Cross Wins 2007 GAA Final
April 1, 2007
Crossmaglen Rangers won the All-Ireland club title for the fourth time over Dr Croke’s at Portlaoise.
Cross won the match 0-13 to 1-5 with star forward Oisin McConville landing six points.
Crossmaglen raced into a three-point lead inside the opening three minutes with John Murtagh, McConville and Martin Ahern on target.
But Dr Croke’s hit back with five unanswered points, three scored by Colm Coooper and the other two from Kieran O’Leary.
Rangers responded with Aaron Kernan converting a free and then his brother Stephen, an early replacement for the injured Michael McNamee, landed the levelling score from play.
Two more frees from McConville put the Armagh club seven points to five up at half-time.
Aaron Kernan got the first point of the second period with a fine score from play.
Dr Croke’s, now three down, took over to enjoy a spell of domination. They dramatically equalised when Cooper set up Maloney to net from close-range.
The Kerry side then got a penalty as Maloney was bundled over but Cooper’s kick was saved by keeper Paul Hearty.
McConville then stretched Crossmaglen’s lead but the Ulster side were reduced to 14 men when John Donaldson’s foul on Eoin Brosnan brought him his second yellow card.
Dr Croke’s then lost a man as Ambrose O’Donovan picked up his second yellow of the afternoon.
Frees from Aaron Kernan and Oisin McConville (2) saw Crossmaglen extend their advantage to five points.
Crossmaglen captain Oisin McConville:
“It is an unbelievable feeling. We thought we might not get back here and a lot of hard work has gone into doing it.
“We played well in that we were tough in the tackle and were a bit tighter on them and we took our chances when they came our way.
“Big Hearty pulled off a save, which he does, and the rest is history.
“We left Croke Park after the first match feeling we were better than Dr Croke’s. We knew if we performed we would get there.”
Congrats, Rangers!
Terry Gregory
Gregoryologist
Article and photo courtesy of BBC Sport
Greetings From Dublin
March 17, 2007
The American Gregory’s have landed in Dublin.
Our first night was spent doing Guinness taste tests from a random sampling of pubs in the areas of Temple Bar and Grafton Street. So far, tests are inconclusive and we find that many more samples will be needed in order to satisfactorily complete this study.
Sláinte,
Terry Gregory
Guinnessologist
Crossmaglen Rangers in Finals
March 1, 2007
The County Armagh town of Crossmaglen, home of the Gregory Family for over 200 years, is also home for one of the best Gaelic football teams in Ireland. The American Gregory’s will be visiting Crossmaglen during the month of March to celebrate the team’s achievements.
Crossmaglen Rangers’ Oisin McConville played a captain’s role as Ulster kingpins Crossmaglen won through to next month’s AIB All-Ireland club SFC final with a 1-11 to 0-11 win over St Brigid’s from Roscommon in Mullingar.
The Armagh star struck five points and set up Michael McNamee for the only goal in Mullingar, nine minutes in. That goal proved to be the difference as St Brigid’s, Connacht champions for the first time, battled all the way.
Roscommon player Frankie Dolan added four more white flags in the second half, but substitutes Tony Kernan, John Murtagh and Stephen Finnegan bolstered the Armagh side’s ranks with Murtagh landing two crucial scores.
They will now meet Dr Crokes. Dr Crokes defeated Moorefield in the replay match 2-09 to 0-08 that took place in Nenagh. Crokes won through to the final for only the second time – they were champions back in 1992.
For Crossmaglen it is a first appearance in the final since they won their third crown in 2000 under Joe Kernan. On 24th September 2006 the club won their 11th Armagh Senior Football Championship in a row, defeating Lurgan Clan na Gael, a record in Armagh and a feat which has made them the envy of clubs not just in Armagh but throughout Ireland.
“Semi-finals do not have to be pretty – they just have to be won. All we wanted to do was get back to Croke Park,” said experienced Rangers player John McEntee.
“It is seven years since we got there. We let a chance slip against Portlaoise two years ago.
“The memory of that remained with us and we did not want to taste that again.”
Visit the new Crossmaglen Rangers section in Gregoryology.
Cheers,
Terry Gregory
Gregoryologist
St Patrick’s Day
January 20, 2007
The Gregory’s are invading Ireland again. This third trip, the American’s will learn how to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day correctly. But who is St. Patrick and why does he have a day that generates parades and green beer drinking parties?
St Patrick was born in 386 AD to a wealthy British family. He was kidnapped by Irish raiders when he was sixteen and was held captive for six years. He became a devout Christian during his capture and when he escaped he returned to England after walking nearly 200 miles.
After his return, he heard a voice to go back to Ireland and spread Christianity. He accomplished this by using Irish myths and oral legends to explain Christianity. An example is he superimposed an image of the sun on a Christian cross to craete what we call today the Celtic Cross. He died 17 March about 480 AD.
The Irish have been celebrating this religious day for thousands of years. On St. Patrick’s Day, which falls during the Christian season of Lent, Irish families would traditionally attend church in the morning and celebrate in the afternoon. Lenten prohibitions against the consumption of meat were waived and people would dance, drink, and feast—on the traditional meal of Irish bacon and cabbage.
The first St. Patrick’s Day Parade took place in 1766 in New York City when Irish soldiers who were serving in the British military marched to reconnect with their Irish roots.
Over the next thirty-five years, Irish patriotism among American immigrants flourished, prompting the rise of so-called “Irish Aid” societies, like the Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick and the Hibernian Society. Each group would hold annual parades featuring bagpipes and drums.
Up until the mid-nineteenth century, most Irish immigrants in America were members of the Protestant middle class. When the Great Potato Famine hit Ireland in 1845, close to a million poor, uneducated, Catholic Irish began to pour into America to escape starvation. Despised for their religious beliefs and funny accents by the American Protestant majority, the immigrants had trouble finding even menial jobs. When Irish Americans in the country’s cities took to the streets on St. Patrick’s Day to celebrate their heritage, newspapers portrayed them in cartoons as drunk, violent monkeys.
However, the Irish soon began to realize that their great numbers endowed them with a political power that had yet to be exploited. They started to organize, and their voting block, known as the “green machine,” became an important swing vote for political hopefuls. Suddenly, annual St. Patrick’s Day parades became a show of strength for Irish Americans, as well as a must-attend event for a slew of political candidates. In 1948, President Truman attended New York City ‘s St. Patrick’s Day Parade, a proud moment for the many Irish whose ancestors had to fight stereotypes and racial prejudice to find acceptance in America.
In modern-day Ireland, St. Patrick’s Day has traditionally been a religious occasion. In fact, up until the 1970s, Irish laws mandated that pubs be closed on March 17. Beginning in 1995, however, the Irish government began a national campaign to use St. Patrick’s Day as an opportunity to drive tourism and showcase Ireland to the rest of the world. Over a million people took part in Ireland’s St. Patrick’s Festival in Dublin, a multi-day celebration featuring parades, concerts, outdoor theater productions, and fireworks shows, while a half a million watched the parade.
The American Gregory’s will be there in all of their green glory and, more importantly, to revisit family in 2007.
Cheers,
Terry Gregory
Gregoryologist
Happy Holidays
November 30, 2006
Photograph of the Ben Oaks community pier on the Severn River.
Taken after the Great Blizzard of February, 2006.
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