TG4 series looks at 125 years of GAA

GAELIC GAMES:THE MEDIA and guests were only given a sneak preview of TG4's 10-part documentary to be screened in conjunction with the GAA's 125th anniversary celebrations, but it was enough to realise a momentous collection of stories has been gathered.

It starts on Sunday after TG4's live match, with repeats every Friday at 9.15pm.

Not to be overstating it, but this really looks like essential viewing for anyone with even a remote interest in the GAA's impact on the Irish consciousness since Michael Cusack gathered the founding fathers in Hayes hotel back in November 1884.

Scripted by GAA author Eoghan Corry, the documentary draws extensively from "newsreel, film and television archive." Working in chronological order, the first programme entitled Like a Prairie Fire, charts the association over its first 25 years.

It represents a lesson in history and social history, with contributors including Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh, Mickey Harte, Mick O'Dwyer, Maurice Hayes, Liam Griffin, historian Marcus de Búrca, Taoiseach Brian Cowen and top GAA officials including outgoing president Nickey Brennan.

Brennan, in his role as a Kilkenny hurler, appears briefly in the story of how Fr Tommy Maher breathed life back into his native county's hurling scene back in the 1970s.

Commissioned by TG4 from Nemeton productions, the series also received support from the BCI Sound and Vision Fund and the European Media Fund, making it one of the largest-scale television documentary projects produced in Ireland last year.

Speaking at yesterday's launch, TG4 head of sport Ronán Ó Coisdealbha spoke of the direct competition with Setanta Ireland for the upcoming live coverage of the national league fixtures.

"Setanta are showing games on four Sundays. What'll happen is TG4 will have first choice pick and then we'll have a deferred match. Let's say if it was a double Sunday of Allianz football and hurling leagues we would pick a match, be it from the football or hurling leagues, Setanta would pick a match and then we'd have a third choice, which would be our deferred game.

"Because all games are starting at half two TG4 will have a live match at half two and then a deferred match at four."

Meanwhile, The Irish Times, in conjunction with the GAA, will publish a 64-page magazine commemorating the 125th anniversary of the association on Friday, January 29th.

Dublin football manager Pat Gilroy has named a second management team in a week to walk the line in the O'Byrne Cup quarter-final against Wicklow at Parnell Park on Sunday. Under-21 manager Jim Gavin will take charge of a team made up of under-21s and the development squad that surprised Offaly last Sunday in Tullamore.

The Dublin senior football management and players have exspressed their sympathy to player Elliott Reilly on the passing of his mother recently.

DUBLIN: D McDonnell; C Moore, G O'Connell, D Daly; J Cooper, C Deasy, D Lally; J Sheanon, D O'Mahony; D Kelly, C Morley, J O'Brien; C Carthy, D Rock, T Furman.