{"id":373022,"date":"2026-03-30T13:46:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T13:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/373022\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T13:46:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T13:46:10","slug":"donegal-play-down-victory-over-kerry-team-who-may-be-trying-to-kid-rivals-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/373022\/","title":{"rendered":"Donegal play down victory over Kerry team who may be trying to kid rivals \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s probably accurate to say Jack O\u2019Connor<\/a> and Jim McGuinness<\/a> had shown as much enthusiasm for Sunday\u2019s Division 1 final as Heimir Hallgr\u00edmsson<\/a> has done for Tuesday\u2019s meeting with North Macedonia, almost to the point where you\u2019d a notion the championship might be their priority. <\/p>\n

They decided to come to Dublin anyway to fulfil the fixture, and while Donegal<\/a> brought a fair old bit of intensity with them on the trip down, Kerry<\/a> left their edge back in the Kingdom.<\/p>\n

Put it this way: David Clifford<\/a> had only a single point to his name in the first 65 minutes of the game, before he did his thing with a goal. Anyone would think Jack was trying to convince his championship rivals the Kerry attack was nothing to worry about. <\/p>\n

Anyway, come full-time, casinos and chicken ranches filled the Croke Park air, Jim almost \u2013 almost \u2013 raising a smile when co-captains Shane O\u2019Donnell and Michael Langan lifted the Miche\u00e1l \u00d3 Muircheartaigh Cup.<\/p>\n

Did it make up for last July\u2019s All-Ireland final defeat by Kerry, TG4\u2019s Miche\u00e1l \u00d3 Domhnaill wondered. \u201cNo,\u201d said Ryan McHugh. An emphatic enough no, too.<\/p>\n

Langan: \u201cIt\u2019s just another game … the focus is on Down in the championship.\u201d <\/p>\n

McHugh: \u201cWe have Down in four weeks\u2019 time in Letterkenny.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Donnell: \u201cDown now, aye.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anyone would think they\u2019re thinking about Down in the championship.<\/p>\n

The sc\u00e9al of the cluiche was probably those three Donegal goals in the space of three minutes, but perhaps joint top of that ranking was Michael Murphy<\/a> remaining on the pitch after his fist made, well, contact with Dylan Casey\u2019s ribs and head.<\/p>\n

Brian Tyers: \u201cC\u00e1rta dearg.\u201d Mark Harte: \u201cC\u00e1rta dearg.\u201d Paddy Kelly: \u201cC\u00e1rta dearg.\u201d Declan Quill: \u201cC\u00e1rta dearg.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it was bu\u00ed. No one looked more surprised than Murphy himself.<\/p>\n

Aoife<\/a> and Lisa O\u2019Rourke<\/a> would have been impressed by his double jab. Mind you, having both won World Championship boxing gold, they\u2019ve a decent enough set of punches on them too. <\/p>\n

Tommy Tiernan<\/a> wasn\u2019t, though, entirely sure who the Roscommon sisters were when they came on his show. <\/p>\n

Tommy: \u201cYou look like athletes?<\/p>\n

Lisa: \u201cGood guess.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tommy: \u201cAre ye?\u201d <\/p>\n

Aoife: \u201cWe are, we do a bit any way.\u201d<\/p>\n

D\u2019you know, after the misery of last week\u2019s Prague purgatory, the O\u2019Rourkes were a tonic. Although Aoife got it hopelessly wrong when she suggested that \u201cthere\u2019s more to life than sport\u201d. There isn\u2019t, of course, but look, she\u2019s entitled to her opinion. <\/p>\n

She was a hoot when Tommy asked her what it felt like the first time punches rained down on her. \u201cI would just laugh. I don\u2019t know if that was just how I was dealing with the nerves. I just remember finding it all hilarious. Why am I in a ring, literally a square, trying to bate someone and someone else is coming at me? It just doesn\u2019t make sense \u2013 and to this day it actually doesn\u2019t make sense to me. But I just keep going back for more.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat have you found strange about the world of international boxing?\u201d \u201cThat you go to some kips, oh my God,\u201d said Lisa. \u201cPeople think we\u2019re off living our best lives,\u201d said Aoife. \u201cLads \u2013 if you\u2019ve only seen what the toilets are like \u2013 and the food!\u201d<\/p>\n

She recalled Serbia where they had to wind their way around the buckets in their hotel that were capturing the rain from the leaking roof, and then having to walk across a railway track to get to the venue. \u201cRun! Put the head down! You\u2019d have the warm-up done before you got there,\u201d said Lisa. <\/p>\n

The toughest country to fight against?<\/p>\n

Lisa: \u201cMine was probably my world final against … what was it called? Oh Jesus lads, I must have concussion.\u201d <\/p>\n

Tommy: \u201cWas she Chinese? Mongolian? Russian?\u201d <\/p>\n

Lisa: \u201cNo, no, no.\u201d <\/p>\n

Aoife: \u201cAzerbaijan?\u201d <\/p>\n

Lisa: \u201cNo. It begins with Z.\u201d <\/p>\n

Tommy: \u201cZaire?\u201d <\/p>\n

Lisa: \u201cNo.\u201d <\/p>\n

Tommy: \u201cZambia?\u201d <\/p>\n

Lisa: \u201cWe\u2019ll be here for the night.\u201d (It was MoZambique.) <\/p>\n

They both credit the bulk of their power to working on the family farm near Castlerea. It\u2019s the height of lambing season now, Lisa told Tommy, the pair spending many a sleepless night out in the shed waiting for the pitter patter of four tiny feet. <\/p>\n

And listening to the radio that they brought in to drown out the sound of ewes looking for more nuts. \u201cRT\u00c9 Radio 1 is better than hearing baa baa black sheep every two seconds,\u201d said Lisa, gifting the station its new catchphrase. <\/p>\n

Funny, charming, brilliant, or \u201cmighty\u201d, as Tommy said of the sisters. And cripes, after the week that was in it, we needed the laughs they gave us. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s probably accurate to say Jack O\u2019Connor and Jim McGuinness had shown as much enthusiasm for Sunday\u2019s Division…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373023,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[6937,19292,6342,61,60,167343,95595,112,16393],"class_list":["post-373022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-kerry-gaa","tag-aoife-o-rourke","tag-donegal-gaa","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-lisa-o-rourke","tag-national-football-league","tag-sports","tag-tommy-tiernan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}