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THANK GAA IT’S FRIDAY

Thank GAA It's Friday Beijing GAA Image Name: Thank GAA It's Friday Beijing GAA

The first of the football semi-finals takes place on Sunday in Croke Park with Mayo taking on the summer’s surprise package Tipperary.

Peter Acheson, one of the leaders of Tipperary’s amazing journey, joins us to talk about the
Premier County’s march on Croke Park. In a year where many of Tipp’s footballers were
unavailable for selection, Acheson has delayed a pending emigration to Dubai to captain his
county in a historic semi-final. Can Tipperary achieve the impossible and join their hurling
counterparts in an All-Ireland final?

Of course, a Tipperary win would probably still not be the most famous day the county has had in GAA HQ. In 1920, during a challenge match between Tipperary and Dublin, 14 people lost their lives on what became known as Bloody Sunday when British officers opened fire in the stadium. We speak to Sunday Times journalist and author of ‘The Bloodied Field’, Michael Foley about that fateful day. And we are also joined by Tony Nolan to speak about his father Mick, who was a member of the Tipperary panel that day.

We also look back at some famous days in Mayo’s storied Croke Park past. Heartbreak and Mayo have gone hand in hand in the capital but there have been sunnier times as well. We take a look at days when it has gone to plan and the fans have hit the road with smiles on their faces. They’ll be hoping for a similar experience on Sunday.

In honour of Tipperary’s success this year, we cast our mind back to recent times when other
counties were the story of summer. We spoke to Seamus Quinn about Leitrim’s run in 1994,
James Sherry takes us through Fermanagh’s 2004 campaign and Redmond Barry details how
Wexford made the All-Ireland semi-final in 2008.Can Tipperary go one step further than their underdog counterparts and reach the big day in
September?

We also caught up with the Beijing GAA team who competed in the World Games last week. A total of 87 teams from 20 countries travelled to Dublin last week for a festival of Gaelic Games. Colm Walsh, who coaches the Beijing side, talks to us about the developing passion for the GAA on the other side of the world.

The programme is repeated on Sunday August 21st on RTÉ One at 2:10pm.

Twitter: @ThankGAA

Email: ThankGAA@loosehorse.ie