Over the weekend Jimmy Barry-Murphy made the headlines, stepping down as Cork senior hurling manager. It was his second time in the limelight in less than a week, as he was made a member of the GAA Hall of Fame a few days ago.

Next Friday there’s a lunch being held in Cork to commemorate the 25th anniversary of one of the greatest feats in the history of Irish sport, the All-Ireland senior double of 1990 won by the men in red and white.

Before we talk about Tiernan McCann, and we need to talk about him because no other topic in the GAA seems to be worth ventilating, an observation.

Sunday’s All-Ireland semi-final between Kilkenny and Waterford followed a template we’ve become familiar with this season: A great deal of anticipation followed closely by a vague sense of disappointment.

Developments across the water caught my eye last week, specifically some news filtering out of Newcastle and Glasgow.

The Olympic movement, which now seems to be vying with the oily creeps of FIFA in a race for irrelevance, took a pretty substantial lead in that particular headlong rush a few days ago.

When the playwright Tom Murphy wrote A Crucial Week In The Life Of A Grocer’s Assistant, he might have been a bit previous in choosing his subject.

The late, great Johnny Clifford had a handy expression for occasions like these.

A week in the life of women and sport, eh?

Given the noses in the southwest which were put out of joint last Friday by Conor McCarthy’s piece in these pages, should we start with off-field competition?