a well worked move to put Down ahead once more but again McEvoy levelled from a free. Laoise Duffy done well to get her shot off and get the Mourne ladies ahead once more, but for the third time in the half the impressive McEvoy levelled with a free. Despite McEvoy causing problems for the Down backline, it was the away side that started to take control of the game. Clara Mulvenna who was excellent throughout the game, alongside captain Meghan Doherty controlled the centre of the pitch and started to dictate play. Annaclone's Niamh McClorey was working hard in the half forward line with Niamh Scullion on the left and especially Niamh King on the right, giving Down good width, and they exploited this to great effect. A ball played into space on the right was collected by King who beat her marker and had a lovely score from a tight angle. The Castlewellan forward was now causing all sorts of problems to the Offaly defence and added another two scores to her tally. Offaly welcomed the halftime whistle to give them a chance to regroup and try to get a foothold back into the game. Half time: Offaly 0-3 v Down 0-6
Offaly needed a quick start to the second half but struggled to get past a hard working Down defence superbly marshalled by Saval's Ciara Byrne. Natalie McKibben & Orla Duffy worked tirelessly at wingback winning back ball and setting up attacks as Down once again took control of the game.
Two more King frees extended the Down lead to five. Laoise Duffy, who was in top form, added to her total by putting the ball over after a strong run. Ferris got her second score with a powerful shot that cleared the bar. With Down well on top, managers Caoibhe Sloan & Peter Lynch took the chance to give their talented squad some match time and rang the changes. Highly rated Rostrevor forward Niamh Rice, is another product of the successful Down Minor set up, coming off the bench and clearing the black spot; after collecting a lovely hand pass from club mate Niamh Scullion.
Another converted free from King brought her tally to 0-6 in the match. Rice added a second to her tally shortly after, collecting a great pass from Niamh King and cooly finished. With almost the last kick of the match Offaly got their only score of the second half when midfielder Amy Gavin Mangan drove forward and finished well.
A well-deserved win for Down who were good value for their nine-point win and made it three wins in a row. Eyes now turn to Sunday 17th March when Down take on Louth in Burren, in what is another must win match for the Mourne ladies.
Final Score: Offaly 0-4 v Down 0-13
Down: 1.A.McGivern, 2.A.Greene, 3.O.Boyle, 4.P.Smyth, 5.N.McKibbin, 6.M. Doherty (C), 7.O.Duffy, 8.C.Mulvenna, 9.A.Laverty, 10.N.Scullion, 11.N.King (0-6), 12.L.Duffy (0-2), 13.A.O’Higgins, 14.N.Ferris (0-2), 15.V.McCormack (0-1), 16.N.McClorey, 17.E.Fitzpatrick, 18.E.Sands, 19.K.Howlett, 20.N.Loudon, 21.A.Cull, 22.A.Smyth, 23.C.Byrne, 24.C.McGeough, 25.E.Sloan, 26.N.McGrath, 27.N.Rice (0-2), 28.S.Dougherty, 29.S.0’Neill, 30.A McAlea.
Offaly: 1.K.Cunningham, 2.A.Graham, 3.M.Mann, 4.K.Farrelly, 5.N.Buckley, 6.E.Hand, 7.N.Farrelly, 8.A.Gavin-Manigan (0-1), 9.E.McEvoy (C) (0-3), 10.F.Dempsey, 11C.Sheridan, 12C.Walsh, 13.E.Hackett, 14.M.Byrne, 15.K.Furey, 16.L.Dunne, 17.S.Fitzgerald, 18.S.McGuinness, 19.A.Stafford, 20.E.Kelly, 21.A.Moore, 22.C.Milner, 23.E.Enright, 24.F.Quinn, 25.S.Doyle, 26.R.Ennis, 27.M.Doyle. 28.E.Maher.
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Armagh sharpshooter Aimee Mackin said the impact made by substitutes off the bench in each game has played a big part in their brilliant start to life back in the top flight of the Lidl National Football League.
Mackin scored two late goals to seal a 3-14 to 1-13 win over Kerry in a battle of the Lidl Division 1 and Division 2 champions at the BOX-IT Athletic Grounds in Armagh on Sunday.
“You can never win with just the 15 you have on the pitch, you’re looking for impact off the bench and our girls have been doing that since the first league game. The girls have been ready to go and have been doing that in training and have been pushing starting places, so whenever they’re called upon they’re ready, and they give energy to the girls that are on the field already,” said Mackin.
“At the start of the second half they pressed pretty heavy on our kickouts, and when you get that and you don’t win a few sometimes you can go into your shell a bit, but we had girls stood up when they needed to. Listen we’ll take the points but a lot to improve on still.”
A goal from Caroline O’Hanlon helped Armagh lead by double scores at 1-7 to 0-5 at the interval, before reigning league champions Kerry rallied after the restart.
A goal from Katie Brosnan helped them get back on level terms but while Kerry edged in front, it was Armagh who finished strongly with Aimee Mackin shooting two goals to maintain their perfect start to the season with a fifth win in succession for the side which won the Division 2 title last year. They were good value for their 3-14 to 1-13 victory.
Kerry forward Niamh Ní Chonchúir said they would need to take the learnings from their first defeat of the season. “We just have to regroup and get back to training, learn from the mistakes and why we didn’t push on when we got that lead towards the end. So just back to training, focus on our next game against Meath which will be a big game between the two of us.”
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Rugby Cubz NI is a local social enterprise that revolves around promoting inclusivity and empowerment, I sat down with the coach of Rugby Cubz head coach Rob Rossiter to talk about his business and how he has adapted the sport of rugby in order to cater to special needs children.
“Just around COVID time I started thinking there really wasn’t enough, having seen my son go through rugby and what it did for him” “I got to thinking what I could do with my experience, I had seen what rugby had done for my son and other children”.
“I started running a few pilot classes in Newry for autistic kids and reaching out to local autism support communities and it has just sort of grown from there”.
Rob had to think for new ways to adapt rugby in order to make it accessible to children with special needs “I adapt it, it’s a modified rugby so I just take certain aspects of the game without going into full contact”.
“I have soft mats. lately I have been running classes in Mourne Gymnastics. I have a soft play type thing there so you go in, they’ve got the ball in hand so they can run in, and they can crash and continue their tries, its all safe and they’ve got the crash mats, so its doing most of the physical stuff without doing full body on body contact”.
“The kids absolutely love it, because they’ve got the freedom of a really safe, comfortable space where they can do what they want”.
I also talked to Rob about some of the classes that he offers and how they differ depending on the time of year “Newry classes at this time of year I would just run classes indoors because its absolutely freezing, come Spring or Summer I like to take them outside. I'll use facilities like the rope walk and lately I’ve been using the facilities at local rugby clubs”.
Rob also discussed how he creates the classes in order to be accessible to different kinds of children on the autism spectrum “I sort of leave that to the parents to decide, in my experience without fail anybody who comes to the classes all get something and they all engage”.
I asked Rob where parents will be able to get in contact with him to talk about his classes “I’m on Facebook, I’ve got a website I’m on Instagram, you’ll see me popping up doing classes in the Ropewalk”.
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