It’s a great game when you’re winning but someone has to lose

Last weekend I was part of the Saffron Gael team who covered all the football, hurling and camogie finals in Antrim and like my fellow colleagues I got great satisfaction in helping to record these moments in history that will still be there after most of us have gone.

A former friend-now sadly deceased once said to me at a game “PADDY, IT’S A GREAT GAME WHEN YOUR WINNING” and while I didn’t quite realise the impact of that statement at the time I have come to see what he was talking about over the years.

The joy and happiness and great sense of club and community can be best witnessed after a club has won a county title after the game, as their supporters and fellow club-members race onto the field to greet their heroes and fellow club members after the game.

These celebrations are more profound when a club hasn’t lifted a county title for a while and on Saturday I had the privilege to attend such finals and the celebrations that followed them.

Because of space restrictions that accompany reports I am publishing some of these celebration photographs on their own for the enjoyment of the spectators of Glenarm and Ahoghill and offer my congratulations to those clubs on their weekend achievements.

Shane O’Neill’s Glenarm