Venues set for club finals

News: The venues for next Sunday's five provincial club championship finals have been confirmed. Both the football and hurling titles will be decided in Munster, while the hurling title in Leinster and the football titles in both Ulster and Connacht will also be played for.

Patrickswell of Limerick and Newtownshandrum of Cork will play their Munster hurling final in Thurles. The football final between An Ghaeltacht of Kerry and St Senan's, Kilkee, of Clare will be held in Gaelic Grounds, Limerick.

In Leinster, the much anticipated meeting of O'Loughlin Gaels of Kilkenny and Birr of Offaly will be played in Portlaoise. Defending champions Birr are still on course for an unprecedented third All-Ireland title in a row, but the Kilkenny champions have been equally impressive since beating Young Irelands in the county final.

On Sunday St Gall's of Antrim proved the surprise winners of the Ulster football semi-final over Four Masters of Donegal and will take on Derry champions Loup in the provincial decider set for Clones.

Finally, the Connacht football final has been set for Pearse Stadium in Galway. That sees new Galway champions Caltra take on Sligo champions Curry. Portumna have already captured their first Connacht hurling title, with Dunloy winning thehurling title in Ulster.

It means after next Sunday - and baring no draws - only one provincial final will remain undecided, the Leinster football final between St Brigid's of Dublin and Round Towers of Kildare. That has been fixed for Navan on Sunday week.

Elsewhere, the GAA's management committee has cleared the GAC to conclude the investigation into the controversial incident involving Down's James McCartan and Kenny Larkin of Westmeath dating from a challenge game last May. Larkin suffered a broken jaw in the incident, but the investigation was stalled after the GAA had discovered the Gardai were carrying out a similar investigation.