Hello and welcome
to this week’s Ireland’s Own All-Ireland Finals Special 2025.
It’s that time of the year again when we can look forward to two mouthwatering All-Ireland Finals and it has been an exciting Championship run, in both codes, so far. This year we lost one of
the greatest names in GAA history with the passing of Mick O’Dwyer. Seán Creedon pays tribute to the much-loved Kerryman and recalls his relationship with fellow countyman, Páidí Ó Sé.
We have lots of different and interesting memories from our sporting history for you. John Scally recalls the day British forces opened fire on those in attendance at a challenge match between Dublin and Tipperary in Croke Park on 21st November, 1920; Aidan Grennan writes about the All-Ireland Final of 1955 between Dublin and Kerry … those who witnessed it will never forget, and N.E. Pierce remembers seeing Hopalong Cassidy and his horse, Champion, on the field at Croke Park. We have many more GAA memories as well. Vincent Murphy tells the story of how he met the new Pope in Tipperary!
The diary she wrote while hiding from the Nazi army during World War II remains an “important human document” and has been published in over seventy languages, writes Mary M. Moloney as she tells the story of the tragic life of Anne Frank. Paul Clarke recalls how two people lost their lives when a savage storm hit Ascot Racecourse in July, 1955.
Grammy award-winning, international chart-topping music legend LEO SAYER chats to Ireland’s Own ahead of his upcoming summer concerts, while Harry Havelin remembers the Dublin printing strike of 1965. In his Golden Age of Hollywood Comedy series, Mick Jordan looks at the life and career of Buster Keaton.
On July 13th, 1985, a charity music event took place on two different continents that was the brainchild of Ireland’s Bob Geldof. On its 40th anniversary, John Scally goes behind the scenes of Live Aid.
Brian Kennedy is one of Ireland’s great ambassadors of music. He is a magnificent songwriter and interpreter of lyrics, and his vocal talent is gifted from Heaven. From harmonising with ambulance sirens as a child in the Falls Road in Belfast to his success today, he tells Maxi about his survival against the odds by introducing us to the songs that were important to him at the time. As he launches his nineteenth album and stars as Oscar Wilde in the musical ‘Moonlight’, he shares his story through the prism of music.
Monthly columnists Mary Kennedy, MIchael Lyster, Eddie Lenihan, Eddie Ryan and Alex Dobbs return with more musings and words of wisdom, while Kitty the Hare and Miss Flanagan are back with more stories for you to enjoy. There is plenty to do in Owen’s Club for our younger readers, while Don Conroy teaches you how to draw.
June McDonnell has the latest Irish country music releases, Maolsheachlann Ó Ceallaigh has another story in his Irish Priests series, and Stephen Ryan invites you into his ‘Comics Club’. Henry Wymbs and his friend select their Gaelic Football Team of the Millennium while we chat to Dubliner Tom McGlynn, the Riverdance star who also became a big star on children’s TV with ‘The Wiggles’.
Who was the oldest Irish person? asks Colm Wallace; Hannah Huxley writes about the magic of The Burren, and Don Baldwin takes us on a tour of ‘Brian Ború Country’.
We have all this for you to enjoy alongside regular favourites such as Cassidy Says, Dan Conway’s Corner, What’s In Your Name?, puzle page, monthly word maze competition, Watching the Detectives (Simon and Simon), Bookshelf, thanksgivings and classifieds, jokes, penfriends, The Films of Elvis Presley, Spouses of Irish Presidents, songwords and much much more. Plus we launch our Writing Competition 2025 which you can once again enter online through our website.
I hope that you enjoy this year’s All-Ireland Finals Special, and I will be looking forward to catching up with you all again next week. Until then, take care.
Best wishes, Seán Nolan, Editor, Ireland’s Own
