Far from the madding crowd, deep in the caverns of the birthplace of the once great bastion of altruistic volunteerism that was the GAA, a room full of megalomaniacs congregated.

Croke Park has been treated by the GAA public lately as if it were a vacuous hunk on the receiving end of a particularly awkward Love Island dumping.

Thirteen years ago, provincial finals were exactly that — finals. The cream came to the top in each quadrant, writes John Fogarty

The August Bank Holiday weekend is usually a pretty good starting point for the business end of the football championship, writes Tomás Quinn.

Some important information here,

Galway 3-16 Roscommon 0-14: Sit up and take notice, was the Galway message. And in clinical style was it delivered.

It is said of Seán Kelly his greatest achievement as GAA president was opening the doors of Croke Park to the soccer and rugby fraternities of this country.

Dublin GAA secretary John Costello has accused Croke Park top brass of behaving like Ebeneezer Scrooge after their request for a share of the gate receipts from the Dublin-Mayo All-Ireland semi-final replay yielded the “princely sum” of €7,500.

Teddy McCarthy has claimed he was treated ‘like some bowsie in a nightclub’ when attempting to enter Croke Park on Sunday - the former dual star a notable absentee from the 1990 Cork jubilee team presented to the crowd prior to the All-Ireland football decider.

“Out-thought, outworked, and outfought,” conceded Éamonn Fitzmaurice.

Nabokov tells us there is no science without fancy, nor art without facts. Can we apply that to yesterday in Croke Park?

It is 40 years this weekend since Galway returned to hurling’s high altar, their 1975 All-Ireland final appearance bringing to an end the county’s 17-year wait for a September sojourn to Jones Road.

A couple were winched to safety on rescue helicopters after becoming stranded in Dublin Bay; a hoax bomb in Cork may have been a warning to a guest; Ballymun went from high hopes to broken dreams; and the post-mortem on Cilla Black has not revealed why she died. These are some of the latest and most read news stories on irishexaminer.com.

There was no delay. Darran O’Sullivan and Gooch were still razing Kildare on Jones Road as Kerry’s medical team got to work on the James O’Donoghue rehab strategy.

Leinster chairman John Horan has defended the province’s decision to keep the Dublin footballers in Croke Park.

Croke Park Stadium Director Peter McKenna has revealed his ambition to make Croke Park the home of American college football despite the failure to secure a profit from last August’s ‘Croke Park Classic’ — but the dream of bringing the NFL to Jones Road has faded.

Down star Paul Braniff has announced his retirement from inter-county hurling and says the Hurling 2020 committee’s proposal to take the Christy Ring Cup final out of Croke Park does nothing for the game’s promotion.

WHAT would Kerry have done if Eamonn Fitzmaurice had said No?

There won’t be an announcement any time soon. It’s not his way.

Stephen McDonagh grew up in one of the few houses in Limerick where an All-Ireland minor medal sat proudly on the mantelpiece.

Cork senior hurling captain Patrick Cronin has been passed fit to start in Sunday’s All-Ireland semi-final showdown against Tipperary.

The alarming decline in attendance figures during this summer’s All-Ireland SFC looks set to continue apace this Sunday with a meagre crowd of 35,000 expected at Croke Park for the quarter-final double-header.

Fancy getting your hands on Nicky Rackard’s first All- Ireland hurling medal, perhaps a jersey signed by Cork’s 1990 All-Ireland winning hurling and football teams.

Tipperary 1-16 Clare 1-15

Last Saturday in Claremorris’s McWilliam Park Hotel, the Mayo management and backroom teams gathered to formulate their 2014 plan of attack.

Units of Dublin fire brigade are tackling a serious blaze on Jones Road in the city this evening.

Gardaí have appealed to fans attending Sunday's All-Ireland hurling final not to invade the Croke Park pitch after the final whistle.

ALL-IRELAND SHC SEMI-FINAL:

GAA Director General Paraic Duffy believes successes like Limerick’s in the Munster Hurling Championship and Monaghan’s in the Ulster Football Championship prove the validity of the current provincial structures.

Liam O’Neill said the GAA can’t afford a repeat of what happened to referee Joe McQuillan in Newbridge last Saturday night.

GAA president Liam O’Neill says the Croke Park pitch is suffering after a busy start to 2013 — but insists it’ll be fine for the Championship.

Mayo footballer Donal Vaughan has questioned the Gaelic Players Association’s endorsement of the new GAA-GPA boot-selling initiative gaelicboots.com.

Conor Counihan hopes Saturday will be the first of many trips to Croke Park for Cork this year — but he feels Dublin have been afforded too much of a home comfort there.

The GAA have played down the possibility of a pitch invasion should there be a winner in next Sunday’s All-Ireland senior football final.

After months of preparation for clubs across the country, the 2012 Féile na nGael finally comes into view.