In pics - Glamorous race-goers flood Ballybrit for Day Two of the Galway Races
It proved to be another thrilling day of racing, fashion, and entertainment and race-goers certainly dressed to impress for the occasion, with men and women alike putting their best foot forward in terms of style.
The event saw an array of unique headpieces, including towering constructions reminiscent of Jane Austen's era, inventive recycled hats and incredible designs enjoyed by keen racing aficionados.
Tuesday's racing highlights included Seamie Heffernan racing home on Dunum to win the Colm Quinn BMW Mile Handicap, featuring a generous prize pool of €120,000, with the 12-1 winner making it three career wins at the Ballybrit festival.
The Galway Races runs from Monday, July 28 to Sunday, August 3 with Ladies' Day on Thursday, July 31 - combining top-tier racing, fashionable outfits, live music, DJs, and outstanding hospitality
Check out our picture gallery below to get a taste of the action
A general view of the crowd at Ballybrit on Day Two of the Galway Festival (Image: ©INPHO/Morgan Treacy) 1 of 21
A general view of the runners and riders in the The Latin Quarter Beginners Steeplechase (Image: ©INPHO/Morgan Treacy) 2 of 21
Aoife Shefflin from Kilkenny enjoying Day Two of the Galway Races (Image: ©INPHO/Morgan Treacy) 3 of 21
Aoibheann, Elicia and Mandy Dalton from Fethard at Day Two of the Galway Races (Image: ©INPHO/Morgan Treacy) 4 of 21
Aoife Byrne from Carlow enjoying Day Two of the Galway Festival (Image: ©INPHO/Morgan Treacy) 5 of 21
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The 42
an hour ago
- The 42
Dublin's first-half storm, Meath regret, and what next after one-sided All-Ireland final?
1. Dublin's first-half storm Niamh Hetherton rifled into the Canal End goal in the 22nd minute to move Dublin 2-8 to 0-2 ahead. They turned over Robyn Bulger's kick out, Éilish O'Dowd carried at pace and Hetherton side-stepped Mary Kate Lynch before sending a rocket into the roof of the net. Two minutes later, Dublin secured their biggest lead of the game, Kate Sullivan's latest effort confirmed by HawkEye and putting them 13 points clear. Dublin targetted a fast start, and executed it to perfection. They had 1-3 on the board before Meath opened their account in the 10th minute, Nicole Owens raising their other green flag. They hit an unanswered 1-5 between Emma Duggan's second free in the 13th minute and her third in the 26th. By the time Hetherton wheeled away after after her goal — almost immediately after seeing one chalked off — all six of Dublin's forwards had scored from play. They were fast, furious and direct, picking Meath off time and time again on the counter and taking 11 of 14 scoring chances in the opening half. Hannah Tyrrell, Carla Rowe and Kate Sullivan finished with a combined 0-13, Sullivan's four points coming from play and some of Rowe's efforts dazzling. The platform for this success was laid in a first-half blitz. 2. Orlagh Nolan brilliance and the last to quit Several times on TG4′s commentary, Brian Tyers referred to Orlagh Nolan having 'saoirse an páirc'. Like Paudie Clifford in Kerry's win over Donegal last week, Nolan got on a world of ball and enjoyed the freedom of the pitch. On her first start since returning from an ACL injury, she finished with the Player of the Match award and a fourth All-Ireland medal. Having impressed through a semi-final cameo, the two-time All-Star got the nod for the injured Caoimhe O'Connor. Nolan was hugely influential again, scoring a point and orchestrating much of Dublin's attacking play from the half-forward line as she hugged the left sideline and made darting runs. Advertisement She was involved in the build-up to both goals; more so defensively for Owens' as she gathered a fisted clearance from goalkeeper Abby Shiels and kick-passed it on, while she fed O'Dowd for Hetherton's. Nolan in action against Marion Farrelly. Ben Brady / INPHO Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO The former Women's National League soccer player was a composed, controlled presence on the ball, often using one hand to solo and the other to dictate with her head always up. After registering Dublin's first wide in the 17th minute, she made no mistake with her next effort from a similar position just afterwards. As confirmed to The 42 by the brilliant X account Gaelic Statsman, Nolan had around 26 possessions between kick outs won, scores assisted, turnovers and general ownership of the ball. 'I just wanted to hold wide and hopefully drag people out and create the space in there for the guys,' Nolan told TG4 afterwards. 'I don't know, maybe they gave me a bit too much time on the ball and then I was able to cut in. 'That's the thing about our forwards: if one of us is having a bad day, the next person will step up.' They all did on Sunday, in an ultimate team performance. Defensive stalwarts Sinéad Goldrick, Leah Caffrey and Martha Byrne were others to encapsulate the words printed on a team flag behind the scenes: 'The last to quit. Always.' 3. Meath regret in one-sided contest The lack of a contest and one-sided nature of the game is an obvious talking point. It kept with the trend of this year's All-Ireland finals to date, with Tipperary, Kerry and Dublin all winning easily. It made for another rather disappointing ladies football final too, games generally put to bed at half time in recent years. Dublin's scoreboard dominance doesn't tell the full story of Sunday's first half. Meath were incredibly wasteful, converting just four of 10 scoring opportunities and seeing several other attacks break down. They had more possession in the opening half (56% versus 44%) but were sloppy and made uncharacteristic mistakes. While Dublin were direct and often used width well, Meath were ponderous in possession and repeatedly tried, and failed, to go down the middle. The Dubs were masterfully cynical, Meath were one-dimensional and couldn't get their intensity levels. Emma Duggan dejected. Leah Scholes / INPHO Leah Scholes / INPHO / INPHO Emma Duggan's frees were their only source of scoring in the first half, their first from play not arriving until five minutes after the restart amidst five unanswered points either side of the break. Interestingly, Meath actually outscored Dublin 0-8 to 0-7 from that Hawkeye-confirmed point in the 24th minute. While Duggan and Vikki Wall will rue poor shooting and decision making, they had their moments. Goalkeeper Robyn Murray was a real bright spark, and Aoibhín Cleary and Ciara Smyth grew into the game. The regrets from their first All-Ireland defeat will linger. 4. A festival of football at Croke Park The 42 stumbled across a colourful scene on the way to Croke Park on Sunday afternoon. A group of young Dublin fans – primary school kids, perhaps a team – congregated for a picture at The Five Lamps. As they hung onto the city landmark, they spotted a Meath family, and began booing in unison. 'Up the Dubs, up the Dubs,' they chanted as the Royal kids took shelter behind their parents. They were all part of the 48,089 attendance at HQ, a healthy turnout on a Bank Holiday Sunday amidst a costly condensed season. The crowd fell short of the 2019 record of 56,114, but was a notable increase on last year's 30,340. The proximity of Dublin and Meath helps of course. There was a good atmosphere in the stadium, the sea of blue, green and gold, broken up by flashes of red, yellow, white and blue. In a much more exciting intermediate final, Tyrone beat Laois 2-16 to 1-13 to lift the Mary Quinn Memorial Cup. Goals in either half from Aoife Horisk and Katie Rose Muldoon powered the Red Hand to promotion after a one-point loss to Leitrim last year. Kate Flood in full flow. Leah Scholes / INPHO Leah Scholes / INPHO / INPHO Earlier in the day, Louth defeated Antrim 0-13 to 1-8 to win the All-Ireland junior championship. Kate Flood was the scoring hero with 0-4 before announcing her inter-county retirement, the talismanic forward and one-season AFLW star bringing the curtain down on a 15-year senior career. More would follow her into the sunset. Related Reads 'I was in a really bad way' - Dublin's goalscoring star bows out a five-time All-Ireland winner 'I'm just gutted for the girls. The game was nearly over at half time' - Meath boss McCormack 'She's given everything. This is a cherry on the top' - Dublin's retiring multi-sport star 5. What next? Hannah Tyrrell and Nicole Owens confirmed their retirements on the Croke Park turf after Dublin's win. A fitting stage to call it a day after glittering careers. Tyrrell and Goldrick shared a beer in the middle of the pitch when just the lawn mowers remained, two Irish sporting legends savouring the moment. Goldrick, at 35, is set for another AFLW season with Melbourne, but must be weighing up her inter-county future after winning her fifth All-Ireland title. Byrne, Caffrey, Rowe and Nolan are all over 30: similarly, they are at the peak of the powers, but have serious miles on the clock. Wall is the big name in focus for Meath, the multi-sport star recently signing a new, three-year deal with North Melbourne. Her AFLW commitments could again limit her inter-county involvement going forward. Captain Aoibhín Cleary is also Australia bound. Sub goalkeeper Monica McGuirk and former captains Shauna Ennis and Máire O'Shaughnessy are the only panellists over 30, and Shane McCormack was already looking to a 'positive' future on Sunday. Paul Casey and Derek Murray's side is also littered with young talent. Dublin may not dominate like before in a more open championship, Kerry and Galway among many who will be gunning for glory in 2026. Between now and then, the rules are sure to remain in the spotlight. *****
The 42
a day ago
- The 42
'I lived out in the sticks in Athenry. Two donkeys outside, free potatoes'
MOST PLAYERS WHO move to Connacht live in Galway, but Ciaran Booth isn't like every other rugby player. He marches to his own beat, literally. 25-year-old Booth, who now plays in Sydney with top Shute Shield club Easts, is the drummer in an indie rock band called The Monday Night Club. They've got a couple of EPs on Spotify. One of Booth's biggest goals in life is to cycle around the world. The former Ireland U20 international has a lively Instagram account called Ciaran Does Things, where he shares some of his outdoor adventures. So it's no surprise that he ended up living somewhere a bit different when he spent three-and-a-half years with Connacht, who he joined in 2020. 'I lived out in the sticks in Athenry,' says the affable, outgoing Booth as he sits in a restaurant in Bondi Junction. 'The lads used to always rip me for it. It was a bungalow with two donkeys outside, some chickens, a turf fire, free potatoes, free eggs. Rent was €500 a month and it was only 20 minutes to Galway. 'I'd train all day with the lads in Galway but by the time I got to 3 o'clock, I was ready for some quiet time.' Nowadays, back row Booth and his girlfriend, Lucy, are living in the hustle and bustle of Bondi Beach, one of the busiest suburbs you could find. He sometimes misses the peace of Athenry, the greenery of Ireland, and its people, but rugby and life in Sydney are good. Easts, the defending champions, are sitting clear at the top of the Shute Shield with one more round to go until the play-offs. They'll be hard to dethrone. Booth reckons those years in Galway were the best of his life so far. He won five senior caps for the province and loved learning from coaches like Mossy Lawler, Cullie Tucker, and Eric Elwood. Booth is a native of Manchester and initially came through the academy with Sale Sharks, but he has Irish blood from his dad's side of the family. Booth's granny is from Ballinasloe in County Galway and his granddad hails from Strandhill in Sligo. Booth's parents have a house in Strandhill, so they would visit three or four times a year when Ciaran was growing up. Back then, Flybe used to fly direct from Manchester to Strandhill. Booth played for Connacht five times. James Crombie / INPHO James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO So as Booth was making his way in Sale, he came onto the radar of the Irish Exiles, although he nearly missed his chance when Wayne Mitchell, the Exiles' talent ID officer at the time, came to watch him play. 'Wayne came to one of my Sale games and I didn't know who he was,' recalls Booth with a laugh. 'He was like, 'How are you doing? Good to see you.' I just said, 'Good, cheers, see you later' and walked off. 'Thankfully, he got my number and called me a few days later!' Advertisement Booth had been focused on playing for England, but he missed out on their U18s to his bitter disappointment, just before the Irish door opened. Given his roots, it made sense and he was soon playing for the Ireland U18s. He jumped swiftly to the U19 side and then got a late call-up to Noel McNamara's Ireland U20 squad for the World Cup in 2019, despite still being a year young, after Scott Penny was ruled out injured. Things were suddenly accelerating for Booth as he joined the likes of Craig Casey, Ryan Baird, and Thomas Clarkson at the tournament in Argentina. He came off the bench in a win over England. 'That was like childhood trauma cured,' says Booth. 'That was a massive release, a very special moment.' David Nucifora, the IRFU's performance director at the time, spoke to Booth about a potential move to one of the Irish provinces. And then, the next day against Italy, Booth started at openside. He jackaled at an early breakdown. Disaster struck. Anyone who saw Booth's horrific knee injury at the time can probably still remember it. The first Italian player tried to croc roll him and fell to Booth's left, dragging at him as he fought to stay on his feet. Then, a couple of seconds later, the second Italian player thundered in at full speed completely from the side on his right. Booth's left knee folded. 'I can still hear it,' he says with a wince. 'It sounded like a Coke can getting crunched.' Booth had always been diligent with his injury prevention work. He rarely had injuries. But there is no prehab that can have prevented a horror injury like this. 'It's the most painful thing you've ever felt. It's the sudden realisation of, 'Oh shit, this is what it feels like, this is happening. 'My first thought… you could hear me on the ref mic, saying, 'No, no, no, no.' You just know a year of your life is gone.' Booth playing for Buccaneers in the AIL. James Crombie / INPHO James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO The knee was mangled, says Booth. His ACL was ruptured. His MCL was ruptured. His PCL was ruptured. There was severe LCL damage, too. Some might have feared that it would be the end of rugby, but Booth just got busy getting better. He needed two operations, including an allograft for his PCL, which involves using a dead person's ankle ligament as a replacement. It took Booth 18 months, or 547 days, to make his return and it came for the Connacht Eagles against Leinster A. Nucifora and the IRFU kept faith in Booth after his injury and there was a chance he could have moved to Ulster, but Connacht was the right fit. 'Once you get back, you're like, 'Shit, I've got to get good again,'' says Booth. He raves about his time in Connacht, where he spent two seasons with the academy and then moved onto a senior deal for the 2022/23 season, during which he played twice in the URC and three times in the Challenge Cup. 'Just the smallest details were all they cared about when I was in the academy,' says Booth. 'It wasn't about the big picture. 'Andy Murphy, one of the S&C coaches at Connacht, always used to say, 'I'm not training you to be the best rugby player this weekend when you play in AIL. I'm training you to be the best rugby player in five years' time.' 'Mossy and the lads were just relentless every single day, sessions nailing the basics, catch-pass, breakdown, everything. 'You can see it the whole way up the chain to the Irish team, the smallest details, the tiniest little things like catching your passes square, keeping your feet in the breakdown, you can see where it all comes from. And it works.' Booth reckons he might settle down in Ireland when he's done with the adventures. He still chats to the crew in Connacht and Cathal Forde recently stayed with him on a visit to Sydney, payback for when Booth used to sleep on Forde's couch after nights out in Gaklway. He was saddened to be released by Connacht in 2023 and his time with Jersey Reds in the English Championship was short-lived because they folded soon after Booth joined. He ended up playing for Caldy in the Championship and then back with Sale as injury cover. Booth is now playing in Sydney with Easts. James Crombie / INPHO James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO The connection to Sydney was former Munster centre Alex McHenry, who was also in Jersey when the club went into liquidation and then won the Shute Shield with Easts last year before moving to Melbourne. Living in Bondi had an obvious appeal. As well as playing for Easts this year, Booth is coaching rugby at a school called Waverley College and leading strength classes at 98 Gym in Bondi. But this is not a permanent step out of full-time professional rugby for Booth. The Shute Shield is high-quality and Booth mentions how the likes of Cormac Daly have jumped from the club competition into Super Rugby in the recent past. Booth is also keeping his ear to the ground for any pro chances in France, the US, and Japan. 'It has been a complete breath of fresh air here, rugby-wise,' says Booth. 'Everyone's super competitive, the coaches are really good, and I'm more fired up for games and training than I've been in a long time. 'Now, I just want to play professional rugby. I'm at the point now where if I don't play for Ireland, which was always the goal, but if that doesn't happen, I'll live. 'You never know, there's people that come back at 30 and get back in, shit happens, but now I just want to play professional rugby at the highest standard I can.' Whatever comes next, it seems unlikely to be boring. Ciaran does things differently.
The 42
a day ago
- The 42
'It's great, fantastic, I can't complain' - O'Dowd on her second All-Ireland return from AFLW
SOME PEOPLE JUST get all the luck, it would seem. After opting out for the 2024 season, she did so under unusual circumstances. The reason was, she was playing AFLW for Greater Western Sydney Giants. Over there, she made quite the impression as, on her debut, she scored the fastest goal in AFLW history with her very first kick in her debut in round one of the 2024 season. The reason she was earmarked to play over there came from a string of brilliant performances when Dublin won the 2023 All-Ireland. It all seems a long way from Ballinamore, Co Leitrim where O'Dowd is from and played with at Junior level. She made a move to Dublin to teach and, in 2021, transferred to Na Fianna, which in turn brought about an approach from the Dubs. Back with Dublin this season, the athletic midfielder once against won another All-Ireland. 'Yeah, it's great, fantastic, I can't complain!' she laughed when asked about her impressive strike rate after the defeat of Meath in Sunday's decider. 'God, it's just so special to be back here. I think when I stepped away last year to go over to Australia and focus just on AFL, there definitely was a big part of me that felt like I was missing out. 'Even just watching the girls last year going in the group stages and even the league, you always feel like… you're just missing out, and you want to be a part of it all the time. 'It's very hard when you're over in Australia, the time difference and everything. That definitely gave me the motivation to want to come back and do it all again, because when you get the taste for that glory, you just want that success again. So, yeah, delighted to be able to get a second one. Two out of two!' Her colleague Martha Byrne was sitting alongside her, and paid tribute to the brilliant mentality that the management team of Paul Casey and Derek Murray instilled within. Advertisement Martha Byrne. Leah Scholes / INPHO Leah Scholes / INPHO / INPHO 'So proud,' said Byrne, 'I think there's something really special that we have within the Dublin defensive unit. Like, a lot of us know what the other person is going to do before they probably even know themselves. 'And when you have the likes of Leah Caffrey, like, right up until the last minute, shouting at me, 'Who do you f*****g have (to mark)?' 'Like, she just sums up what the Dublin defence is all about – a never-say-die attitude and it's an absolute privilege to play alongside those types of players.' Casey himself had warm words of praise for his players and the setbacks they had to overcome. 'Being able to bring Hannah Leahy in there..' he began, 'She had suffered three cruciate ligament injuries over the years. Aoife Kane had a really bad injury against Kildare in the group stage of the Leinster championship. To be able to bring those players in was fantastic. It's great for them and it's testament to all the hard work that they've done. 'And then you look at Hannah McGinnis, I think you lose sight of the fact that she's 19 years of age. This time last year she was waiting for her Leaving Cert results. She's had to learn quickly this year because we've been tight on numbers at times. 'But any job we gave her…to go out and play midfield in an All-Ireland final was superb as well for her. But the defensive group that Martha talks about, everybody knows the role they need to play and they're hugely respectful of all the young players coming in. 'In terms of educating them and giving them little nuggets of information that only the experience of playing over the years can bring, they've been superb.' With additional reporting from Emma Duffy. Check out the latest episode of The42′s GAA Weekly podcast here
