Association President Criostóir Ó Cuana has called on members everywhere to engage with their local clubs next Sunday.

Clubs have been encouraged to celebrate the GAA’s century and a quarter anniversary by organising events within their communities which underline their importance to their respective areas.

A variety of different initiatives have been organised by units with a special emphasis on games, culture and community on a day when no club fixtures have been scheduled.

The GAA President, who is a Youghal clubman, joined forces with Ard Stiúrthoir Páraic Duffy and Iar-Uachtarán Nioclás Ó Braonáin to shine a light on their own club allegiances and he urged members everywhere to make a special effort to ensure that Sunday is a memorable day that places our clubs – some of whom are also celebrating their 125th anniversaries – at the heart of the Association’s 125 calendar.

He said: “Our home club is where it begins for us all and for that reason it occupies a special place in us all. It’s where we are first introduced to the games and it very quickly assumes a badge of identity that in many cases comes second only to our family allegiances.

“Sunday is all about highlighting the incredible work that our clubs do in every community in Ireland and re-affirming the place of the club at the very heart of the organisation.

“Some of our older club units are also celebrating their 125th anniversaries, which is testament to the massive and long standing contributions that they make to the fabric of the communities they interact with and serve so well.

“I acknowledge the superb work overseen by our volunteers in clubs everywhere and hope that the GAA will be as well served by its members in the years ahead as it has been since its inception back in 1884.”

Tipperary may have pushed their greatest rivals, Kilkenny, at the home of hurling on Sunday, but Liam Sheedy has admitted it was tough to see the league title slip away.

However, the Tipperary boss took plenty of positives from the Sunday’s match and they should wipe away any memory of Kilkenny’s 17-point hammering of the Munster champions at Nowlan Park earlier in the league.

“It was surreal out there afterwards because people were saying ‘well done’ but we lost a league final,” the former Premier County corner-back admitted.

“We are very disappointed. We had chances. We got the goal to put us 16-8 up and 30 seconds later it was 16-11 and that was critical.”

Sheedy added: “But the lads dug in and you can’t fault them for that. All I asked them all week was to leave everything on the field and that’s what they did as a group.

“I’m so proud to be involved with such a group of lads - they’re a privilege to work with and to train.”

Kilkenny hurling chief Brian Cody says he is unlikely to have any of his walking wounded available for Sunday’s National Hurling League final against Tipperary in Thurles.

Cody’s Cats are looking to regain the league crown that has eluded them for the past two years as they have been scything through all challengers in the championship. However, influential full back Noel Hickey, as well as midfielders James ‘Cha’ Fitzpatrick and Derek Lyng, have been missing for some or all of the campaign and while they are on the mend, Cody says the Cats will have to do without them again against the holders.

“Noel Hickey’s situation hasn’t changed too much really,” Cody said of a player who has been making his way back after a groin operation.

Speaking at Wednesday’s Allianz press conference ahead of the final, the six-time All-Ireland winning manager added. “He sat out the league but came through and played a match last week, which is great news for us but obviously Noel’s a long way away from inter-county hurling still.

“Derek Lyng, likewise, sat out the league and he is recovering from a hip operation and making good progress, but he hasn’t played any match anywhere yet.”

On Fitzpatrick, who did make a fleeting appearance in the league game against Dublin, Cody was most sympathetic after a bout of the mumps and subsequent after-effects ruined the brilliant midfielder’s year to date.

“Cha was out for a long, long time with sickness. He came on against Dublin and played a full match again at the weekend so he is working his way back.

“The mumps took a huge amount out of Cha to be honest and as he was recovering then he picked up a post-viral infection again as well which flattened him again for a few more weeks.”

The absence of defender John Dalton and the recent knock picked up by the in-form Richie Power - a goal glut against Cork just one of his superb showings so far this season - have added to Cody’s selection problems ahead of the clash with Liam Sheedy’s men, but the manager is happy to get on with who he has at his disposal. The Cats are rarely a team short of quality back-up and Cody says he will not be looking to arrange any extra games for his injured stars as they look to close on their returns.

He continued: “Richie Power is unfortunate. He picked up a hamstring injury a few weeks ago and he is definitely going to be out a few more weeks with that.

“John Dalton has been out for the last while with sickness but he has worked his way back again and played a full match at the weekend, so things are not too bad but we still are going to be short some players.”

“The club scene is back in action and we rely on whatever training we do ourselves. We don’t usually play too many challenge matches to be honest.”

When asked if any of the aforementioned might get a run-out against Tipp, Cody resigned: “Probably not.”

The small Tipperary village of Grangemockler takes centre stage in the GAA’s 125^th anniversary celebrations on the weekend of May 16/17.

A weekend of events is being organised by Grangemockler, the home club of Michael Hogan who was buried in the village following the events of Bloody Sunday 1920.

The celebrations start with a commemorative mass in memory of Michael Hogan which will take place in St Mary’s Parish Church in Grangemockler at 7.00pm and a wreath-laying service directly after mass.

A historical talk on the history of the GAA and the events of Bloody Sunday will also take place on Saturday evening at 8.30pm in the new Sports Hall.  Speakers include historians Vincent Comerford, Prof. Paul Rouse & William Murphy.

The highlight of the weekend’s activities takes place on the Sunday with a commemorative plaque to Michael Hogan being unveiled by Uachtarán Chumann Lúthchleas Gael, Criostóir Ó Cuana at 6.00pm.

Two exciting challenge matches take place either side of the unveiling with a football match between great rivals Kerry and Dublin at 4.30pm. Jack O’Connor and Pat Gilroy will again lock horns following their recent exciting league draw. The second match between Brian Cody’s triple All-Ireland winners Kilkenny and Liam Sheedy’s Tipperary will commence at 6.30pm.

These two matches come at a crucial time for teams that find themselves at an advanced stage of their championship preparations and the respective management teams will be anxious to put the finishing touches to their championship line ups.

Admission to the games is by cash payment, adults €15, senior citizens €10 and under 16’s free of charge.

A great weekend is promised for young and old with the emphasis on the pride and passion of club and community which is central to the ongoing success of the GAA.

Always the master of understatement and as cute as fox, Brian Cody has dismissed suggestions that his Kilkenny side has brought hurling to a new level.

Speaking at an Allianz press conference in Dublin on Wednesday, Cody, the six-time All-Ireland-winning manager, repeatedly refuted the notion that his current crop of players has raised the “bar” to a standard no other county has been able to match.

Kilkenny face Tipperary in the Allianz NHL One final on Sunday, and the Premier County manager, Liam Sheedy, certainly subscribes to the thesis that the four-in-row seeking Cats are way out in front at the moment.

“It’s high, and everybody knows it’s high,” said Sheedy of the so-called “bar”.

“I’d have huge respect for Kilkenny and the way that they are playing at the moment.

“The challenge for me, and the challenge for the three of us here [Colm Bonnar, the Wexfprd boss and Joe Dooley, the Offaly manager] – we are all going to face them, the two lads are going to face them in the Leinster Championship, and I’m going to face them next Sunday – is to get up there.

“We can’t expect Brian [Cody] and Kilkenny to come back down and meet us. We have got to try and get up there and for us in Tipperary it is about playing them as often as we can and measuring ourselves against them, because you have got to play the best. That’s what next Sunday is about.”

However, Cody played his counterpart’s comments, suggesting that Kilkenny had in fact been lucky to go through their league campaign unbeaten.

He also stressed the improvement in the standards of Leinster hurling thanks to the rise of Dublin under Anthony Daly and the inclusion of Galway and Antrim in this year’s provincial championship.

Cody says the old order of hurling superpowers remains untouched, adding that his seemingly infallible team will be beaten if they allow their impeccable standards or seemingly unrelenting desire to be compromised this year.

“The bar thing is haywire, as ever. There is the usual top hurling counties in the country and that hasn’t changed – absolutely hasn’t changed,” Cody said.

“Waterford beat us in the league, we scraped a win over Limerick, Dublin were definitely as good as us. We had a freak day against Tipperary in the first-half, in the second half we were outscored by Tipperary I’m pretty sure.

“The Galway thing was a whole different situation with their lack of preparation due to a whole new team management and selectors, everything on the day for the first time.”

“The bar hasn’t moved - this mythical bar hasn’t moved since the start of the league suddenly.”

He added: “When we are really competitive we are in with a chance of winning matches. If we are the slightest bit off, if we are the slightest bit down, we are very beatable. That’s where we are.

“You don’t have to jump very high to get over this bar, I can you tell you that much.”

Tyrone sharpshooter Stephen O’Neill is desperately hoping to be fit in time for his side’s Ulster opener.

The All-Ireland champions take on provincial crown holders Armagh in five weeks’ time in an eagerly-anticipated clash and O’Neill, who made a late cameo for the Red Hand last season after being away from the panel for much of it, could struggle to make it.

O’Neill missed nearly all of Tyrone’s National Football League campaign with a knee injury and his treatment has not been as positive as had been hoped, but manager Mickey Harte is hopeful he can still be ready in time to face Peter McDonnell’s charges.

“Stephen is not ruled out of Armagh,” the Tyrone boss was quoted as saying by The Irish Star.

“The knee injury he picked up in the Dublin game is proving more difficult to get rid of than he had hoped.

“He is working on it and he joins us from time to time. He has to manage it and that’s what’s going on at the minute. In my opinion, he would still be available for the Armagh game. I’d be very hopeful that he would.”

Meanwhile, Tyrone talisman Brian Dooher is also in a battle to be fit for the game on May 30 as he continues his recovery from the groin strain that saw him miss all of the NFL.

Dromore defenders Sean O’Neill and Cathal McCarron, who were given straight red cards against Moy at the weekend, could be banned for the Armagh tie if their suspensions ruun for beyond four weeks.

Tipperary have suffered a massive blow with the news that brothers Eoin and Paul Kelly will play no part for them in Sunday’s NHL Division One final with Kilkenny.

Brilliant forward Eoin has not featured at all in the Premier County’s league campaign to date with a long-standing back problem keeping him sidelined.

He had been expected to tog out for club Mullinahone in a divisional championship match at the weekend but this never materialised, though Tipp claim he is just being rested with the Munster SHC meeting with Cork at the end of May in mind.

Fellow attacker Paul injured his hamstring when Liam Sheedy’s men last met the Cats in a league hiding in March and he too will miss out in Thurles.

Elsewhere, Conor O’Mahony, Paul Curran, Shane Maher and Gearoid Ryan are all fitness concerns for Sheedy ahead of the clash with the All-Ireland kings.

Kilkenny, meanwhile, have better news ahead of the final after Noel Hickey and James ‘Cha’ Fitzpatrick had run-outs at the weekend.

The awesome duo have been long standing injury absentees, full back Hickey having had a groin operation earlier this year, while midfielder ‘Cha’ had been laid low by the mumps.

However, Hickey played for Dunnamaggin at the weekend, while the midfield man lined out for Ballyhale Shamrocks and both came through the game unscathed, with Fitzpatrick, at least, a likely starter against Tipp on Sunday.

Cats defender John Dalton also had a run-out at the weekend, taking to the grass for Carrickshock after a bout of glandular fever.

That legend that is handball ace , Paul Brady, has not surprisingly secured his place on the team which will represent Ireland at the World Handball Championships in Portland, Oregon next October. The Cavanman will also be in action in the Irish Open Doubles trials this weekend.

Brady pairs up with long-time partner, Michael Finnegan but will have to fend off some tough competition if the Breffni duo are to become Ireland’s official Men’s Open Doubles team for the World Championships.

“We’re trying to respond after our recent loss in the All-Ireland Doubles Final and this will be a real test of character for us,” said Brady.
“We’re taking it one step at a time and getting through this weekend is our priority for now.”

The Cavan duo won the World title in 2003 but were defeated by Cork’s Tony Healy and Dublin’s Eoin Kennedy in the 2006 final. Kennedy and Healy are seeded one in the trials but with Healy carrying a leg injury which badly affected his performance last weekend, it is difficult to see the 2006 champions coming through these intense trials.

Mayo pairing, Dessie Keegan and Joseph McCann, who recently defeated Finnegan and Brady in the All-Ireland Senior Doubles Final, will also be among the top favourites but McCann has also been hampered by injury in recent weeks.

In the Ladies Open Doubles trials, there will be some exciting encounters as World Champion, Fiona Shannon and sister, Sibeal, go to battle with a talented field of new pairings. Antrim’s Aisling Reilly links up with Kerry’s Maria Daly in what looks to be the strongest opposition the sisters will meet, while Roscommon’s Marianna Rushe and Kildare’s Anna Wrynn will also provide a tough opposition for any pair.

It’s a brave  manager that would leave a player of the calibre of Eamon O’Hara on the bench for a National League final, but Sligo boss Kevin Walsh has opted to do exactly that by keeping former All-Star in reserve for Saturday evening’s NFL Division Four final against Antrim at Pearse Park in Longford.

To be fair, O’Hara has been carrying a leg injury, but could be used from the bench as the Connacht men look to defeat the Saffrons with a side much changed from their win over Wicklow last time out.

With their place in the final already secured, Walsh opted for an experimental line-up that day, but has reverted to a more familiar card for the decider against the Ulstermen, with Philip Greene returning in goal.

Noel McGuire, Michael McNamara, Jonathan Davey, Tony Taylor, Sean Davey, David Kelly, and Adrian Marren are all also back in the team, but talented front man Mark Breheny is not yet ready to get involved as his recovery from a groin injury still has a way to go.

However, supporters will be expecting an appearance from O’Hara, particularly if they hit troubled waters during the match- and even if they don’t! Surely, this wonderful player is due an appearance and possibly a grandstand finish to a distinguished career with the Sligo men with a League title to show for it.

Sligo (SF v Antrim): P Greene; C Harrison, N McGuire, R Donavan; M McNamara, N Ewing J. Davey; E Mullen, T Taylor; S Stenson, A Costello, S Davey; D Kelly, K Sweeney, A Marren.

The GAA are certainly going all out to celebrate their one and a quarter centuries of existence. Some weeks ago we had the incredible fireworks display at the start of the league campaign at Croke Park. No harm in that, but one must ask the question about the cost of all this and the possibility of funds being literally burned that could be used to promote the under-age game.  As a tool to promote the game, the 125th Anniversary certainly helps put the spotlight on the Association in a year when other sports vie for the attention of the youth of Ireland. Rugby, in particular, is regarded as a big threat to the ability of the GAA to capture the best of the young talent. The incredible sucess of the Irish and Munster/Leinster teams in 2009 makes the task, especially in urban areas, all the more difficult.

It is fine to celebrate our GAA history as long as it not at the expense of the future of the code.

Nonetheless, continuing the 125th Anniversary celebrations, the GAA Museum and Sports History Ireland will host a one-day history conference in Croke Park on Saturday 25th April.  Leading social and sporting historians from Ireland and overseas will participate and explore the history of the GAA and its place within Irish society.

Saturday 25th April 2009

Speakers will discuss a range of topics including the ancient origins of hurling, the life of Michael Cusack, the GAA in Ulster and amongst the Irish diaspora, the GAA and politics, the GAA in film and photography, the GAA and the Irish language, the socio-economic background of players and the question of the GAA’s relationship to amateurism.

The conference will close with the launch of a collection of fourteen essays, The Gaelic Athletic Association, 1884-2009 (Irish Academic Press, 2009) by the President of the GAA, Christy Cooney.  The essays, published by Irish Academic Press, have been edited by Mike Cronin, William Murphy and Paul Rouse.

The conference has been organised by Sport History Ireland in conjunction with the GAA Museum in Croke Park and the GAA 125 Oral History Project, based in Boston College, Dublin.

Tickets are available to purchase from the GAA Museum in Croke Park - Adult €15, Student/Senior €10. Admission price includes tea/coffee at registration. Lunch not included.  Please note that booking is essential.

For more information and booking please contact -
Selina O’Regan
GAA Museum Education Officer
Tel – 01 819 2361 or Email – soregan@crokepark.ie
www.gaa.ie/museum

GAA 125 History Conference
Saturday 25th April 2009
Croke Park Conference Centre

09.30 – 10.00: Registration in the GAA Museum

10.00 – 11.15: Hurling in Medieval Ireland
A.B. Gleason (Princeton University)

Riotous proceedings and the cricket of savages: football and hurling in early modern Ireland

Eoin Kinsella (Royal Irish Academy)

Michael Cusack: Sportsman and Journalist
Paul Rouse (UCD)

Commentator - Cathal Mac Coille (RTE)

11.15 – 12.30: “The Greatest Amateur Association in the World”? The GAA and Amateurism

Dónal McAnallen (O Fiaich Library Armagh),

The GAA in Ulster
David Hassan (University of Ulster)

Gaelic Games and the Irish Diaspora in the United States
Paul Darby (University of Ulster)

Commentator - TBC

12.30 – 13.30: Lunch

13.30 – 14.30:The Camera and the Gael: the Early Photography of the GAA, 1884-1914 Mark Duncan (Boston College-Ireland)

Gaelic games and ‘the movies’
Seán Crosson (NUI Galway)

Commentator - Stuart Ward (Visiting Professor of Australian Studies, UCD)

14.30 – 15.45 The GAA and the Irish Language
Brian Ó Conchubhair (Notre Dame University)

The GAA during the Irish Revolution, 1913-23
William Murphy (Mater Dei)

The GAA: Social Structure and Associated Clubs
Tom Hunt (Mullingar)

Commentator - TBC

15.45 – 16.00: Break

16.00 – 16.45: Roundtable Discussion - The GAA and Irish History
Mike Cronin (Boston College-Ireland)

Richard Holt (International Centre for Sports History, DMU)
Gearóid Ó Tuaithaigh (NUI Galway)
Mary Corcoran (NUI Maynooth)
William Nolan (UCD)

17.00: Concluding remarks and book launch by President of the GAA, Christy Cooney.

Mike Cronin, William Murphy and Paul Rouse (eds.), The Gaelic Athletic Association, 1884-2009 (Irish Academic Press)