logo
GAA star Jarly Óg Burns and girlfriend Tara Donagh announce engagement

GAA star Jarly Óg Burns and girlfriend Tara Donagh announce engagement

Sunday World28-05-2025
The couple, who met while in college at St Mary's University College in Belfast, have been together ever since
With four short words Armagh's Jarlath Óg Burns and girlfriend, Tara Donagh, announced their engagement.
'And so it begins' the happy couple posted on social media alongside an engagement ring emoji.
In pictures the midfielder and bride-to-be are seen standing on a beach as Tara shows off her engagement ring.
Friends, family and fans flocked to the comments section to congratulate them on their big news.
One said: "Congratulations Tara" and a second commented: "Aww congratulations Tara"
A third said: "Amazing!! Congrats to you both" and a fourth posted: "Aw Tara, big congratulations to you".
President of the GAA Jarlath Burns celebrates with his son Jarlath Og Burns at the Senior All-Ireland Football Final
One of those who left a message is his brother, Lorcan, who wrote: "Stag?" to which Jarly Og reacted with a laughing face emoji
Jarly Og Burns is the son of GAA President Jarlath Burns, and is one of five children.
At last year's Amgen Irish Open in Co Down, Jarlath spoke about Tara and the support she has shown him over the years they have been together.
'She's a Tyrone woman for my sins,' he told EVOKE. 'She puts up with a lot from me now in fairness.'
One of the first people Jarlath went to when the final whistle blew for this year's All-Ireland was Tara.
'I saw her up in the stand and hugged her...she's a very good girlfriend.'
The couple, who met while in college at St Mary's University College in Belfast, have been together ever since.
'She's in her final year now of medicine and will be a doctor in March,' Jarlath said.
Speaking about embracing his father when the final whistle sounded on the 1-11 to 0-13 win over Galway in the All-Ireland last July son Jarly said: 'Maybe it was an outburst of emotion for that moment.
'It's a completely freakish thing. I'm sure if someone wrote the story like that, someone would say, 'You can't, that's too unrealistic'.
'He's the second president from Armagh and it is our second All-Ireland, and to be in his first year is insane.
'And people saying to him, 'Jeez, wouldn't it be great to be handing Sam over' and for that to happen is nuts.
'I just caught eyes with him and I thought I would go up and share this moment with him.
"He said he was very proud of me and it was father-son stuff. It was a great moment.'
Jarlath Óg Burns and Tara announce their engagement
News in 90 Seconds - May 28th
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Mark O'Shea the oldest first-time All-Ireland SFC winner as a starter since Tadhg Kennelly
Mark O'Shea the oldest first-time All-Ireland SFC winner as a starter since Tadhg Kennelly

Irish Examiner

timean hour ago

  • Irish Examiner

Mark O'Shea the oldest first-time All-Ireland SFC winner as a starter since Tadhg Kennelly

Up to March this year, the only time Mark O'Shea had worn the Kerry jersey on the field of play was to virtually make up the numbers. In 2020, and with Kerry away on a team holiday following their All-Ireland final replay loss to Dublin the previous September, then U20 manager John Sugrue was charged with putting together a team for the McGrath Cup. After a hosing against Cork, Sugrue wanted to beef up the team largely comprising U20s so made contact with 'over-age' players like O'Shea who, despite having no minor or U20 experience with Kerry, had impressed breaking into the Dr Crokes midfield the previous season. I lár na pairce wouldn't have been considered an option for him until his late teens. 'I got a massive growth spurt there when I was about, I'd say, 17, 18. I went from about five nothing to about 6ft 2in or 3'. So, yeah, Crokes, my parents, they always kind of taught me, 'Look, just keep at it'. 'I tried to master the skills when I was smaller. When obviously the height came, things kind of started to progress a bit fast and you're kind of thrown into playing with Crokes. Obviously, playing with Kerry was something I thought probably would never come around and just very glad that it did.' It was a couple of days after Crokes went goal crazy against Dingle in last October's county final that Jack O'Connor sent O'Shea a message. ''Look, when you get the chance later in the week, will you be able to give me a call?'' The 27-year-old O'Shea was unsure what it entailed. 'I was like, 'The boat is probably gone here as well.' But, look, Kerry is such a good championship. You're playing against the Barry Dans [O'Sullivan], Diarmaid [O'Connor], David Moran and these fellas down through the years. So, it's a good kind of place to be putting yourself up and you can get a bit of confidence from it too.' A nephew of Pat O'Shea, Mark has his own blood to thank for his progression as well as Edmund O'Sullivan and Brian McMahon in the Lewis Road institute. O'Connor was vital in making him feel as comfortable as possible in the Kerry set-up, even when things went awry mid-championship. 'Jack was saying, 'You've nothing to lose,' and after the Meath game I may as well have never put on boots again, and that was the first time I'd seen at inter-county, if you're not at it… look, you can probably get the criticism, and rightly so, we weren't at it and I wasn't at it. Jack was just kind of saying to me, 'Look, there's no pressure.'' O'Shea is amusingly philosophical about his elevation this year to become the oldest first-time All-Ireland SFC winner as a starter since Tadhg Kennelly who was 28 in 2009 (Donnchadh Walsh was 30 in 2014 but had been part of '09 panel). 'I suppose there wasn't many midfielders left,' he smiles. When it was announced Kerry were to wear blue for the All-Ireland final, superstition got the better of him. 'I was like, 'Feck's sake' because I wore it when I made my debut against Mayo up in Castlebar and we were beaten. And I made my starting debut against Meath in the championship with the blue jersey. So I was like, 'Jeez, I don't know about these blue jerseys.'' Coming into a dressing room with five other Crokes men as well as Kerry masseuse and former club manager Harry O'Neill and videographer John C O'Shea made the transition easier for O'Shea. To see his clubman Gavin White excel last Sunday week before lifting the Sam Maguire Cup after his difficulties in the 2023 All-Ireland final and this year's All-Ireland club semi-final was thrilling for O'Shea. 'Anyone that knows him knows just how meticulous he is with everything. And obviously, look, no-one in Kerry or Crokes ever even put any bit of blame on Gavin for either. 'But the reaction this year, and I'd say the captaincy there, there's a lot of weight on the shoulders and when you've your captain kicking three points, I'd say won about 10 breaking balls, it's easy to row in behind someone like that. And yeah, just absolutely phenomenal. Couldn't happen to a nicer fella.' There was redemption for Micheál Burns too after he was dropped off the panel last season before he was recalled following a stunning run with Crokes. 'The Armagh game there, you saw the ability. And look, he came back with a bit of freshness too. 'The summer away in Chicago served him unbelievable, because when he came back with Crokes, he was just a refreshed player and obviously, carried through to this year. He's another fella I'm delighted for. Serious mentor to me coming up the last two years.'

Kerry hero Mark O'Shea on his piseóg ahead of All-Ireland final win over Donegal
Kerry hero Mark O'Shea on his piseóg ahead of All-Ireland final win over Donegal

Irish Daily Mirror

timean hour ago

  • Irish Daily Mirror

Kerry hero Mark O'Shea on his piseóg ahead of All-Ireland final win over Donegal

They like their piseógs in Kerry, and Mark O'Shea was spooked by superstition ahead of the All-Ireland final. The colour clash with Donegal meant that both counties would wear their change strips for the decider as the Ulster champions donned a predominantly white jersey, with Kerry switching to blue. It became Kerry's default alternative decades ago, representing the Munster colours with the long-standing tradition being that counties would adopt their provincial strip if a clash emerged in the All-Ireland series. But while it cropped up regularly over the years given the predominance of green in county jerseys, this was the first final that they had worn it in an All-Ireland final since 1972, when they lost to Offaly after a replay. O'Shea, who only broke into the side this year at 27 years of age, had more contemporary reasons to feel restless about the blue however. 'When we were wearing the blue jersey, I was like, 'Feck sake' because I wore it when I made my debut against Mayo up in Castlebar and we were beaten,' he explained. 'And I made my starting debut against Meath in the Championship with the blue jersey. So I was like, 'Jeez, I don't know about these blue jerseys'.' That Meath game came amid a rut of injuries which threatened Kerry's All-Ireland ambitions. Their midfield hasn't been the most celebrated sector of the team in recent years and with Diarmuid O'Connor and Barry Dan O'Sullivan out through injury, manager Jack O'Connor had to go further down the trough than he would have liked. The nine-point defeat to Meath in the group stage appeared to reduce Kerry's Championship campaign to a procession, amid serious doubts around their ability to muster a serious assault on the All-Ireland with the personnel they had available at the time. At that stage O'Shea was seen as somebody who was part of the problem more than the solution. 'Jack was saying, 'You've nothing to lose', and I suppose after the Meath game I may as well have never put on boots again, and that was the first time I suppose I'd seen inter-county, if you're not at it… look, you can probably get the criticism, and rightly so, we weren't at it and I wasn't at it.' But as some key players were phased back in, O'Shea remained prominent - largely because of a lack of fit alternatives - but his graph rose with that of the team as Kerry started picking off Ulster opposition. He was left out for the Cavan game as O'Connor made his return from injury, only to last just three minutes as O'Shea was immediately pitched in. He stayed there for the remainder of the year as Armagh, Tyrone and Donegal were dismissed, all of them with remarkable comfort. Prior to this year, O'Shea's only involvement with Kerry had been in a McGrath Cup game in 2020 when the team was away on holiday. He had never even played underage football for the county but he caught O'Connor's eye during Dr Crokes run to the All-Ireland semi-final last winter. 'No, never played under-age. I got a massive growth spurt there when I was about, I'd say, 17, 18. I went from about five nothing to about 6'2' or 6'3'. So, yeah, Crokes, my parents, they always kind of taught me, 'Look, just keep at it'. 'I tried to master the skills when I was smaller. When obviously the height came, things kind of started to progress a bit fast and you're kind of thrown into playing with Crokes. 'Obviously, playing with Kerry was something I thought probably would never come around and just very, very glad that it did. 'I was like, 'The boat is probably gone here as well'. But, look, Kerry is such a good championship. You're playing against the Barry Dans, Diarmuid, David Moran and these fellas down through the years. So, it's a good kind of place to be putting yourself up and you can get a bit of confidence from it too.' His uncle Pat, Kerry's All-Ireland winning manager in 2007 and a dominant figure in the club, had a strong guiding hand too. 'Ah, he did, to be fair. I suppose, minor was when I got a bit of belief in myself. And Edmund O'Sullivan, to be fair, he was an unbelievable coach, an unbelievable mentor to me and still I can always pick up the phone and just have a chat about anything, to be fair. 'And from him to kind of Brian Mac (Mahon) in the Crokes and then to Pat, like, to be fair. I've had Pat now for two stints and the quality of what he does, he's a serious man.' Kerry manager Jack O'Connor celebrates O'Connor, fresh from delivering his fifth All-Ireland, is one of the most successful managers of all time and the simplicity with which he helped to elevate O'Shea from a decent club footballer to a county player of real substance is telling. 'The one thing Jack kind of said to me a few times, he was like, 'Look, you're, I suppose even over the last year, you've played a lot of big size games with Crokes'. 'So he was like, 'Look, it's no different to them games.' And he was right, at the end of the day it's a game of football. And once you take out the emotion, that's all it is.'

A US couple retiring in Clonmel: ‘America is me-me-me-me. Ireland still has that community feeling'
A US couple retiring in Clonmel: ‘America is me-me-me-me. Ireland still has that community feeling'

Irish Times

timean hour ago

  • Irish Times

A US couple retiring in Clonmel: ‘America is me-me-me-me. Ireland still has that community feeling'

A while into what sounds like a busy retirement in Hudson Valley, upstate New York , Barrie Peterson and Bea Conner decided four years ago they would like to emigrate, as Peterson puts it, 'yearning for a safer, less cruel place to spend my final years'. He had worked in nonprofit leadership, career counselling, taught business ethics ('not always an oxymoron!'); she's a playwright, actor and director, after retiring from teaching special education. But where to go? They considered France, but language was a barrier, and Scotland, where they had some connections. 'But the royals still have their claws into it, and I'm a republican,' says Peterson. 'Brexit seems to be dragging it down. The independence movement has unfortunately faltered.' In autumn 2023 they spent a month driving around Ireland, and loved it. They finally fixed on 'the sunnier, or less cloudy, southeast'. They fancied a country cottage, 'but the L-roads convinced us we didn't want to be driving. That put us into a town,' says Peterson. They moved to Clonmel in June 2024 and bought a small house in town 'for half what I got for my modest house in the Hudson Valley'. They slid right into the community there, getting involved, making friends volunteering. 'And we love it,' he says. 'Our house is within two blocks of a butcher, a produce person, wonderful bakery, appliance store, dry-goods, pizza parlour, pub. It's all right there. It has worked out wonderfully, and the longer we're here, the happier we are.' READ MORE [ A US animal lawyer in Wexford: 'There's a real social cost here: if you're not fun, you're gonna pay' Opens in new window ] Emigrating meant leaving friends and family, a factor Peterson points out in a note he shares with friends thinking of leaving the US. He has two brothers with families in the midwest; she has a daughter and four grandchildren, a son and a favourite niece (in Boston, who has visited twice). They stay in touch via video-calls, and visits back. They have Stamp Zero visas, which can be renewed four times, to ultimately become residents, on the path towards citizenship. The visa stipulates you cannot spend more than 90 days outside Ireland, 'which is reasonable,' says Peterson. 'The government wants you to be committed to Ireland, not be a tourist. And we're not tourists. We're living here. We're loving it. The visa requires about €50,000 income, a couple of hundred thousand [euro] in assets, private health insurance, a clean criminal record, a doctor saying you're not deathly ill.' They met the requirements with ordinary pensions and social security. 'We're not rich', but 'comfortably middle class.' As retired immigrants, they can't earn money nor access Irish benefits. All the same, they were surprised by energy credits and other pluses for non-income-taxpayers, including the prescriptions cap of €80 per month. Medications are a third of US prices. When Conner had a medical issue, 'excellent' ambulance and hospital care 'cost €100. In the States, you could add two zeros to that,' says Peterson. At a Clonmel storytelling event recently, Peterson spoke about real, human interactions with locals, businesses and cultural leaders, and being blessed by a 'welcome sociability, intelligence, generosity'. The owner of the hotel where they first stayed gave them lifts, the plumber introduced him to the Workman's Boat Club. He describes great service and expertise from local shops and tradespeople at reasonable prices; helpful gardaí, the OPW, medics. Has Peterson an overly romantic, rose-tinted view of Ireland? 'I reported what I had experienced.' Only two things have disappointed. 'Bus service at night is absent. If we want to go to Cashel or Waterford for a show, you can't do it at night. And a lot of nonprofit groups use Facebook instead of websites. Information about a local chorus or theatrical group is on Facebook ... I think a website would be more friendly.' Peterson, who is 80, speculates about Ireland's friendliness. 'Perhaps hundreds of years of foreign domination produces a general kindness to your neighbour in the face of larger factors beyond control. Or, despite the recent loss of credibility of Catholic Church leaders covering up abuses, there exists a foundation of charity, forgiveness, kindness. With millennia of pagan, Celtic and pre-Christian nature appreciation, values are deep-baked. These live in pilgrimages, sacred wells, Gaelic myths and holidays.' They both have some Irish background, from centuries ago, 'too far back to claim citizenship!'. Peterson has Swedish and Ulster-Scots ancestry, including McCauleys, Presbyterians from Dunbartonshire who initially moved to Ulster. [ From LA to Dublin: 'When people see my name, they expect a granny from Tipperary' Opens in new window ] Conner's great-great-great grandfather Michael Conner, son of William Conner and Rosa Byrne, emigrated from Carlow and served during the American Revolution around 1775-1776. 'He pops up in Louisiana in 1798, marrying Victoria Prineau,' a French-Canadian, says Conner. She hopes to find out more about him. She's African-American, and Peterson observes 'we weren't anticipating any bias, or people looking at us strangely as a couple. We haven't had one bit of that. That's not a surprise. We had a positive view of Ireland's kindness and pluralistic attitude.' Other good things: 'The Irish have such wonderful humour, in every interaction making jokes and kind of being sarcastic as a form of showing they like you. The GAA, what a wonderful asset to the whole island. It's voluntary, it's organic. Holy mackerel. In the States the big sports are totally commercialised,' says Peterson. Conner 'grew up in the city, where everything is closed in. Here's these wide open spaces. Even when it's raining and cloudy, it still has that beauty. Then the people, who are more concerned about community. It's what I grew up with. We lived in Brooklyn' with a mix of nationalities in their apartment building, playing together. Conner says they didn't leave the US because of Donald Trump , who wasn't in power while they formed their plans. 'We wanted a different life. We wanted the lifestyle that fitted us. The cruel stuff started after we moved.' Peterson is involved in Clonmel community chorus. Conner joined the dragonboat team of breast cancer survivors. 'I felt so much warmth, compassion, support, understanding,' she says. 'To welcome a stranger you don't even know. Especially when I tell them I can't swim! They said, we can't either! Compassion is one thing that used to be in America that's no longer there. It's me-me-me-me. Ireland still has that community feeling and emotion and attachment.' We would like to hear from people who have moved to Ireland. To get involved, email newtotheparish@

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store