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\nPaul Galvin during his playing days with Kerry<\/p>\n
Paul Galvin is wired to see the world in patterns and lines.<\/p>\n
When the Kerryman looks at modern Gaelic football, shaped indelibly by the Football Rules Committee, he’s captured by the markings on the pitch as much as the actions of the players.<\/p>\n
Jim Gavin and the FRC took a scalpel to a game that was wheezing and poured fresh air into its lungs.<\/p>\n
The summer’s exhilarating championship may have climaxed with his beloved Kingdom being flattened by Mayo, but it hasn’t dampened Galvin’s enthusiasm for the spectacle.<\/p>\n
The 46-year-old’s latest clothes range for Dunnes includes the ‘Solo And Go Hoodie’, and the ‘3-Up T-shirt’. It’s safe to assume Gavin and Co’s brazen vision spoke to a man who has always marched to the beat of his own drum.<\/p>\n
“The interesting thing for me on the rules, first of all, was the kind of redesign of the pitch,” said former Footballer of the Year Galvin, appearing in Dublin’s Abbey Theatre this week as an ambassador for next month’s nationwide Culture Night.<\/p>\n
“We did a collection years ago called ‘Lines’, which was basically taking proportions, measurements and the lines of the pitch and using them as prints, creating language out of them.<\/p>\n
“Then of course the FRC came along and changed the midfield dash. I used to love the 65 and the midfield dash in the middle. I just liked the balance and proportion of those lines together. The midfield dash went and there was a broken dash all across the field, and then the 40-metre arc. It was completely different visually, it was totally different to look at.<\/p>\n
“You learn then how design impacts your life and your habits and your behaviours.<\/p>\n
“You know, I would consider Jim Gavin a kind of a designer in a way. He redesigned the pitch and redesigned the rules accordingly. The game is now for the better. It’s improved.<\/p>\n
“But I do think it’s interesting as an example of how design and lines and instructions – it’s the same on the streets, traffic, navigating buildings and corridors and hallways – we’re all influenced and affected a lot by design in ways we don’t realise. The 40-metre arc is a good illustration of how design can completely change your behaviour, your habits and your understanding of a sport.”<\/p>\n
\nPaul Galvin during his playing days with Kerry<\/p>\n
Kerry fans were commended for their grace in defeat to Mayo, the majority of them staying in Croke Park to watch the victors lift Sam Maguire. But there’s no doubt the loss stung. The Kingdom endured another sore loss last Sunday when they were beaten by Galway in the TG4 All-Ireland ladies SFC decider.<\/p>\n
In the past, Galvin has referenced the works of Samuel Beckett as an inspiration for some of his designs. Kerry might take solace in his wisdom. Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.<\/p>\n
“On both sides, men’s and ladies, you’ll have to go and analyse, look at the footage and try to find gaps in the areas where they can pick up and get better,” said Galvin, who won four All-Irelands as a player.<\/p>\n
“It’s a hard process, but it has to be done. If you duck it or deny it, you’ll find yourself back in the same situation again pretty quickly. You’d like to think that there’ll be a bit of surgery and a bit of analysis done on both sides to try and improve the thing for next year.<\/p>\n
“(For Mayo) it was an enormous moment and it was great to be there. It was a huge kind of cultural moment and it will live long in the memory and all that. Kerry have to be cold about it and try and delve into why we came up short.<\/p>\n
“It’s not my place to go and offer up reasons as to why; that’ll be up to management to try and pull some work-ons out of it for next year. I don’t know, I just think Mayo seemed to be able to go harder for longer. They did seem in really good physical condition. They were a bit more intense about it maybe.”<\/p>\n
Asked if Kerry’s gruelling club season had impacted the squad’s chances of peaking in July, Galvin replied: “I think there’s something in that. But I suppose the same schedule was there last year and Kerry had a very good All-Ireland final (they beat Donegal by 10 points).<\/p>\n
“Injuries were chronic, it has to be said. There was a chronically bad injury situation in Kerry. I think the fact that Kerry clubs went so far this year into the club championship right to the end in January… that takes these club players right up to January and (then they go) straight into training within the county level.<\/p>\n
“This year some of them just weren’t able for that load.”<\/p>\n
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\nSean Fitzgerald searched for romance on Love Island<\/p>\n
It was a mad year in lots of ways – the liberation not constrained to the field of play.<\/p>\n
While Kobe McDonald stole the hearts of Mayo people forever before heading Down Under to begin a career in the AFL, Galway footballer Sean Fitzgerald caused a stir by starring on Love Island.<\/p>\n
‘Fitzy’ had tongues wagging for weeks on the popular reality TV show. Might Galvin have headed for the villa in his younger days?<\/p>\n
“The reality (TV) stuff was never my cup of tea but good luck to him, I wish him well,” he said after a fairly lengthy pause. “I think he’s going to do well out of it. I did see bits and pieces of it, you know, and I thought I saw a bit of GAA cuteness in him.<\/p>\n
“He was standing back and taking stuff in, which I thought was a good kind of a dressing-room habit… surveying what’s going on and maybe not saying too much, from the little snippets I saw.<\/p>\n
“I wish anybody well that takes a kind of a gamble and goes and does something a little bit out of normal GAA conventions, but the reality TV stuff didn’t appeal to me personally.”<\/p>\n
Love Island might not get his juices flowing but Culture Night does. Galvin has long spoken about his passion for the arts; for writing, storytelling and music (particularly hip-hop and folk).<\/p>\n
“Where I’m from north Kerry there’s a big storytelling tradition, a tradition of literature and theatre with John B Keane and others.”<\/p>\n
Now in its 21st year, Culture Night is a melting pot of theatre, dance, literature, film and exhibitions. It will be marked by events across the island.<\/p>\n
“I’ve been aware of it for a couple of years now,” Galvin added. “I think the most unique part of it is the night-time element… there’s something special about night-time events. It brings a special atmosphere, light, and there’s a bit of novelty to it as well with family and that. Kids feel they’re on an adventure if they’re out and about at night-time and there’s colour and street performance.<\/p>\n
“I like galleries and studios, I like architecture. I do like theatre and don’t get to see enough of it.<\/p>\n
“Where I’m from north Kerry there’s a big storytelling tradition, a tradition of literature and theatre with John B Keane and others.<\/p>\n
“I’m glad to see (Culture Night) spreading around the country.<\/p>\n
“It’s an Irish event. I’ll be heading to see Le Ch\u00e9ile Collective in Kenmare and if you’re anywhere in Kerry or in the south, I think that would be worth a visit.”<\/p>\n
Culture Night 2026 takes place around the country on Friday 18 September.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paul Galvin is wired to see the world in patterns and lines. When the Kerryman looks at modern…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586873,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-586872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586872","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=586872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}