Any gratitude for getting a weekend off? Not a sausage

On the Monday after our annual week of sunshine, my wife went to the butchers, where she planned to buy some sausages.

She was out of luck. Following a sunny weekend when any lump of meat that didn’t have a pulse was fired onto a grill, our butcher was sold out of anything that could be barbecued. The local off-licenses also required major re-stocking.

While the entire county spent that Friday and Saturday gathered round a ‘barbie’ guzzling booze, Derry’s club footballers were forced to obey their vows of abstinence.