{"id":435805,"date":"2026-05-11T06:54:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T06:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/435805\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T06:54:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T06:54:09","slug":"rossie-revelry-proves-theres-life-in-the-provincial-championships-yet-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/435805\/","title":{"rendered":"Rossie revelry proves there\u2019s life in the provincial championships yet \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ahead of the Munster final<\/a>, Joanne Cantwell was asking Colm \u2018Gooch\u2019 Cooper and Brian Fenton how many provincial titles they had won during their day. Neither was too sure, so many had there been \u2013 Gooch: \u201cnine or 10?\u201d \u2013 but both were too polite to point out that the only titles they ever really counted were of the Sam Maguire-ish kind. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have 12 All-Irelands between the three of us,\u201d said Brian, him having won seven, Gooch five and their fellow panellist, Mayo old boy Lee Keegan, well\u2026<\/p>\n

But come the end of the Connacht final, there was a reappraisal of the value of a provincial title as we witnessed the victor\u2019s celebrations. <\/p>\n

\u201cHuggin\u2019, kissin\u2019, everything is going on, they\u2019re all in love in Roscommon<\/a>,\u201d as Marty Morrissey described the scene, like a mass orgy was taking place on the Dr Hyde Park pitch.<\/p>\n

Which it kind of was, less the debauchery, of course, Rossie revelry reaching fever pitch after the county had completed a historic first \u2013 a minor, under-20 and senior Connacht clean sweep. Whatever about the rest of the province, Roscommon is most certainly awake. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what it\u2019s all about,\u201d said Brian, by now the fella so besotted with provincial-winning joy, he was probably going to count the Leinster medals at the back of his drawer once he got home.<\/p>\n

Earlier, down in Killarney, Kerry<\/a> won, approximately, their 8,529th Munster title, which came as no enormous surprise to the panel.<\/p>\n

\"Kerry'sKerry’s David Clifford during the Munster final against Cork. Photograph: Dan Sheridan\/Inpho <\/p>\n

Joanne: \u201cAre any of you tipping Cork<\/a> today?\u201d<\/p>\n

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

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

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

An eight-point triumph for the Kingdom in the end<\/a>, among the highlights that David Clifford two-pointer that would have collided with Artemis II if Artemis II hadn\u2019t come back down to earth a few weeks back. A thing of loveliness.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis man is just on a different planet when it comes to playing Gaelic football,\u201d said Lee, while Brian doffed his cap to Clifford\u2019s county. \u201cKerry did what Kerry do, business as usual.\u201d<\/p>\n

Celtic<\/a> didn\u2019t do what Celtic always do earlier in the day: they beat Rangers<\/a>. \u201cMaeda ain\u2019t no finisher,\u201d Sky\u2019s Chris Sutton had said during the first half, before the Maeda lad scored two in four second half minutes, the second a worldie, to set up a do-or-die-title-blockbuster against Hearts next Saturday.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Daizen Maeda\u2019s brilliance takes Celtic past Rangers and puts Hearts on spotOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

That will be dramatic, but it\u2019ll do well to match the ding-dong between West Ham and Arsenal<\/a> on Sunday afternoon. You can only assume that most of the respective clubs\u2019 supporters ended up in A&E. Maybe the Spurs and Manchester City faithful too.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got a really beautiful nervousness,\u201d Ian Wright said before the game, Jamie Redknapp giving him a hug, our Roy sporting that \u201ccalm yourself, man\u201d look. <\/p>\n

Off we went, and a whole 83 minutes elapsed before the scoreboard was troubled, Leandro Trossard giving Arsenal the lead with his first goal in 25 games. This reopened the wound of Nadine Noordam scoring her first ever goal for Brighton in the 95th minute of their FA Cup semi-final against Liverpool earlier on Sunday, completing a comeback from 2-0 down. <\/p>\n

\"LeandroLeandro Trossard celebrates scoring for Arsenal against West Ham. Photograph: Justin Setterfield\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

It\u2019s not that you ever want to see Liverpool reach a final of any kind, but when our Denise O\u2019Sullivan, who scored their opener, is denied a day out at Wembley, then that does nothing for your footballing mood.<\/p>\n

Back to West Ham v Arsenal. \u201cThis an earthquake, a tremor of a moment,\u201d said Gary Neville when the bubble-blowing folk appeared to have equalised in the dying seconds of the game. \u201cThis is the biggest moment in VAR history in the Premier League.\u201d \u201cAn absolutely mammoth moment,\u201d Peter Drury agreed.<\/p>\n

So, by now, we knew it was a big moment. \u201cHas VAR the nerves, the guts, the courage to make this decision \u2013 this is massive for refereeing in this country,\u201d Gary continued as the telly people checked to see if David Raya had been fouled by Pablo. \u201cArsenal Football Club \u2013 their first title in 22 years could rest on this.\u201d Whenever \u201cFootball Club\u201d is needlessly added to the name of a football club, you know things are serious.<\/p>\n

In the end, VAR \u2013 and the ref \u2013 had the nerves, guts and courage to disallow the goal, thereby sending Arsenal and Spurs in the direction of ecstasy, and West Ham and Manchester City towards despair. Yes, of course, VAR is a blight on this game we love, but bloody \u2018eck, it\u2019s mighty craic. <\/p>\n

Jamie delivered his verdict on the contest: \u201cOne of the best worst games I\u2019ve ever seen.\u201d We didn\u2019t find out if Wrightie agreed, he was, most likely, heading for A&E.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ahead of the Munster final, Joanne Cantwell was asking Colm \u2018Gooch\u2019 Cooper and Brian Fenton how many provincial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[150974,188562,4026,200960,85,46,204554,2619,204553,105,57728],"class_list":["post-435805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-cork-gaa","tag-galway-gaa","tag-arsenal","tag-football-championship","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-kerry-gaa","tag-premier-league","tag-roscommon-gaa","tag-sports","tag-west-ham-united"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}