First Thoughts: Relentless

“The women are doing it now — the men can’t.”

This was part of a conversation between two old friends and lifelong GAA supporters I recently overheard in Mary Ryan’s bar in the North Main Street. It was a pithy summary of the current state of affairs in Cork, with the ladies triumphant in football and camogie at senior level, while their male counterparts languish in limbo.

The story of the string of successes of the Cork ladies in the football sphere has now been brilliantly told by Mary White, one of the leading women sports journalists in the country. No team deserved it more.