NUIG manager Jeff Lynskey was thrilled as the Galway college sent holders UL crashing out of the Fitzgibbon Cup to create a Group A decider against UCC.

THE obliteration of the Hawaiian East Island in Hurricane Walaka in the last few weeks serves as a timely reminder to the vulnerability of many low-lying islands, writes Dan MacCarthy.

From Sport In Ireland (second edition, published 2119)

In a parallel universe yesterday’s All-Ireland U21 hurling final topped off an unforgettable season with a dazzling flourish, with Tipperary and Cork swapping sixty-odd scores on a baking summer’s day, maybe, as happened a couple of times in this year’s senior championship.

Not to overanalyse the All-Ireland final last Sunday week or anything . . . but . . . can we just talk about the very end of the game, when Joe Canning was doing his best to imitate the Grinch and steal Christmas from all of Limerick?

I thought it was all over for trains and GAA supporters, and I thought I had the exact moment the romance had ended: when Cork decided to go by bus to Dublin.

The controversy that flowed from the GAA’s initial decision not to allow the Liam Miller testimonial be played at Páirc Uí Chaoímh is a legacy of history.

The playing of a test match in Dublin last weekend between Ireland and Pakistan is a reminder that there is nothing inevitable in sport.

Could Cooper yet be forced to walk naked in atonement through the streets of Killarney, asks Mike Quirke.

Women’s Gaelic football has made huge strides but even more must be made before there is equality, writes Paul Rouse.

Public representatives in Limerick have backed a motion urging the GAA to reconsider a deal where Sky Sports secured exclusive rights to championship matches.

The world of sport, with its seemingly endless capacity to invent and reinvent itself, has demonstrated time and again that there is nothing permanent, nothing resistant to transition.

A Connemara bar on an Easter Sunday afternoon — pints and fish-and- chips and plenty of fun. There are locals and blow-ins, tourists, day-trippers and weekenders. By 5pm, the place is full. 

Last week, Colm Greaves had a terrific piece in this paper speculating on what Charles Haughey’s political and personal career would have been like if he’d retained a financial interest in a lucrative filly he sold on, Ballidaress.

Paul Rouse takes a look at the evolution of Gaelic football.

St Colman’s College, Fermoy 1-13 Gort Community School 0-12: After another huge battle, St Colman’s College advanced to the All-Ireland Post Primary Schools Junior A hurling (U16½) championship final. They will play St Kieran’s College, Kilkenny. 

On Saturday, Fonsie Mealy Auctioneers will put up for sale the diary which Pat Davin, the outstanding Tipperary athlete, kept of a tour of the USA undertaken by GAA hurlers and athletes in 1888.

Love/Hate actor John Connors features in I Am Traveller on RTÉ2 on Thursday.

Literature, Gaelic games, and Irish classes were all activities in the early 1900s of the young nationalists who would later rally around the Rebellion, writes John Gibney.

Traditional Irish music and Gaelic football, the foundation stones of life out Miltown Malbay direction.

The cry ‘consistency’ has become an unlikely clarion call in recent years.

The passing of two sportsmen this week gave everybody pause, and little wonder.

For those who no longer believe religion is the opiate of the masses, an argument to the contrary could be made in one Co Louth parish.

You may or may not have heard the news about Cricket Ireland’s rather stunning sponsorship coup earlier this week.

The new owner of the famous Hayes Hotel in Thurles has said he wants to turn the landmark property into a "cultural hub" which will recognise its role in GAA history but also become a thriving business.

The new owner of Hayes Hotel in Tipperary says he has big plans for the property, but it will take time.

A hurling association was founded in Australia in the decade before the GAA was formed according to an Irish historian.

After almost a year and a half in play, it took just minutes for the sale of Hayes Hotel to clear the bar when the historic hostelry came to auction.

The iconic Tipperary hotel where the GAA was founded, and where tens of thousands of sport fans have congregated every year since, is to be sold at auction with a guide price of just €500,000.

When Michael Cusack founded the Gaelic Athletic Association in 1884 he had two main aims: to re-establish hurling as the national game and to promote athletics throughout the country.

The thorny subject of the economic realities for the GAA need to be addressed. My new book GAAconomics raises key issues about hurling — the cost, the progress, the snobbery and the urban areas that need careful tending.

Father Michael Cusack’s comments at the funeral of Detective Garda Donohoe were a stark reminder to all of us of the anger that is out there in relation to crime and how the vulnerable in our society feel at being isolated and, more importantly, how these thugs are getting away with their crimes.

THE icy winds that swept over St Mary’s graveyard as murdered garda Adrian Donohoe was laid to rest sent a chill through national life.

I have just returned from the funeral ceremony for Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe in Dundalk and I feel I must write to say I was honoured to have been in the attendance to listen to the words spoken by Fr Michael Cusack at the mass.

The closure of 95 garda stations will be carried out to meet today’s policing needs, and not because of the tightening of public purse strings, Justice Minister Alan Shatter has claimed.