Your columnist is no art expert, though he likes recycling his favourite line of criticism occasionally. (When the King of France viewed Géricault’s painting The Raft of the Medusa, he remarked: “M. Géricault, your shipwreck is no disaster.” Kudos to anyone who can mail me the name of the band which used Géricault’s painting on an album cover.)

Think Ring, think Pele, think Kyle, think Nicklau — it is in this pantheon of greats that Mick Barry rightfully belongs. The greatest road bowler in the history of the sport died at the weekend after a debilitating illness. The Waterfall man was 95.

ROAD BOWLING legend Mick Barry said he was “taking it all in his stride” yesterday as his native city named a road after him and hosted a City Hall reception in his honour.

A ROAD bowling-mad bishop is backing a campaign to get a Cork city road named after the sport’s most legendary exponent.