Tag Archive: All Ireland

All Roads Lead to Croker

By our Donegal Rose, Mary Crawford.

All roads lead to Croker this weekend as Mayo and Donegal battle it out for All-Ireland glory. It’s 20 years since I stood in the Canal End watching Donegal win the county’s first All-Ireland against Dublin and, like a lot of Donegal fans, I didn’t think it would be 20 years before we would be back. But, thanks to a transformation brought about by Jim McGuinness, Donegal are flying high again. After our victory over Cork, the media pundits called us virtually unbeatable and now Mayo are the underdogs, (a position I suspect Jim McGuiness would much rather be in going into Sunday’s match).

Expectations are running high in both counties – it’s a sea of green and gold at home and sources tell me Mayo is decked out in a similar fashion. As the excitement mounts, there’s been some great stories of fans attempting to outdo each other in terms of celebrations. Just this week, a crack squad of Mayo supporters scaled Donegal’s highest mountain and planted their county’s flag on the summit in retaliation for a similar stunt by Donegal politician, Joe McHugh.

As the scramble for tickets continues, one thing is certain, Sunday’s game promises to be a great match. Hopefully, come Monday, we’ll all be humming Jimmy’s Winning Matches!

Friday Round Up

The race for the Áras is hotting up as David Norris relaunched his bid to be the next President of Ireland this week while Sinn Fein have just announced Martin McGuinness as their candidate.

Big sporting weekend ahead with Ireland taking on Australia in the Rugby World Cup tomorrow morning and the All Ireland Football Final in Croker on Sunday.

Earlier this week, Dublin Zoo welcomed the first hippo calf to be born there in 10 years. We’re included one of the lovely pictures released this week.

The latest edition of the Guinness Book of World Records has just been published. We’re delighted to see that Today FM’s Shave or Dye record made the book but the oddest would seem to be the woman whose fingernails measure 10ft 2inches on her right hand and 9ft and 7inches on her left hand – no speed typing or her!

We’re hooked on X Factor again this year! We’re just hoping that time will be as good to us as it has been to Gary Barlow!

Friday Round Up

- Here’s to Arthur – the second year of Arthur Guinness day went down a treat, highlights included Paolo Nutini, Imelda Maye, Westlife, Black Eyed Peas and much more

- Twitter was hacked this week by a 17 yr old Australian who found a glich in the system and wanted to see if he could hack it using JavaScript

- Cork footballers won Sam back after 20 years

- An Post unveiled four commemorative stamps featuring irish Showbands heros such as Dickie Rock and Joe Dolan

- The National Ploughing Championships took place in Athy, Co Kildare this week. The horrible weather didn’t deter the crowds.

Friday Round Up

- The Brian Cowen Saga shows us how important it is to be in top form for a media interview!
- Its a case of North v South with Tyrone taking on Cork in the Minor and Down taking on Cork in the Senior Football Final in Croker on Sunday
- We were very disappointed to hear that this will be Cheryl’s last year on The X Factor in the UK after signing up to be on the US version of the show with Simon Cowell.. I’m sure the Americans will love her just as much as we do!
- Sacha Baron Cohen is to play Freddie Mercury in a movie about the singer’s life, we think its a good choice but what do you think?
- Some exciting new developments at Nokia World this week, including the unveiling of Nokia’s latest Smartphones
- One of our favourite movies here in Elevate is The Hangover which was directed by Todd Phillips. We were very excited to see the trailer for Todd’s new movie Due Date starring Robert Downey Jr and The Hangover’s Zach Galifianakis.. It’s not out until November in the States so we’ve a bit a wait but we’ve no doubt it will be worth it!

Friday Round Up

* Delighted to see Tipperary winning the All Ireland last weekend– will the U21 team have the same success this weekend when they play Galway in Semple Stadium?

* We’re big fans of Imelda May here in Elevate and were delighted to hear that she has made history by being the first Irish female to have two albums in the top five. Her new album, Mayhem has gone straight in at number 1 with her debut album, Love Tattoo making a welcome return to the charts and is now resting at number 4!

* The end of an era – love it or hate it Big Brother will finish for good tonight – Brian Dowling is a firm favourite with the Elevators to win the show and is the bookies choice aswell – Who wins, you decide..

* They’re not going anywhere so we just have to get used to them – Jedward sign a lucrative deal with Nintendo – Fair play to them – could they be the new Ant & Dec???

*Job done for Ireland in the Aviva on Tuesday evening with a 3-1 win over Andorra – three great goals by Ireland and it has to be said a good goal by Andorra aswell.. Don’t think Shay will be Given a starting spot for Man City any time soon though…

Friday Round Up

Pretty quiet weekend ahead for the Elevators… Not!

We have a strong Tipperary contingent here in Elevate so we’re hoping for victory in Sunday’s All Ireland final against Kilkenny…. we know the cats will be a challenge but we’re feeling very positive

Electric Picnic is taking place this weekend in Stradbally.. two Elevators are trekking down (going by the rucksacks anyway!) Hope the weather holds up.. it would be nice to have sunshine at it for a change.

Sad news this week with the passing of Mick Lally… It was always Where in the World, Glenroe then bed in our houses every Sunday evening growing up.. Our sympathies go out to his family and wide circle of friends

Today FM’s Ray D’Arcy Show celebrated 10 years on air this morning – it was a lovely show reminiscing with guests including Ray’s Mum, Mary, Dara O’Briain and Dustin the Turkey.

Back to school means good weather… and we are loving it! We will, however, come in from the sunshine to watch the X Factor on Saturday – the auditions are our favourite episodes.