Christy O’Connor: Kildare precedent still making a mark 

The influence of the 'Newbridge or Nowhere’ lives on. 

Kildare footballer Kevin Feely with the Delaney Cup during the 2025 Leinster GAA Senior Football Championship launch at Cedral St Conleth's GAA Park in Newbridge. Pic: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

On a Monday in late afternoon of mid-July 2018, Cian O’Neill took a call from Marty Morrissey in RTÉ. It was 5.45pm. Morrissey asked O’Neill if he wanted to go on the Six One News. That was going to be a stretch; O’Neill was still in work in CIT (now MTU).

Morrisey asked if he could get into the studio in Cork by 6.20pm at the very latest. O’Neill put on his jacket and took off. Seven minutes after walking in the door, O’Neill was in front of a live camera.