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THANK GAA IT’S FRIDAY

Thank GAA It's Friday Michael meehan Image Name: Thank GAA It's Friday Michael meehan
THANK GAA IT’S FRIDAY Cormac Ryan longpuc Image Name: THANK GAA IT’S FRIDAY Cormac Ryan longpuc
Thank GAA It's Friday Image Name: Thank GAA It's Friday

The August Bank Holiday Weekend is on the way but Loosehorse Television’s Thank GAA It’s Friday won’t be taking a break with the next programme out on Friday, August 1 at 8.30 on RTÉ Two.

The show’s creators bring to you the complete weekly GAA package; containing characters,  games, fascinating stories and communities both at home and abroad.

This week top inter-county referee Brian Gavin offers a unique insight into his big match day with a fascinating access-all-areas diary. Our cameras meet him first at his home in Clara on the morning of the All-Ireland SHC quarter-final between Tipperary and Dublin, which he took charge of, following him throughout the day, including onto the pitch and into the dressing-room on one of the biggest days of the GAA calendar so far.

On the weekend of the fabled All-Ireland Puc Fada competition in Louth’s Cooley Mountains we caught up with Dublin Under-21 goalkeeper Cormac Ryan as he attempted to defend his Dublin crown recently. Ryan suffers from a serious heart condition that requires him to wear a pacemaker and he has defied logic – and doctors’ orders – to continue to play hurling, the game he loves.

In the rest of the country dual players are virtually extinct and even in Cork, which is their natural habitat, they are an endangered species. But the likes of Aidan Walsh and Eoin Cadogan are showing that this rare animal may have a future. They face a couple of busy weeks with a football quarter-final and hurling semi-final coming fast. We talk to the men who have done it in the past, managers who have tried to handle players juggling two codes and an All-Ireland winner whose son now has a foot in both camps. It takes a superhuman effort to play inter-county hurling and football in this harshest of environments and players need understanding managers – but all of these legends agree that everything has to be done to ensure the dual players’ survival.

Also in this week’s show we look back at the storied 2008 All-Ireland SFC quarter-final between Kerry and Galway when the heavens opened and the scores poured. Michael Meehan is amongst the players from that special occasion who recall the Tribesmen’s last quarter-final visit to Croke Park