The long and winding road to an All-Ireland dream

For Ciaran Foley and his Oileáin Árainn footballers, this weekend’s All-Ireland JFC quarter-final against Liverpool’s John Mitchels is a journey of epic proportions.

The match venue, Páirc na hÉireann in Birmingham, is a long way from the club’s grounds on Inis Oírr and Inis Mór and it cannot be underestimated the strain the occasion has put on the club.

The island-based players, management and officials will head off from Kilronan this morning on the 8.15am ferry to Ros a’ Mhíl on the mainland in Connemara in Co Galway.