Donal O’Grady gives his tactical breakdown of an intriguing All-Ireland final.

Former Hurler of the Year Tony Keady has died in hospital in Galway after suffering a serious illness earlier this week.

Celebrating league titles are all the rage these days. Kerry’s footballers lost themselves for a minute or two on the Croke Park pitch before there was a collective realisation that it was early April. 

Galway 2-22 Waterford 2-19

All 15 of Tipperary’s All- Ireland winning side have been nominated for All-Stars, the first time in over 20 years an entire hurling team have been honoured.

I wrote last Saturday that players are strongly motivated by comments which call their personal courage into question.

It was Johnny Glynn’s dispossession of Pádraic Maher two minutes from the end of normal time that told David Collins he’d see Croke Park in September.

The most decorated manager in Galway hurling history believes Daithí Burke is the defender to tie down Kilkenny talisman Richie Hogan.

Kilkenny’s last two All-Ireland successes haven’t been replicated in the All Stars honour lists, where the runners-up in both years, Galway in 2012 and Tipperary last year, trumped them. As of now, Kilkenny look set to take the lion’s share of personal honours but Galway have plenty of strong contenders too.

After the euphoria comes the analysis. Michael Moynihan puts away the emotion to evaluate Sunday’s All-Ireland SHC semi-final winners.

So shines a good deed in a weary world. Yesterday’s mesmerising All-Ireland hurling semi-final, which remained at issue until the dying seconds, accomplished several things at its conclusion.

Galway’s cry for justice proved the loudest in an awe-inspiring All-Ireland semi-final that should live long in the memories of the 58,495 in attendance.

Galway manager Anthony Cunningham believes the manner of his side’s semi-final win is worth three-years of “development work”.

All summer we’ve been waiting for this championship to fire. It had been damp. Lifeless even. Nobody could manage to generate the faintest spark.

Andy Smith is a Galway veteran with 11 seasons of senior service under his belt.

I was impressed by how comfortable Tipperary were against Waterford in the Munster final. 

On the way home from Dublin last week, Niall Gilligan stopped off to break the journey in Francis Loughnane’s old pub in Roscrea, which is now run by John Carroll.

Joe Canning believes Galway will be driven by the pain and hurt of last year’s qualifier defeat to Tipperary in this Sunday’s All-Ireland hurling semi-final.

“What are they waiting for,” asks a bullish Johnny Coen.

Anthony Cunningham felt his Galway side were “very, very close” to Kilkenny in yesterday’s Leinster final, and was disappointed they couldn’t get over the line.

Galway 5-19 Dublin 1-18: Dublin’s fate wasn’t sealed losing the toss but losing their heads in reacting to it. 

One of the biggest challenges facing the Dublin and Galway management teams is the six-day turnaround to their Leinster championship replay.

Dublin 0-20 Galway 1-17: Rip it up and start again. 

Galway manager Anthony Cunningham says that it augurs well for the championship that it is so difficult to pick the team to take on Dublin on Sunday.

Galway got an early season boost when they came from behind to capture their second ever Walsh Cup title at Croke Park.

In the pursuit of excellence, sportspeople make extraordinary sacrifices.

The Workers Party has called on the Government to abandon the EU Fiscal Treaty referendum on May 31 at its campaign launch calling for the treaty to be rejected.

WHETHER there is a murky secret or an innocent explanation behind the controversy over the leaked government memo on the Lisbon treaty, it at least highlights one important fact — that few Irish people have easy access to the text of the treaty text and even a smaller number have had the opportunity to read and study it.

SOME months ago, an ordinary worker attempted, in the High Court, to have the managing director of a large company sent to jail for contempt of court.