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 Matthew Macklin All Tipperary eyes will be on Matthew Macklin’s middleweight quest to become a World Champion, when he fights Uruguayan Rafael Sosa Pintos , at the National Boxing Stadium in Dublin on December 5th next.
Macklin’s fame has risen rapidly in the last year with two quickfire wins over his Birmingham rival Wayne Elcock and Finn Amin Asikainen, the former having been won in the third round, the latter in the first.
His opponent Sosa Pintos, the Uruguayan champion, has 34 wins from 38 bouts, but the last year has not been as good to him. Two of his four career defeats have come in the last five fights since November 2008. However he appeared to bounce back in August by knocking out fellow Uruguayan Wilson Enrique Galli in the seventh round to claim the vacant national title.
Macklin, a Birmingham born Irish professional boxer, Dad came from Roscommon and Mother came from Tipperary, last fought in Dublin in March 2008 when he beat Yory Boy Campos on points at the National Stadium.
Matthew Macklin is also a talented hurling player in his own right and represented Tipperary, in hurling, at all age levels up to Under 21 at Inter County level. Macklin is still a close friend of leading hurler Eoin Kelly and attends hurling events such as the Poc Fada and other GAA events when Tipperary are involved. With Boxing however, he is not taking anything for granted but he is keen to replicate his UK form for an Irish audience.
Macklin’s is now at the right end of WBO, IBF and WBC rankings, at fourth, fifth and eighth respectively and has a European defence against Russian Federation’s Dmitry Pirog organised for sometime in the New Year.
 It has been announced that tomorrow’s planned race meeting at Thurles will be subject to a 7.30am precautionary inspection of the course by Irish Turf Club Officials.
Due to the recent and prevailing wet weather, race officials considered it prudent to check the course. Cancellation however is not expected as the course is currently OK ,with ground described by inspectors as heavy.
Following the abandonment of the Thurles Race Meeting on November 19th, this expected Thursday’s meeting will now form part of a two-day fixture, with the first race scheduled for running at 12.30pm tomorrow.
Meanwhile, following a course inspection by Irish Turf Club Officials at Naas this morning, the course was found to be unfit for racing due to heavy water logging.
As a consequence of this inspection, all races scheduled for today were cancelled.
Thierry Daniel Henry’s double hand passing of the ball to French team mate William Éric Gallas, which resulted in that all important extra-time goal, was a cruel and devastating blow to Ireland’s World Cup hopes last night.
While publicly, Henry may claim his double handling of the ball was accidental, the truth remains, he is privately aware that this act in sealing Ireland’s fate last night, was simply blatant cheating.
 Giovanni Trapattoni For all his genius over the past decade, Thierry Henry, must now join a list of sporting greats that will be forever remembered more for that one moment of disgrace, than for the myriad of graceful moments with which he was previously recognized.
It is a shameful day for the game of football when something like this is allowed to happen, in full view of the eyes of the sporting world and the officials of the international governing body of football.
The cowardly, greedy and gutless guardians of the sport themselves must now be called to account. Is not the pursuit of fairness in football a FIFA ideal and is it not high time this governing body stood by their principle of fair play and act now?
Surely, if you’re trying to run the largest sporting event in the world, and the purpose of the event is to find out who is the best football team in the world, then you must ensure, no guarantee, that the officiating of such an event is to a standard which puts the future destiny of each team in the hands of each players ability. The truth would appear however that FIFA wanted Portugal and France to go through on financial grounds and FIFA’s dream has now been fully realised by turning a blind eye to blatant cheating by France.
Video film does not lie, France’s captain had handled the ball, not once, but twice. While the first time might have been forgiven as a pardonable reflex action, the second handling was clearly intentional. Not only was France’s national pride at stake, but also for FIFA was tens of millions of euros.
Fédération Internationale de Football Association’s (FIFA) 10 Fair Play Rules
Continue reading FIFA And UEFA Shame On You
 Denis Maher of Thurles Sarsfields in action While events to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the GAA may have come to an end, there is at lease one further associated event yet to come in the Co.Tipperary GAA calendar, which should not missed.
This event is a truly exiting exhibition of photographs, which will go on show in the Tipperary Institute on Thursday next the 19th November at 8.00 pm. The exhibition is part of the overall 30th Anniversary celebrations which mark the founding of GAA club Dúrlas Óg .
This exhibition will feature a large collection of photographs taken over the years, many of which have never been seen by the public and which will also depict many of the winning teams since 1979.
One of the highlights to be featured in this exhibition will be prints by the Thurles accomplished club photographer Mr. John O’ Loughlin LIPF, from his own private collection.
In 1979 Dúrlas Óg came into being, born of the frustration of committed followers of Gaelic games, who, rather than simply criticise the lack of interest in hurling and football among the youth of Thurles, set about lighting their own candle to beat the impending darkness.
Since its foundation in 1979 this club has gone from strength to strength and one of it’s latest developments was the opening of the Pat Staklum Memorial training facility which incorporates Astro Turf and Hurling wall.
This interesting new exhibition will be opened officially on Thursday night by former All Star Hurler, Eddie Enright and is an event not to be missed by true lovers of both Gaelic games and photography.
A quiet plot at Deansgrange Cemetery in Dublin gives no clue as to whose final resting place it might be, let alone the role this Tipperary man previously played in changing the course of this country’s sporting history.
 Thomas St George McCarthy Cup. The occupant of this lonely spot, for the past 66 years, is none other than Tipperary man Thomas St George McCarthy, who with possibly thirteen other men gathered in Thurles’s, Haye’s Hotel, Co Tipperary on that day, 1st of November in 1884, for that inaugural meeting of the GAA. Thomas who died at the age of 80 in 1943, because of reduced means, would have no headstone afforded him, to mark the grave he bought for himself, while still living.
While fellow founders names like J. K. Bracken, Maurice Davin, Michael Cusack of Cusack Stand fame and patron Archbishop Thomas Croke are referred to by the GAA as household names, McCarthy lay with nothing to prove his personal legacy to the Irish Nation.
Why you ask? The answer is simple, Thomas St. George McCarthy, born at Bansha, Tipperary was an Irish Rugby Union International player. Born son of a Kerry man who was a former Revenue Police Lieutenant, RIC County Inspector and a Resident Magistrate, who worked in Tipperary and resided in Bansha, Thomas McCarthy himself was a District Inspector of the Royal Irish Constabulary based at Templemore, County Tipperary. His involvement in the GAA is particularly notable because in a later period there would be a ban for many years in the GAA on people who played rugby, cricket and soccer (Rule 21) from joining the Association and this ban would also apply to members of the British police and armed forces.
McCarthy moved to Dublin from Bansha in 1877 and became a close friend of Michael Cusack, sharing Cusacks dream. He was coached by Cusack for his RIC cadetship examination in 1882, in which he took first place. He joined the Trinity College University Football Club in 1881 and was capped against Wales in 1882. In the same year he won the Leinster Senior Cup with Trinity. His involvement with the GAA was brought about by the belief that this new initiative would encourage young men onto the sports field and away from the consumption of hard liquor.
He had a great love of hurling, and was a regular attender at matches including Croke Park to which he travelled from his home in Ranelagh,Co. Dublin.
However, plans are now in train to redress this injustice and the GAA propose to erect a commemorative gravestone at Deansgrange, which is to be unveiled in November 2009.
The two police forces in Ireland, the Garda Síochána (South) and the Police Service of Northern Ireland (North) have already honoured McCarthy by introducing the Thomas St. George McCarthy Cup for competition by members of the Garda and the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).
Perhaps it’s now the correct time for Tipperary, Templemore and Bansha to honour him also, before the year runs out.
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