Hello and welcome to this year’s Ireland’s Own All-Ireland Finals Annual.

The hurling final has come earlier this year, and hence the reason we are bringing you the Finals Annual a couple of weeks earlier than usual.

Our cover story features an interview with the legendary voice of GAA commentaries for over six decades, Mícheál O Muircheartaigh. Seán Creedon hears how even though the widely loved Kerryman has hung up his microphone, Gaelic games still hold a huge place in his heart.

In his piece, ‘The Man They Could Not Hang’, Denis J. Hickey writes how John Lee looked the hangman in the eye and lived to tell the tale. Brendan Landers brings us the tale of ‘The Irish Flying Legend of WWII’ Brendan tells the story of Dubliner Bill Wallace who was shot down during WWII.

The Irish National Teachers Organisation is 150 years old, and Paul Craven takes a look at its history. In the Tragedy of the Wilde Girls, Terry Corrigan recalls the tragic story of Oscar Wilde’s half-sisters.
Johnny Cash played Folsom Prison 50 years ago, and Jim Devereux recalls how the country legend made the jailhouse rock.

Robert B. McNeill shares the story of the The Big Grey Man of Ben MacDhui that reportedly roams the Scottish mountains. The ‘Year of the Three Popes’ was 1978, when three different Popes reigned, writes Billy O’Riordan.

Jim Rees takes a look back at the famous Louvre theft in August, 1911, when the Mona Lisa went missing, while June McDonnell pays tribute to Kenny Rogers on his 80th birthday.

Kitty The Hare is back with another chilling tale in ‘The Secret of the Haunted Pool’, while Miss Flanagan is trying to crack the case of the missing ring.

Your regular monthly features are all in there including Stranger Than Fiction, Eddie Ryan’s Monthly Sports Column, Health Advice from Alex Dobbs, Stories Behind the Songs, The Saints series, American/Irish Gangsters and the conclusion of Anthony F. Hughes’s ‘Battles of the American Frontier’ series.

We have two new series for you on the Museums of Ireland, and Great Irish Inventors. We also have lots of GAA memories, songs, short stories, puzzles, jokes, pen pals and competitions. Enjoy the read, and the build-up to what should be two very competitive and entertaining All-Ireland Finals, and I’ll look forward to talking to you again next week. Take care.

                                                                                                              Best wishes,

Seán Nolan, Editor, Ireland’s Own