Tag Archives: manchester united

YOU could not imagine sitting Denis Irwin and Pete Boyle at a table together and for them to be still talking long into the night hours later. Irwin’s quiet man image doesn’t tally with Boyle’s propensity to break into a Manchester United themed song at any time of the day or night. Irwin, who played for United for 12 years, Gary Pallister and Boyle, a legendary fan, were guests of the Clare branch of the Manchester United Supporters Club at the Auburn Lodge Hotel, Ennis last Saturday. Up to 300 people attended the insightful and entertaining evening, with United fanatic Boyle acting as master of ceremonies. At one point, Irwin told a story about a pre-season tour of the Isle of Man, long before he joined United. He returned to the team hotel at 3am, following a night out but was unlucky to meet his then manager emerging from the hotel bar. Irwin revealed that the lesson he gleaned from …

By Peter O’Connell TWENTY-FIVE years ago this week, 96 Liverpool supporters lost their lives at Hillsborough, during the 1989 FA Cup semi-final between the Merseyside club and Nottingham Forest. Former Leeds United, Manchester United and Irish international, John Giles, who was in Sixmilebridge last Saturday to launch Bridge United/Leeds United Schoolboy Soccer Summer Camp, was in Sheffield, working with RTÉ, on that dark day. “We were doing the match live. From where we were watching it unfold, initially it didn’t look serious at all. The game was going on. I just thought it was a bit of crowd trouble,” the RTÉ soccer panellist told The Clare Champion in Sixmilebridge. John’s son was at the game supporting Liverpool, although he was not injured in the tragedy. “In those days, there was a lot of crowd trouble anyway. It didn’t look like anything but it turned out to be a dreadful tragedy. I have a son who went to a lot of …

AN app designed by a North Clare man is getting international attention after being endorsed by Premiership soccer scouts and shortlisted in a UK technology competition. Sports Tagger, which enables sports coaches, scouts and analysts to assess the performance of individual players and teams, is shortlisted alongside Sky Sports, Wilson and Adidas in the inaugural Sports Technology Awards. Longford-born Eddie Crowe has lived in Lahinch since 1998 and has been involved in local sports clubs since. As a coach, he found analysing and critiquing players’ performances was not easy without evidence, so he developed an app, which he is hoping will revolutionise performance evaluation in a variety of sports. Mr Crowe said the app was endorsed by Dave Hobson, chief scout with Manchester United and that he is now in talks with an international company about integrating his Sport Tagger app with technology packages aimed at sports teams across Canada. “As a coach, my objective was to provide an app …