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Irish Daily Mirror
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Daily Mirror
In pics - Glamorous race-goers flood Ballybrit for Day Two of the Galway Races
There was a huge buzz around Ballybrit on Tuesday as thousands of punters descended on the world-famous racecourse for Day Two of the 2025 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
The 42
2 days ago
- Sport
- The 42
Jack O'Connor: 'A tough lonely place to be. There were times when I felt like packing it up'
BASKING IN THE celebratory glow of an All-Ireland winning campaign, Jack O'Connor's mind drifted back to the struggle to reach that point. When Kerry's 2024 silverware hopes crumbled in extra-time against Armagh last year, their manager was facing a steep climb back to the summit. Further disruption came with the departures of his management team and the necessity to find replacements. The off-season was unforgiving for O'Connor and the prospect of heading for the exit door was something he considered. 'I found the year in general tough because you have to remember, around this time last year, we suffered a heartbreaking defeat to Armagh in a game that we appeared to be in control of. 'Then I had my whole management broke up. So I had to try and put the management together while I was dealing with the personal heartbreak of losing an All-Ireland semi-final. That can be a tough lonely place to be, when you're trying to do that. 'There were times when I felt like packing it up. 'I would be conversing with some of the players and stuff and they would have said to 'hang in there'. 'I'm glad I stuck with it and saw the year out because we got the reward. But it was a tough year.' Kerry manager Jack O'Connor celebrates with David Clifford. Morgan Treacy / INPHO Morgan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO When Kerry lifted Sam in 2022, O'Connor drew on the expertise of Paddy Tally, Mike Quirke, and Diarmuid Murphy. Advertisement Their departures created a void before the planning for 2025 could commence. 'It's tough going when you lose your management team, lads that you soldier with and that you trust and confide in. Then you have to try and gel with a new management team. 'As it turned out the lads have been brilliant – Cian O'Neill, James Costello, Aodhan MacGearailt and Pa McCarthy. They brought real freshness and real new ideas to the set up. I think the players relished that.' There is doubt about O'Connor's own future in the Kerry hotseat. He indicated he is considering departing when speaking after the game on Sunday evening and yesterday morning in the Burlington reiterated that he is mulling things over about remaining in charge for 2026. 'It isn't like I'm playing hard to get at all. I'm a long old time at this thing now, lads. I found last year particularly tough, I have to say, and I'm not sure I can put myself through that stuff again because when you reach a certain age, your priorities change a bit. 'There's a lot of other things I like doing. I like playing a bit of golf. I like spending time with my grandson, Jack, who's mad for golf as well. He'd be around the lawn below at a golf club, learning to swing it. 'I live in a nice part of the country and I enjoy being out in nature and going out at my old homestead in Dromid, stuff like that. We'll see. I'll leave it settled for a couple of weeks. 'I won't hang people out to dry or keep people hanging on. I'll have a think about it. I had only one or two hours' sleep last night, so now isn't a great time to be making a decision.' Kerry manager Jack O'Connor celebrates Morgan Treacy / INPHO Morgan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO The draining nature of this season was captured by the effort to turn things around in the wake of Kerry's group stage loss against Meath. After their quarter-final dismissal of ArmagH, he hit back at the critics of his team. 'It wasn't about me personally. It was just that we were putting in an incredible effort, but on the back of one bad day out we were being written off and disrespected. Sometimes you just get pissed off with that because the people who are doing the criticising are most of the time hurlers in the ditch who don't put in the same effort themselves with teams. 'I'm normally not like that. You've listened to me a long time, I normally give stock answers at these press briefings but I had reached a point where I was just up to my tonsils with it. I had a bit of a rant, sure there is no harm at times to leave off a bit of steam.' Away from his own team's performances, there was another source of irritation in grappling with the new rules that transformed Gaelic football. 'By and large, they've got an awful lot right. I think it'll be maybe two or three seasons before the thing beds in properly. I just saw a headline where they're talking about maybe a couple more rule changes. We'll see. 'It's a great product now. It's a good product, Gaelic football. It's more enjoyable to coach. Offensively, it gives you a lot more options than the old game. 'I was a bit peeved there during the year at that craic with holding up the play, when there's a free kick given, not handing the ball back quickly enough or getting out of the way. I mean it was a farce there at one stage. It. came to a head down in Páirc Uí Chaoimh in one of the group games where the ball was brought forward, 10 or 12 times on both sides. 'I remember talking to Jim Gavin at the time, and I says, 'Jesus Christ, Jim, you'll have to do something about this'. I mean, fellas can't just disappear, like. You're battling for a ball, and the whistle goes, and you don't know half the time is the free for you or is it for the other crowd. And then you're supposed to hand the ball back and then disappear out of the lad's path and then players were exploiting it by running into fellas, so I think they tidied that up around that period. Kerry manager Jack O'Connor commiserates with Donegal manager Jim McGuinness. Morgan Treacy / INPHO Morgan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO 'I'm still not convinced about handing the ball back, though. I think dropping the ball on the ground where the foul occurs is a good enough show of respect. 'But look, it wasn't a big factor (on Sunday). I don't think there was any ball brought forward yesterday, was there? In the whole game? So I think it settled down but there was a period there alright when it was awful annoying.' O'Connor paid tribute to Johnny Culloty, the Kerry legend who passed away earlier this year and was one of his selectors during his first spell in charge between 2004 and 2006. 'Johnny was a great friend of mine. He passed away during the year as well. So he got a few calls during the match yesterday, and before the match. I remember his son saying to me at his funeral that Johnny would help us to win the All-Ireland. So fair play to Donal, he predicted that. Ah Johnny was a great friend of mine and a great confidant, and he certainly got a couple of calls yesterday.' *****
Irish Daily Mirror
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Daily Mirror
In pictures - Stylish punters soak up the action on Day One of the Galway Races
The 156th Galway Races is officially underway with what promises to be another unforgettable week of top-class racing, fashion, craic and crowds. It is one of the biggest events on the Irish social and sporting calendar, with thousands of punters flocking to the Ballybrit track on Monday for the week-long festival's curtain-raiser. Sporting floral dresses and elegant fascinators, women looked the part while men got suited and booted for the occasion. There is no official dress code at Irish racecourses, but many punters took the opportunity to look their best on the opening day. The Summer Festival runs from Monday, July 28 to Sunday, August 3 - combining the very best in horse racing and stunning fashion. The Galway Races has become as much about the atmosphere and entertainment as the racing itself, with live music, food, pop-up events, and the ever-popular Ladies Day all forming part of the experience. With the sun shining on Monday, punters could be seen wearing their summer wear with sunglasses aplenty on Day One of the festival. Check out our picture gallery here to get a taste of the action. Jockey Eoin Kelly tickles young Daire Kelly before riding Ciao Adios in the 2nd race at Galway Races (Image: INPHO/Morgan Treacy) 1 of 17 A view of the first fence in The Iggy Daly Easyfix Handicap Hurdle (Image: ©INPHO/Morgan Treacy) 2 of 17 Oliver Kelly and Grace Kirwan from Galway enjoying the first day of the Galway Races (Image: ©INPHO/Morgan Treacy) 3 of 17 JP McManus arrives via helicopter at Galway Racecourse, Galway, Ireland (Image: Niall Carson/PA Wire) 4 of 17 Rosalind Lipsett from Dublin enjoying the first day of the Galway Races (Image: ©INPHO/Morgan Treacy) 5 of 17
The 42
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The 42
'I was inside here a month ago and there steam coming out of my ears' - Jack O'Connor
IN THE END, he shared a little anecdote of home life, painting a picture of a man heading out to take training, his bag over his shoulder, heading off to train the Kerry footballers on a summer's evening. 'And my missus took a picture of me going out the gate,' said Jack O'Connor. 'And I already know that'll be up on the wall, that was my last, so I'd say no, she'll be framing that one.' You can imagine it. Sepia-toned perhaps for added poignance. It's been the job that has defined his life and made him one of the most decorated managers Gaelic football. And still, Jack O'Connor's gifts are downplayed. It's why, after the win over Armagh, he had a go at those inside his own county that he felt was doing him down. 'I'd ask people who are knocking the group, 'What have you contributed to Kerry football off the field?' he said back then. Revisiting that, he said here, 'Obviously, delighted for myself because it was a tough old year. I found this a tough year. 'I was inside here a month ago and there was a lot of steam coming out of my ears. It wasn't faked or it wasn't put on. It was authentic because I felt that we were getting a lot of unfair stick and we were trying our butts off and have been from the start of the year. 'So, for us to finally get the reward is great.' He's been appreciated by the right people though. Asked about the departed Mick O'Dwyer and how much he was in O'Connor's thoughts this season, he relayed another yarn. 'Micko, you know, he's created a great history and tradition in Kerry and the rest of us are only trotting after him now. (It's) A bit sentimental for me because I brought the cup to him to his house in '22 and we had a nice half an hour of a chat there,' he said. 'And there was a nice photograph taken, so I treasure that always because you know he was an idol of mine as I say. 'He's created the history and the rest of us really try.' From the third minute, they started compiling a lead that Donegal could never wipe out. They decimated the Ulster champions. Advertisement 'Yeah, we were very determined leaving the hotel this morning,' he revealed. Shaking hands with Donegal manager Jim McGuinness afterwards. Morgan Treacy / INPHO Morgan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO 'I had a few words with them just before we got on the bus that we were going to take the game to Donegal. We weren't going to sit back and just see what they had to offer. We were really going after them. 'We were going after (Shaun) Patton's kickouts. We were going to drive on. I thought Gavin White was sensational in the first quarter. A real captain's example. 'There were a few pivotal moments. I thought David's two pointer on the stroke of halftime was a big, big score. Just gave us a cushion going in at halftime and just gave the lads a lot of belief.' Complacency for them at the break was their enemy after going in 0-17 to 0-10 up. Fortunately for them and unfortunately for Cork, they had the perfect example last weekend. 'Our mantra at halftime was we weren't going to collapse like you saw probably with the Cork hurlers maybe last week. We were going to go out and try and win the second half. There were times, I mean, Donegal didn't wave any white flag out there. They brought that back from, I'd say, nine points back to four points and they were still highly dangerous. 'Massive effort. Massive effort. Big contribution from an awful lot of players. 'Just thrilled for them because, as I said, we had a rough all year and it's nice to see it coming together in the end.' Perhaps their energy caught Donegal. They flew into that early lead Donegal seemed shell-shocked at their ferocity. When Shaun Patton looked for their kickouts, he aimed across his body and more often than not, Michael Murphy was the intended target. Kerry had Jason Foley nearby to do a bit of shunting and bumping. They also had Joe O'Connor and Gavin White gathering up an obscene amount of breaks. And they had David Clifford. In general play, he wasn't a major figure. But his shooting was insane. With the weight of an entire counties expectations on his shoulders, how did O'Connor manage that? 'See, David, David has a unique temperament, you know. He just takes it in his stride,' said O'Connor. 'Of course he must have felt pressure and he knew he was going to get a lot of heat. But you know, when we spoke about it during the week and he said, look, if I'm double marked and triple marked, he said, I just, I'll just win it and slip it. 'And he's humble enough to create scores for other people and he was a massive part of all we done there, because he kicked three two-pointers and particularly the one on the stroke of halftime was just inspirational for us going in, just get an extra zip ourselves. 'But yeah, how he deals with the weight of expectation, I have no idea. It's his unique temperament.' Related Reads How Joe O'Connor put injury hell behind him and played his way into Footballer of the Year contention An isolated, distinct land that carries the football tight to its heart: Failte go Tír Chonaill Kerry name unchanged side for All-Ireland final as Diarmuid O'Connor makes squad And then there's his brother Paudie, who controlled the game from start to finish, albeit Donegal allowed that to happen. 'Paudie's just coming back to himself after a long injury and we felt that he was coming good,' he explained. 'He handled some amount of ball out there and he just calmed things down and a big part of playing Donegal is getting value out of your attacks and don't turn it over. 'I think Meath found that out when they didn't work the Donegal defence. They just took potshots from outside the arc looking for two pointers. 'Now you take the two pointers when they're on, but you don't force them and you work their defenders.' The next thing will grab the attention though. 'I thought we worked the Donegal defenders and that in turn takes away a bit of their legs for going the other way,' he says. 'I thought that was a big factor. I didn't think that the likes of Roarty and Morgan and McHugh had a big influence in that game. 'Attacking wise, I think a lot of that has to do with the patience we showed in the attack, and keeping them out of it.' A masterclass. Kerry will soon miss him. * Check out the latest episode of The42′s GAA Weekly podcast here
The Journal
22-07-2025
- Sport
- The Journal
Rory McIlroy's Portrush gesture completes one man's 19-year journey to replace what was lost
The 42 IT'S MONDAY AFTERNOON in the media centre at Royal Portrush, and for once the question to Rory McIlroy is a little more interesting than the answer. Q: Rory, in 2006 at the Dubai Desert Classic you were a 16-year-old amateur playing with Peter O'Malley and Robert Coles. I was also a 16 year old, and I was also your scorer that day. A: No way! Q: You told me that day that your two goals were to be the World No. 1 golfer and to complete the Grand Slam. When you're an elite golfer as you are, one of the best of the generation and achieve your lifelong dream like that, what is the process of resetting your goals look like? The man asking that question was David Bieleski. He was at the Open for the week as an accredited member of the media, working for the New Zealand-based radio station, Sport Nation. David was born in New Zealand but went to school in Dubai, and it was from this school that volunteers were drawn for the annual Dubai Desert Classic event on the European Tour. As one of the few in his school who actually played golf, the tournament's head scorer usually rewarded him with the marquee group of the event. Rory McIlroy, pictured in 2006. Morgan Treacy / INPHO Morgan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO When he was handed his group in 2006, however, David recognised only two of the three listed names. While he knew tour regulars O'Malley and Coles, he knew nothing of the young amateur. He sought out the head scorer and asked him what was the deal, and was told that he was given the best group on the course, because that young amateur would be the best player in the world some day. As idle conversation unspooled with the round, David asked the young amateur for his ambitions in golf, to which the young amateur replied, slightly abashed, that he wanted to win all four major championships and become world number one. After he completed his round, the young amateur signed his golf ball and handed it to his scorer, a custom he maintains to this day. David pocketed the ball with the sense that this was one worth keeping, and so he and Rory McIlroy went their separate ways. Eight years later, Rory McIlroy was 24 and halfway to fulfilling the ambitions he confessed to his scorer at the Dubai Desert Classic. He had been world number one and had won two major titles, and he'd add another two – one of them a Claret Jug – before that year was out. School days: David Bielski with Lee Westwood during his time as a volunteer at the Dubai Desert Classic. David Bielski David Bielski David Bieleski was 24 too, but dealing with a much nastier lie. He was an alcoholic, and he was homeless too. He returned to Auckland after school, where he lapsed gradually, and then suddenly, into drinking. His alcoholism, he says, did not fit the wrongheaded cliché of a man in a trench coat drinking on a park bench from a paper bag: his was hiding insidiously in plain sight. He didn't drink in the mornings and he didn't drink in public parks. He drank socially, but when he drank, he did so to get drunk. It ticked upwards: he went out three, then four, then five nights a week, tactically going out with different friends or groups of people who would not so easily spot the frequency. He shunned the problems this all threw up, simply drinking more to escape and numb the feeling. The nights of excess gave way to mornings of shame, from which the only escape route was another night of excess. David would wake up, vomit over the toilet, potentially vomit again in the shower, and then muddle through the day before going out again that night to start the cycle all over again. 'It was a constant battle of chasing the feeling and ideal state of being through the use of alcohol,' he says, 'and then being wracked with guilt and shame for having let people down, and then doing it all again as a result.' He struggled to hold down a job, constantly ran short of money, and saw friendships and relationships fray at their seams. Then, in 2014, another night's drinking ended up with David getting into a fight, causing damage to property, and being sent to hospital and a jail cell. This was not the first time his night ended this way, but for the first time, he broke the cycle in the morning. After he was released, David stood in front of the bathroom mirror to wash his face and, for the very first time, he could not look himself in the eye. 'It was a rare moment of clarity,' he says, 'where I realised that I could either keep what I was doing and experiencing similar results, or I could be brave and try something different.' This was one week before the birth of his daughter, and so he resolved that she would never see her father drunk. David went to rehab but ran out of money, and so spent eight months living in a homeless shelter as he bid to get sober. And he did it. Within nine months he got a job as a travel agent, and was soon on a flight from New Zealand to Las Vegas for an awards ceremony as one of the company's top performers. He met a girl, Sophie, and they stayed together when she was posted from Wellington to Christchurch for work. With the added free time, David indulged his old passion for golf. He started blogging, his first post being a 2,000-word preview of, you guessed it, the Dubai Desert Classic. It gained traction, and he continued to blog until he was paid to write about golf, from where he moved into broadcasting with Sport Nation. And so David Bieleski has been sober for more than 11 years. 'The peculiarity with alcoholism is that many people can handle alcohol perfectly well and have the ability to say no or they've had enough,' he says. 'You'd never turn around to a diabetic and wonder if they can have a little bit more sugar. Society struggles to understand that we can't approach alcohol the same way. Advertisement 'If I'm drinking, I'm drinking for the effect and to get drunk. Otherwise, what else is the point? If one drink is good, then six, eight, 12 will be even better. It is a disease, and research estimates around 10% of the population have the genetic predisposition towards alcoholic drinking. I personally believe I always had a predisposition for addiction.' Which brings us to Royal Portrush. At one point along his hard road, David lost the golf ball gifted to him by Rory McIlroy, and once he got sober, his mind became fixated on where it had got to. 'It's something I thought about an unreasonable amount,' he says, 'What has happened to this golf ball? 'That memento reminded me of the happiest times of my life: my childhood.' The lost ball was an emblem of all that which David squandered in his drinking days, and so recovering it might provide a measure of apology to his younger self, and of redemption for the life he hadn't led. He scoured his history to find it. He went back to the places he had lived and stayed during his drinking days, pleading with whomever he found to look for the ball. He returned to the house in which he most suspected he had last seen it, and found his former housemate had died. He was an alcoholic too. It was all to no avail. Nobody knew where it was, and nobody could find it. The ball was lost and that fact seemed to prove that while we can all move on, we cannot always make amends. Earlier this year, Rory McIlroy fulfilled the last promise he made to David Bieleski by winning the final major tournament missing from his collection. McIlroy completed his journey's arc so David figured he might too. He flew to Cornwall, where he proposed to Sophie. Meanwhile, he asked two of his golfing school friends from the Dubai days to travel to Portrush: he told them he was proposing to Sophie beforehand, and he wanted a stag party. And, hey, some live golf is as good an idea as any other for an alcoholic's stag. But while his friends were among the galleries, David had access to the media centre, where his path finally again intertwined with Rory McIlroy. On Sunday evening, McIlroy gave the raucous crowds wreathing the 18th green one final wave and disappeared beneath the grandstands, on his way to the scoring tent and then an interview room with journalists. As McIlroy spoke with us, David peeled away from the pack and spotted Rory's caddie, Harry Diamond, standing outside. He sidled over and plucked up the courage to tell him his story. When McIlroy finished up his media duties, he bounced down the four steps leading to the elevated interview platform and swung right to rejoin Harry and walk back to the clubhouse on their way out of Portrush. As he did so, the PA address system heralding Scottie Scheffler's victory drifted overhead. Harry stood with David and introduced him to Rory. David explained his journey, telling Rory of how he had inspired him to complete his own journey. Harry produced a golf ball and sharpie, and handed both to Rory. Rory signed the golf ball, squeezed David's arm, and then handed it over saying, 'Well then, this one is even better.' David walked away, his knuckles clutched so tight they were as white as the golf ball within them, all the while failing to fight back great, heaving tears. He found a quiet spot and slipped the ball into a Titleist box, to officially begin its transit back to New Zealand, where it will take up residence in his home with Sophie, his daughter and his two cats, whose names are Gary and, of course, Rory. The ball will be set upon a tee, framed and put upon his mantlepiece, where it will stand alongside a picture of McIlroy on his knees on the 18th green at Augusta National that bears the man's own message. Never give up on your dreams. David Bieleski completes his journey with a signed ball from Rory McIlroy. David stayed to listen to Scottie Scheffler's press conference, and quietly agreed with Scheffler's outlook that life is ultimately about identifying the truly important things. I went to listen to Scheffler too, and met David as we were filing our way out of the room. I had seen his interaction with McIlroy and my curiosity had gotten the better of me, and so we sat down to talk. About an hour later, I packed up my bags and as I climbed the hill that led down from the media centre to the back of the 18th green, beneath the honeyed sunset in front of me I saw David Bieleski, arm-in-arm with his two friends, telling them he had a golf ball signed by Rory McIlroy and that, today, he had righted a wrong. You can follow David's work at DeepDiveGolf If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this piece, you can visit Written by Gavin Cooney and originally published on The 42 whose award-winning team produces original content that you won't find anywhere else: on GAA, League of Ireland, women's sport and boxing, as well as our game-changing rugby coverage, all with an Irish eye. Subscribe here .
