Sport is the power that lifts the spirit

SATURDAY night last was going to be spent on Inisbofin with my wife, my brother and his wife, then Sunday would be spent in leisure, watching the All-Ireland SHC quarter-finals on television before heading for home, my last day out of harness.

That was before the terrible news broke from Kilkenny. Two young mothers, Mary Lonergan and Vanessa McGarry, killed in a car-crash. Vanessa’s husband is James McGarry, All-Ireland goalkeeping winner.

Given the circumstances, there was no way the All-Ireland quarter-final between Kilkenny and Galway could go ahead; Croke Park made exactly the right call, postponed that game, along with the Tipperary/Wexford quarter-final, to Saturday.