Midlands 103 and Mountmellick man Brian Moss looks back on the week that was.
That Dreaded Sunday Feeling
There was a time – long, long ago – when it was the sound of the Glenroe theme tune on a Sunday night that gave us that dreaded Sunday feels.
Whether we were heading back to school or work in the morning we can all relate to that sick in the stomach feeling that the appearance of Miley and Biddy on our TV screens would invoke.
But thanks to the shambolic communications between NEPHET and the government this week it’s now the sound of my Twitter feed that gives me the Sunday shivers.
Collectively we’re stressed out enough with pandemic overload and we don’t need the added stress of misinformation about potential lockdowns.
Hopefully the leaked reports of potential increased restrictions late on last Sunday night will be a one time thing and the return of the nation’s collective comfort blanket Tony Houlihan will lead to more sanguine Sundays heading into the winter and at least prevent our stress levels from getting to Level 5!
Grudging Respect To The Mountain Men
Ok, so cards on the table here.
Anytime I played against Clonaslee-St Manman’s as a player – regardless of age group – I hated it!
As physical as you get with no pullback. Win, lose or draw you felt it. I know from talking to folk from other clubs over the years it was an opinion held by many.
Clonaslee are the Bond villains of Laois GAA and like all good Bond villains they are no strangers to applying the dark arts.
Falling foul of the authorities is no big deal to the men from the mountain (they finished the last two intermediate finals with 12 men on the field after all!)
But just being in your face and walking the thin line between right and wrong isn’t enough to win trophies. And they have shown that despite the house devil there is a street angel aspect to their play too.
When they focus on this part of their game they really are something and with players like Niall Colbert on their books they should have a better chance of staying at the top table of Laois football this time around.
So it is an admittedly begrudging respectful doff of the cap to the club on claiming their sixth intermediate football title last weekend.
They’re a club that can at times be hard to like. But in a strange way, they’re very hard to hate too.
Amo Abu and maybe DeJa Vu?
Elsewhere on the football field it’s the mighty Emo who are most definitely worth a mention in our weekly review, knocking out the most dominant club in the county by beating Portlaoise for the first time in nearly 50 years in a winner takes all match.
Now I’m not generally one for omens or signs but the last time Emo did knock out Portlaoise in championship football they only went on to win the whole thing! Could it be a case of DeJa Vu? As they’d say themselves, ‘C’mon on Amo now!’
For Portlaoise the conveyor belt may have slowed in recent years but no doubt it won’t be long before they’re raising the trophy again.
As the curtain comes down on their present reign it’s worth noting their unbelievable run and some of the football they played at times over the last decade and more has been truly scintillating.
The news that the GAA have postponed games indefinitely hopefully won’t fully derail what has been the most exciting football championships in years.
Fox in the Box … or maybe Kitchen
And just when you think the week couldn’t get any weirder !
There I was sitting down with my evening cup of tea watching the news across the water and up pops a news report about a fox found in the kitchen of a young woman’s home in the UK.
Ordinarily, my ears wouldn’t have pricked (fox-like) but it turns out that the woman in question was none other than Laois’s own Mary Phelan.
Camoross native Mary, a former journalist with the Irish Farmers Journal, is more used to reporting the news than being in it after she tweeted a picture of a fox she found loitering in her UK home where she now lives and works.
Her furry friend was found hiding underneath the kitchen table and has been christened Freddie due to Mary’s love of Made in Chelsea.
The story was picked up by ITV News and other major news outlets and low and behold Mary and her Fox have gone viral – the right type of viral that is!
The Nortona Virus
Before your eyes roll and you shout out loud ‘No please not another Coronavirus story, I just can’t take it’ – relax it’s viruses of the computer kind that made the news this week.
Turns out that Ireland’s own Graham Norton is the most dangerous celebrity to search for online when it comes to attracting dodgy computer viruses.
The chat show king was named McAfee’s ‘Most Dangerous Celebrity 2020’ by the anti-virus software giant so be warned!
Although there are worse things to be surfing the web for late on a Friday night … I’m told!
You can catch Brian Moss on Midlands 103’s The Late Shift on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights from 10pm to 12 midnight and Saturdays on The Saturday Beat from 5pm to 9pm.
