NI disappointment as Test series against Republic is cancelled
‘Hard as nails’ new president gets thumbs up from those who worked with him in America
NORTHERN Ireland’s scheduled Test series next weekend has been called off after their Republic counterparts failed to get the green light from the relevant authorities in Dublin.
The Warriors were looking forward to their first fixtures since the European Championships in the autumn of 2019, with what was to have been a double-header at Lisburn Racquets.
With precious ranking points available, these would have been important matches for Dan Ryan’s side in the bid to qualify for next year’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
However, it is understood that the plug had to be pulled after Netball Ireland were unable to gain the elite exemption which would have enabled the Republic’s team to travel north.
Stormont’s Department for Communities and Sport NI had engaged constructively with Netball NI to facilitate the games taking place amid the ongoing coronavirus restrictions.
Although elite-level competition has been permitted in various codes during the pandemic, netball has faced additional challenges as the transmission risk is greater in indoor settings.
However, with the SuperLeague season having got under way in England earlier this month, the authorities here were persuaded these matches could go ahead in a safe environment.
Netball NI had gone to great lengths to ensure appropriate arrangements were in place to give the Superleague franchises confidence to release their players for international duty.
Six Warriors are currently contracted across the water and, although there are no SuperLeague games scheduled next weekend, it isn’t an official international window.
So Netball NI were reliant on the goodwill of franchises to ensure the top players were available to Ryan, who doubles up as supremo of Superleague side Leeds Rhinos.
The Warriors would have been without vice-captain Fionnuala Toner and first-choice goal attack Emma Magee due to injuries.
However, with captain Caroline O’hanlon and fellow SuperLeague players Niamh Cooper, Michelle Drayne and Michelle Magee available, the hosts would have expected to win well.
Currently 11th, Northern Ireland are 17 places above the Republic of Ireland in the world rankings and need to maintain their top-12 status to qualify for Birmingham 2022.
All four Superleague games tomorrow are set to have Northern Ireland interest, starting with a noon assignment for O’hanlon’s champions Manchester Thunder against Severn Stars.
Drayne’s London Pulse are next up at 2pm against in-form Strathclyde Sirens.
Cooper shone as Surrey Storm slayed the Celtic Dragons on Monday night and now they are relishing the chance of a crack at faltering 2017 and 2018 champions Wasps (4pm).
The afternoon’s fourth fixture in Wakefield, all being shown live on the Sky Sports Youtube channel, sees Ryan’s Rhinos face Loughborough Lightning with Magee hoping for her first taste of Superleague action.
EUROPEAN Tour chief executive Keith Pelley is “cautiously optimistic” that the ISPS HANDA World Invitational at the end of July could have fans in attendance at Galgorm Castle and Massereene Golf Clubs.
The tournament, which sees men and women compete for equal prize money, will be tri-sanctioned by the European Tour, LPGA Tour and Ladies’ European Tour (LET) this year, with a star-studded field set to descend on Co Antrim.
While golf tournaments have been limited to small numbers of fans due to the ongoing impact of Covid-19 so far, the World Invitational’s July 28-August 1 dates indicate it could be staged at a time when many people in the UK will have been vaccinated.
Because of that, organisers are hopeful that there could be spectators in place at Galgorm and Massereene in the summer, but Pelley added that the tournament will go ahead regardless of the decision on fans.
“We’re cautiously optimistic about having fans there, but it will go on with or without fans,” said Pelley at yesterday’s launch.
“We know things change drastically on a week to week basis, so we will continue to follow government rules for every event this year.
“We will probably play in some kind of bubble, but we are hoping that bubble will continue to expand. But, yes, there are plans for a pro-am, for some hospitality andforsomefans.”
Significantly, as well as the tournament being upgraded from the second-tier men’s Challenge Tour to the European Tour, it will be sanctioned not only by one women’s tour for the first time, but by two.
The 2019 women’s tournament was a thrilling spectacle, won by Jordanstown’s Stephanie Meadow and featuring Solheim Cup star Charley Hull, but neither tour sanctioned it, meaning there were no world ranking points on offer.
But this time around both tours have given the tournament their full endorsement, meaning the result will count towards the world rankings, the respective tours’ order of merits and also towards Solheim Cup points too.
LET chief executive Alexandra Armas said: “When the Challenge Tour invited us to compete as well, it was a tournament that our players really embraced.
“They loved playing alongside the men’s professionals two years ago. The only disappointment was that it wasn’t official, it wouldn’t count for rankings and Solheim Cup points.
“But off the back of that positive experience, we’re here today because that worked. Now we’re taking it to the next level. We believe it’s going to be really well supported by our members.”
LPGA chief tournament business officer Ricki Lasky added: “Not only do our players love the format and playing alongside the guys, what’s really interesting is what happens off the golf course. They’re creating a lot of bonds that weren’t there before, so we’ll see a lot of that.
“We told our players what was to come in Northern Ireland and I can tell you, they couldn’t be more excited to tee it up alongside the European Tour and LET. I can’t wait either.”
Meanwhile, at the Gainbridge LPGA at Lake Nona in Orlando, Florida, Jordanstown’s Meadow had another tough day, as she shot a second round 72 to leave her missing the cut at four over par.
TODAY will see the most unusual coronation ever in the GAA.
Larry Mccarthy of Bishopstown, Co Cork will be glued to his device, plugged into a virtual GAA Congress while sitting in his apartment in Dublin. As he is officially handed the role of GAA president for the next three years, all sorts of traditions will melt away.
Will there even be a presidential pin stuck in his suit lapel? Will the delegates temporarily mute their Zoom call to give him a round of applause? And how is it that the highest office in the GAA goes to someone who has spent the last 40 years in the United States?
Only one other candidate from overseas ever pursued the role before.
The legendary John ‘Kerry’ O’donnell, who was also the proprietor of Gaelic Park in the Bronx in its heyday of the 1980s when mass unemployment at home meant that New York GAA was never as awash with talent from the Old Country, went for the post in 1981.
The late O’donnell and Mccarthy are vastly different characters. O’donnell ran Gaelic Park like a fiefdom. He made his money through the bulging pay packets of the emigrants, starry-eyed at living in the Big Apple and astounded at their own earnings.
At one stage Gaelic Park had the longest bar in New York state, running 250ft long, which says something for the demand inside, while war was waged on the threadbare playing surface outside every Sunday eight months of the year.
Everyone knew O’donnell. There was an understandable dependency on him. He could make or break people in that town.
It’s hardly a stretch to say that Mccarthy’s challenge was seen as not much more than a piece of curious trivia. At last year’s Congress, he received 17 fewer first-preference votes than the favourite, Armagh’s Jarlath Burns. He crept up the rails through vote transfers and got through by a whisker on the fourth — and final — count to produce a shock result.
Mccarthy is an academic. For years he has been beavering away on GAA Committees, and served as a trustee of the GAA and as a regular delegate from New York. But essentially, he craved anonymity. That’s all over for him now as he moves to Ireland to take up the role.
The 67-year-old began studying at Thomond College, Limerick as a physical education trainer and was part of the squad that won the All-ireland Club Football Championship in 1978, beating Antrim’s St John’s in the final.
After a few years spent teaching in Dublin in the late 1970s and early ’80s, he eventually moved to New York. In time, he would gain a position with Seton Hall University. Primarily, he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in sports marketing and undergraduate international sports management.
In GAA terms, New York may be off-broadway but Mccarthy’s administrative career there speaks of foresight and planning, qualities that will be put to the test as he becomes the president to guide the GAA out of the Covid nightmare.
Already, he is credited as one of those that averted the slow death of GAA in New York by establishing strong links among the children of emigrants.
Former New York PRO, John Riordan, explained: “There was a little population boom among the Irish that came over here in the ’80s and ’90s and did well and moved to areas like Rockland, and would have set up clubs.
“All those kids that have come through are playing under-age GAA, they are enjoying it and keeping the culture alive. It’s clichéd and a bit corny, but it is huge to see the likes of Rockland build a facility. You don’t know how hard it is to build a facility over here, it is basically impossible.
“As much as emigration was high in the ’80s, it slowed down in the 2000s for obvious reasons and keeping the game alive in New York City was no mean feat, keeping people coming to Gaelic
‘Keeping the game alive in New York City was no mean feat’
Park on a Sunday. It will never be what it was, but it has kept going and that all creates the other good stuff like Rockland and whatnot.”
Those assertions are backed up by the current New York chairperson, Joan Henchy.
“I approached the former chair Laurence Mcgrath with an idea I