Doherty restored

Alan Doherty is glad to be back in the thick of the action, rather than watching Louth's progress in the Leinster senior football championship from the stands, a situation which arose last year when he admits to feeling "drained and tired" from combining soccer and Gaelic football commitments. Doherty, however, has been able to plan his sporting involvement far better this season, and consequently is restored to the Louth attack for Sunday's provincial championship encounter with Wicklow at Drogheda.

"I missed out on playing in the championship last year for the first time in five years, and it made me hungry to get my place back," he says.

Louth have been the Leinster bridesmaids for the past three years - beaten in three successive semi-finals - and Doherty believes there are again high expectations in the county.

"In a way, we're a bit like some teams were in Ulster, just waiting to make the breakthrough. We're aiming high again this year and we believe we can be there or thereabouts," claims Doherty.

"We've trained hard for three months for this one match, and if we perform to our full potential, then we can do the job," says Doherty. The winners of the Louth-Wicklow match will face Meath in the Leinster semi-final on June 28th.

Meanwhile, as the GAA prepares to discuss Rule 21 of the Official Guide, a prominent Tyrone GAA official has called on delegates not to delete the rule.

Sean Begley, the Sinn Fein chairman of Cookstown District Council, has called on delegates attending tomorrow's special congress in Dublin to "postpone the decision to such time as the whole issue of policing is addressed".

Begley, in a statement issued yesterday, claimed that "players and supporters of Gaelic games are continually harassed and intimidated" by the Northern security forces, and claimed that only last weekend "in Tyrone we had an RIR checkpoint set up outside the entrance to a GAA club while that club was hosting a match".

Begley claimed that Rule 21 was "not sectarian" but "a valid expression of the anger felt by thousands of GAA people in the North".

Down's GAA clubs last night voted by 65 to 35 to retain Rule 21 as it exists.

Some of the country's top footballers will be in action over the bank holiday weekend in Comortas Peile na Gaeltachta which this year is being staged in Falcarragh, Co Donegal. TnaG is providing live coverage of the senior semi-final on Sunday (7.30) and of both the junior and senior finals on Monday, starting at 1.30 p.m.

The competition is one of the longest-running club competitions with an inter-county basis and draws teams from each Gaeltacht region.

????an Og de Paor and Sean O Domhnaill (An Cheathru Rua) and Kerry's Dara O Se and Dara O Cinneide. TnaG's decision to broadcast the competition live is part of its continuing commitment to GAA coverage.