Harry Connell was laid to rest last Wednesday. Yet another from an extraordinary era of Galway and Connacht rugby to pass on to better things. He served Rovers RFC the best possible. Rovers Rugby Club from the Claddagh first played competitively in 1899, enjoyed much success in the 1930s but it was in the 1950s that Harry Connell and the club excelled.

Sadly, by the season 1969/70 the club had gone out of existence. The fifties were good for Rovers and for Harry Connell. Rovers played in the Connacht Junior Cup Finals of 1947, 1949, 1950, 1952, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957 and 1958. They won many of them and Harry played in most of them. Rovers were a unique lot. They were mostly dockers and in the thirties they had their own clubhouse on South Park at Nimmo's Pier looking across at the docks where most of them worked. The Dockers Band gave great energy and colour to rugby and many others occasions in the town. The diminutive Harry had a great strut about him right up until his death. He was 85. When he walked the well worn path from the Claddagh to town over Wolf Tone Bridge he displayed the jib and gait of a scrumhalf and a good one too. There was no mistaking that. The image stays in the mind with his black cap and jacket, the colours of Rovers RFC! Rest in peace Harry Connell.
Written by Ralph O' Gorman

THIS is a tale of father and son and it begins at the McGeady family home on the southside of Glasgow and with a video tape that in 10 minutes tells you so much about the making of Aiden McGeady.
It was filmed in the early 1990s when he was eight, when he sat before the camera of aspiring film-maker and friend of his dad's, Malcolm McKissock, and spoke about his life's dream, how he would like to play for Celtic (and then for Liverpool), how he loves John Collins and Pierre van Hooijdonk (because they take great free-kicks) and how great his dad is (because he's there all the time and watches him play).

There is glorious footage of the boy performing on a red dirt track in the Gorbals, a slow motion film of him weaving his way through the traffic of a seven-a-side game for the Govanhill Cubs, a slaloming run and a thing of beauty that finishes with him rolling his foot over the top of the ball to deceive the goalkeeper before calmly passing into an empty goal.

Then there is John, the father. John is on the film, too. But he's not looking to the promise of tomorrow like Aiden. He's thinking about the what-might-have-beens of his past. He's talking about his own time in football, his departure to Sheffield United at 16, his terrible homesickness, his five years as a winger and his injuries that left him with a busted knee-cap and a broken career in his mid-20s. Mostly, he is talking about his father, about the problems they had, about the lack of interest he displayed in John's own football life. When you connect it to the close bond between himself and Aiden, the poignancy and relevance of it is obvious.

From a distance John might appear as another example of a man trying to live his life through the glory of his son's success. No doubt people have said that at some stage but that is not the case. All he's tried to do is steer his boy clear of the problems he himself encountered.

John switches off the video tape and talks about his old man. "Until about five years before his death I never really spent much time with him," he says. "Himself and my mum were raised within a few minutes of each other in Gweedore in County Donegal and my father was a typical product of his generation. He was a tough boy, not given to sentiment. He didn't really take an interest in my football, didn't really understand the game to be honest. Years later I found out that when he was down the pub having a few pints with his mates he'd talk about me, he'd tell the lads how I was getting on. I never knew this. He'd talk about me rather than to me. He was probably no different to many other fathers in those days."

Is it any wonder that John has been there every step of the way for his own boy? Hardly.

The sense of pride in his son's career is huge. Last weekend John visited his mother in Donegal. The family went down to the local hotel to watch Celtic play Aberdeen and they smiled their way through Aiden's performance. He has never played better, Gordon Strachan said as much. This week he will face a bigger and better challenge when Barcelona arrive in Glasgow. Word has it that Aiden is more than a little excited at the prospect.

John tells you they've had some right barneys in this very room we're sitting in. "I'm very honest in assessing his performances. Always have been.

"We go through it after every game and I don't go easy on him because I don't think that's the right thing to do. He's not going to do everything right in every game so what's the point in pretending. Oh, we've had some discussions, put it that way."

Theirs has been a hell of a journey. He tells you all about the interest from down south, the expeditions to the top clubs in England for trial matches, Liam Brady's pursuit of his signature for Arsenal and the disbelieving words of other youth team coaches. There was one time at Everton when a development officer from Goodison Park invited McGeady down for a game, prefacing the invite with some ca

Things culchies love
01 : A nice bit of ham.
02 : Buttered biscuits.
03 : Diggin' Houles.
04 : Saying it's too cold to snow
05 : Pretending to know about The Ra.
06 : Tayto Cheese & Onion
07 : Pretending they're in The Ra.
08 : A stretch in the evenings
09 : Lucozade
10 : Accordians
11 : Pretending to like Holy Week.
12 : A dinner dance
13 : Gettin clattered in muck.
14 : Shania Twain.
15 : Heifers
16 : Spittin in their hands before doing anything manual.
17 : Steel toe caps.
18 : A big bowl of carrots & parsnips.
19 : Eating sangwiches out of the boot of a car at GAA
20 : Saying someone's 'Opened a Book' on something.
21 : The smell of fresh dung.
22 : Slice-Your-Own Loaf.
23 : Work Clothes.
24 : A bottle of mineral.
25 : Fightin'.
26 : Puttin on a ganzee to stop them from bein foundered.
27 : 'The' Hurling/Fitball.
28 : Being overweight.
29 : Weemin wha resemble Heifers.
30 : Saying "Aaah" after taking their first sup of tae.
31 : Drink driving.
32 : Red diesel.
33 : The Fear of Change.
34 : A nice bit of barn brack.
35 : Lying.
36 : Building walls.
37 : Being starved with the cold rather than with a lack of food.
38 : Pretending to like mass.
39 : Talking about shite like Flax and the Corncrake.
40 : A good blackthorn walkin stick.
41 : Shouting 'Yeeeeeoooo' when something good happens.
42 : Muhammad Ali.
43 : Machinery.
44 : Strange uppy-downy walks.
45 : A good f**kin read of Ireland's Own.
46 : Gelling their 1cm fringe tight to their forehead.
47 : Scandal, as long as it's about other people.
48 : Turf, because Sentirl heatin's for weemin.
49 : Soda farls.
50 : Sponge 'n Custirt.
51 : Newmerica', and anything to do with it.
52 : Givin the dog the wildest baytins.
53 : Givin the wife the wildest baytins.
54 : The Ra.
55 : Winning a leg of lamb in a raffle.
56 : Wrecking the house whilst steaming.
57 : Club Orange.
58 : Rubbing their hands together before tucking into their dinner.
59 : The Foot & Mouth.
60 : Aetin' a big feed of spuds.
61 : TK Red Lemonade.



Things DUBS love....


01 Aslan
02 Heroin (See 1)
03 Stealin'
04 Joy-ridin'
05 Saying 'Yaknowwhorrameyan?"
06 Shamrock Rovers
07 Social welfare
08 Keyin' Cars
09 Pop Idol
10 Wearing belly tops over their pale, flabby stomachs
11 Calling people 'Bud' who are not their bud
12 Compo
13 Calling people 'Pal' who are not their pal
14 Shortening words and adding the letter 'o' (Anto, Decco, Corpo)
15 Calling people 'Boss' who are not their boss
16 John Player Blue
17 Burberry
18 Burglary
19 Fair City
20 Celtic shirts
21 'Taches
22 Fireworks every night for the entire month preceeding Halloween
23 Sky Digital
24 Saying "I didn't bleedin' do tha'!"
25 Travelling in packs
26 Moochin'
27 Swearing at their babies
28 Getting their mot's preggers
29 Champion Sports
30 Christmas Lights you could see from space
31 Skippin' school
32 Skippin' bail
33 Giving their kids Monster Munch and Maltesers for breakfast on the bus
34 Standing in queues outside the dole office
35 Funtasia
36 Iceland - the food chain, not the country
37 Man U
38 Saying, "That's not my bleedin' job!"
39 Pushing prams while smoking
40 Earrings (for guys)
41 Earrings a chimpanzee could swing off (for girls)
42 Saying "He didn't do nothin'!" when he clearly did do something
43 Baseball caps
44 Sawn-off Shotguns
45 Adrian Kennedy Phone Show
46 Picking up unfinished cigarettes dropped on the street by someone else just after coming out of a medical centre (as God is my witness)
47 Shop-liftin'
48 Tamangos
49 Not payin' the bus fare
50 Curry Chips and a burger
51 Leaving their kids play outside on a busy road while they get hammered on a Sunday afternoon
52 Always following the word 'rich' with the word 'wanker'
53 Pulling their hoodies over their heads as they're led away from the Four Courts