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O’Donoghue Cup to conclude with three rounds in eight days

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Favourites Dr Crokes could be facing into three big championship games in just eight days as the East Kerry fixtures crisis took another unfortunate turn this week.

With players already angry about having to play up until Christmas, the last thing the East Kerry Board needed was another delay but unfortunately a bereavement in the Gneeveguilla club meant that last Sunday’s quarter-final against Dr Crokes was postponed. The semi-final had already been fixed for this weekend and the final for next weekend so the Board had no choice but to fix the game for last Friday, December 14.

If Crokes manage to beat holders Rathmore today (Sunday), they will face Kilcummin in the decider next Saturday. That’s three knockout championship games in eight days in December. As bad as things have been with the East Kerry Championship in recent years, this will surely constitute one of the most dysfunctional stagings of the competition in its 64-year history.

To be fair to the tournament organisers, they can’t do anything about a bereavement (I will stop short of blaming them for that) but anything can happen when you try to wedge one side of the draw, from Round 1 to final, into a 16-day period in December.

The irony is that neither Gneeveguilla nor Dr Crokes wanted to play their quarter-final game last Sunday anyway. My understanding is that Gneeveguilla were missing a number of senior players and had resigned themselves to fielding a team made up of juniors and under 21s so as to avoid pulling out and incurring a hefty fine.

Dr Crokes defender Fionn Fitzgerald got married up the country last Friday so the proposed fixture was far from ideal for the Lewis Road club either.

It’s a sorry state of affairs when you’re looking ahead to an O’Donoghue Cup quarter-final and the word around town is that neither team wants to play. Sadly, it’s a sure sign of where the competition is in 2018. The tournament is being devalued at the moment, and that’s a description I’ve heard time and time again since I started writing about the issue a month ago.

Last week’s article
Last week I put forward an alternative football calendar that would see the group phase of a new-look O’Donoghue Cup taking place in January with the semi-finals and final being played after Kerry win/get knocked out of the championship.

The response to the article has been overwhelming. I knew people were unhappy with the current situation but I couldn’t have predicted how universal the feeling of disillusionment actually is. Players, officials and supporters have all reached out to me to over the past few days to voice their support. If I’m being honest, I don’t know if the schedule I shared is definitely the answer but one thing is clear: people are desperate for things to change.

It’s funny, a lot of readers have said that the piece was controversial and joked that I’d have to watch my back, but how is it controversial if the vast majority of us are on the same page?

The next step
I’ve spoken to a number of club captains this week to see what the feeling is amongst the senior teams in East Kerry and the feedback so far has been very encouraging. Some clubs are still in action so they will naturally want to focus on football, but captains of other teams have confirmed that they’ll be speaking to their teammates about putting their concerns in writing and submitting them to their clubs.

I hope to talk to the remaining captains this coming week but my advice to them will be the same. Speak to your teammates, even if it’s just in the WhatsApp group, and see how they feel.

If the majority are unhappy with the current schedule and feel as though changes need to me made, put your thoughts in writing and share them with your chairman.

As players we tend to have a defeatist attitude when it comes to things like this because the GAA and the boards never seem to listen, but have some faith in your club. They will back their players if their players let them know how they feel.

We can point the finger all day long but if we don’t act now to address this important player welfare issue, we’ll have no one to blame but ourselves.

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Parnell commemorated in Beaufort on 125th Anniversary of Land League meeting

A special ceremony was held in Beaufort to mark the 125th anniversary of Charles Stewart Parnell’s historic visit to the village in 1880, when the Irish nationalist leader addressed thousands […]

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A special ceremony was held in Beaufort to mark the 125th anniversary of Charles Stewart Parnell’s historic visit to the village in 1880, when the Irish nationalist leader addressed thousands at a pivotal land reform meeting.

The commemoration, which took place beside the Beaufort Bar, honoured the legacy of the former MP and founder of the Irish National Land League.
The original meeting was held in a field belonging to Patrick O’Sullivan and attracted a crowd of approximately 3,000, defying the orders of local landlord ‘The O’Mahony’ of Dunloe Castle, who had threatened eviction to any tenant who supported the gathering.
Padruig O’Sullivan, proprietor of the Beaufort Bar and a direct descendant of Patrick O’Sullivan, addressed attendees at the unveiling of a new monument to mark the occasion.
The stone was designed by renowned uilleann piper and artist Tomás O’Sullivan, who also composed a special piece of music titled Parnell’s Blackbird to honour the occasion.
The original 1880 meeting was reported in publications such as the ‘Dundalk Democrat’, which gave a vivid account of the powerful speeches delivered that day.

Extract from the Dundalk Democrat – May 1880

The meeting, held on Sunday, May 16, 1880 in Patrick O’Sullivan’s field south of the Beaufort Hotel, was arranged in defiance of local landlord ‘The O’Mahony,’ who warned tenants they would be evicted for taking part. Nevertheless, the turnout was overwhelming.
Parnell arrived by special train and travelled by carriage from Killarney with fellow MP ‘The O’Donoghue’. The two were met by a band and a large welcoming crowd. Police and a Government reporter were present, but the atmosphere remained peaceful and spirited.
Speakers rallied against the unjust land laws of the time. ‘The O’Donoghue’ praised Parnell as the “shining star” of Irish nationalism and stated that “Kerry desired that her meeting should partake of a national character.”
When Parnell spoke, he described it as “the largest land meeting he had attended since County Mayo” and declared the movement to reclaim Irish land as one of the greatest undertakings in Irish history. He condemned the laws that allowed landlords to evict tenants and seize food as rent payment, noting that 600,000 farmers were subject to the whims of just 10,000 landlords.
He called for legislative reform, including the suspension of evictions and Government-backed tenant purchase schemes, warning that if Parliament failed to act, “the people will do for themselves what the Legislature refuses to do for them.”
He concluded by proposing the first resolution.
“That in the opinion of this meeting, the eviction of occupiers of land for non-payment of rent arbitrarily fixed by the landlord is unjust, subversive of the true interests of the country and calls for the emphatic condemnation of all lovers of justice.”

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St Pauls sign American Maisie Burnham

Killarney’s Utility Trust St Pauls women’s basketball team has announced the signing of American player Maisie Burnham for the upcoming 2025/2026 season. The club, who performed strongly in the latter […]

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Killarney’s Utility Trust St Pauls women’s basketball team has announced the signing of American player Maisie Burnham for the upcoming 2025/2026 season.

The club, who performed strongly in the latter part of the recent season and reached the league final, is looking to build on that success.
Maisie Burnham, a 24-year-old, six-foot-tall guard from Spangle City, Washington, comes to Killarney with a strong playing record. During her time at Liberty High School, where she also played volleyball, she was a high-scoring player.
She then went to Eastern Washington University, where in the 2020/2021 season, she led the team in scoring with over 14 points per game, a record for a freshman player at the university.
Burnham later moved to the University of Portland, where her scoring average continued to improve, reaching a peak of 16.3 points per game in the 2024/2025 season.
Utility Trust St Pauls say they are looking forward to welcoming Maisie to Killarney well in advance of the new season.

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