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Bohs, Palestine and a unique occasion for Irish football

Dave Hannigan on hyping American stars too young; Do we need more games on GAAGo?

Palestine's Sara Kord celebrates after the game with a flag in front of fans at Dalymount Park. Photograph: Ben Brady/Inpho

Mary Hannigan's face
Mary Hannigan
Thu May 16 2024 - 09:37

It was, writes Gavin Cummiskey, “a unique occasion in the history of Irish football”, Dalymount Park packed to the rafters on Wednesday evening for the visit of the Palestine women’s team, this their first ever visit to Europe. All you need is Love blasted from the speakers as they took to the pitch to take on Bohemians in front of a crowd of 4,390 that included President Michael D Higgins, a sea of Palestinian flags greeting them. And it’s doubtful that anyone in that crowd begrudged them their 2-1 victory over the home side, Nour Youseff scoring the winner to round off a memorable visit to Ireland for this group of players from the West Bank and around the world. Cavan Sullivan has hopes of playing international football one day too, but Dave Hannigan wonders how all those hyping the 14-year-old Philadelphia Union player can have forgotten the cautionary tale of Freddy Adu. At the same age, Adu was hailed as the one who would change the game in the United States forever, but it was all downhill thereafter. And now Sullivan is being subjected to much the same frenzy.

Rory McIlroy was no stranger to high expectations when he was a young fella too, but he’s gone on to build a pretty reasonable career for himself. Philip Reid heard him talk of his hopes of winning his first major in a decade at his pre-US PGA Championship press conference on Wednesday, McIlroy, understandably, refusing to field questions about his private life.

Kellie Harrington, meanwhile, is amping up her preparations for the Olympic Games, which will be her last international tournament - and there’s the rather intriguing chance that she’ll face her former Irish team-mate Amy Broadhurst when she gets there. Ian O’Riordan heard her reaction to that possibility.

In Gaelic games, Ciarán Murphy wants more games on GAAGo, not less, arguing that “we’ve literally never had it as good” when it comes to the number of matches we can now watch on various platforms. Gordon Manning talks to former Tipperary goalkeeper and manager Ken Hogan ahead of his county’s meeting with Cork at Semple Stadium on Sunday when the losers will be out of the championship. And he also hears from Donegal’s Ryan McHugh, footballer of the month for April, who tells him about the impact Jim McGuinness has had on the team since his return as manager.

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And in rugby, John O’Sullivan catches up with Cian Healy who has signed up for a staggering 19th year with Leinster. “It will be long enough after, when I’m not playing rugby, so I’m going to enjoy every bit of it that I can,” he says. “It’s just that I love what I do, and I love the people I do it with.”

TV Watch: The US PGA Championship gets under way at Valhalla Golf Club in Kentucky today (Sky Sports Golf, 1pm-midnight), and this evening Leeds United and Norwich City meet at Elland Road in the second leg of their Championship play-off semi-final, the first having finished scoreless (Sky Sports Football, 8pm).