What a wedding party!

THERE IS a scene in the ‘Michael Collins’ film where Liam Neeson is pacing a darkened room in brooding silence. Julia Roberts, as Kitty Kiernan, senses that something is up and says to him, “You’ve sent your boys out tonight, haven’t you?”
There were several of us of a similar demeanour at my sister’s wedding in Tullamore last Saturday as 7 o’clock approached and we realised that our boys were about to take the field and that we were not only not there with them but would not even see them on television.
This is where modern technology and the young people come in! Ciara was sitting at the table next to mine and peering intently under the tablecloth. She looked up, gave me a thumbs up, and signalled six fingers to two. This was conveyed across the room with a series of hand signals like demented John McCriricks, and responded to with clenched fists and mouthed “Go on, the Jaysus Dubs!”
The Danish half of the wedding party exchanged troubled glances, confirming their suspicions that Martin had just married into some deeply strange cult.
As the number of fingers and hands required to enumerate Dublin’s score increased and as Tyrone remained confined to one hand (a red one if you will!) we began to relax and wine began to be sipped in a genteel manner rather than swallowed in great gulps, accompanied by fervent prayers to the Lord Jaysus who has been a cruel god to the Dubs over the millennia.
Scouts were then despatched to the downstairs bar and they returned with tidings of great joy. As the main course was delayed I begged and was granted the couple’s dispensation to be allowed watch the last 20 minutes. And, of course, no sooner was I on my feet than several others also cracked.
And so it came to pass that we saw the final act of what was the most convincing Dublin victory in a big game for the guts of 20 years. The startled earwigs have metamorphosed into glittering butterflies. Okay, perhaps some sort of sturdy and industrious beetles maybe but you get the picture.

DESPITE a lifetime of following Dublin which has induced in me a Kierkegaardian pessimism, I did think that they would beat Tyrone and even that they would beat them in the manner in which they actually did.
Tyrone, along with Kerry, have been the best team of the new millennium but I just had the feeling that some of their key players were going to the well one time too many. A better team than Roscommon (no offence intended) would have had Tyrone a good bit behind at half-time the previous week.
On that basis I formed the opinion that, barring a real horror show on the part of the Boys in Blue, they would exploit the weaknesses that had been visible during Tyrone’s Ulster campaign and against the Rossies. Even a stopped clock is right twice every day!

DUBLIN now meet the team that put Tyrone out of the Ulster championship. Donegal, despite some negative punditry, have been impressive. Their win over Kildare highlighted their strengths and while much has been made of their alleged negativity and even cynicism there was a period of over 20 minutes in that match during which there were no frees conceded. That is an impressive statistic and a token of how effective Donegal (and Kildare) are at closing down the opposition without necessarily engaging in rugby league-type tactics.
They are ‘negative’ in the sense that their first instinct is defensive but so too is Dublin’s. The key to that being successful is to be able to turn defence into attack at speed. There is an argument that Donegal are somewhat ponderous in their offence and they have a lower scoring average than Dublin (12 scores per game compared to 16.5.)
The potential danger for Donegal is that if they set themselves up as in previous games then they might not restrict Dublin in the same way as they have others (interestingly both have only conceded an average of 10 points per game) nor score enough to surpass Dublin if they were to score in the vicinity of 16 points.
Anyway, we shall find out soon enough. In the meantime, we shall busy ourselves emblazoning our T-shirts, car windows and babies’ foreheads with ‘SAM – D – 2011’  and generally becoming even more obnoxious than we already are .
The whole country is awaiting the traditional meeting of the Dubs and The Kingdom, so it would be a shame were either Mayo or Donegal to deprive them of that treat. If it did turn out to be a ‘traditional’ Dublin/Kerry final I would have to disappear for a few months to escape the crowing of a certain Kerry journalist who shall remain anonymous although in fairness his being rung and texted at all hours of the morning by a certain other party of my acquaintance forecasting Kerry’s humiliating demise in 2009 means that he is perhaps entitled to some schadenfreude.