Kieran Shannon: Blue Demons and O'Leary's are Tala's second family

Michael O’Leary has given a lifetime to Blue Demons and it plenty back in return. And when a Senegalese-Spanish kid was stranded, he and his family gave him a home.

UCC Blue Demons' Tala Fam Thiam is challenged by Kyle Carey of Maree Pic: ©INPHO/Tom Maher

As someone who has been chair of his club for all but five of the past 30 years, Michael O’Leary – or Mickey Leary as he’s known to everyone in Blue Demons and Cork basketball – has collected a lot of American and European pro players at the airport.

Several, he has found, haven’t appeared as they were advertised, shrinking a few inches on the flight over.