Sharp-shooter Fitzgerald eyes final glory

THESE are busy times for hotelier Conor Fitzgerald, the last few weeks in the run-up to Christmas, office parties by the dozen to be arranged in the two Fitzgerald family hotels, one in his native Adare – the Woodlands – the other in Cork, the Vienna Woods Hotel in Glanmire.

There’s one party especially, however, that Fitzgerald would dearly love to be organising over the next few weeks — a celebration of Adare’s first ever Munster senior hurling title. Not just for the business it would undoubtedly bring in, no it’s more important than that. Fitzgerald, you see, is one of the stars of this Adare side, it’s score-getter in chief, lethal from placed balls anywhere inside the opposition half. Sometimes he operates on the wing, sometimes – as in the semi-final win over Toomevara – in the middle of the field, but always, when the whistle sounds and a free is awarded inside scoring range, Fitzgerald is the man. Thus it will be this Sunday, in Thurles, against De La Salle of Waterford, thus it is that in spite of the hectic work schedule, Fitzgerald has no complaints.

“Busy times alright, trying to get everything organised for the Christmas, and I’m up and down from Cork as well, I spend a lot of my days up there, in the Vienna Woods. I’m lucky though, I have an understanding employer!”