On the Ball proved to be a great success for Westmeath club Mullingar Shamrocks...

The poster advertised an evening of GAA discussion and craic and that was what was delivered in style, colourful and uncensored in the Greville Arms Hotel on Saturday night from the superb audiovisual introduction (well done Paul Aherne) to the final words of the evening delivered by a brilliant MC, Michael Duignan, who got the best out of his panel on the night. We had stories galore from the man who stole the show, at his flamboyant best John Mullane ('There's too many fellows talking shite in the GAA'), Joe Brolly (Mickey Linden made me feel like the white man in the 100 meters race'), Bernard Flynn, Dessie Dolan and Michael Duignan.

Conor Moore of Conor's Sketches fame stepped on to the stage after the interval and introduced several more experts to the evening's craic. Some of those present were also given an opportunity to see and hear themselves as others saw them.  Bernard Brogan, Davy Fitzgerald, Ger Loughnane, Colm O'Rourke, John Mullane (Conor really has to work on that Waterford accent!), Bernard Flynn, Harry Redknapp, Joe Brolly and Conor's famous uncle Ned were given a gallop on the Greville stage. No legend in his own mind was safe from Conor's unique talent.

In between the craic and the stories about hard and not so hard men and wild Dungiven hurlers (Joe Brolly is the proud winner of three Derry senior hurling medals),  there was some serious discussion on the present and future state of the GAA; John Mullane regretted the disappearance of characters and identified the reason for this trend: 'there's not enough lads in the GAA who will speak up' and then entertained the audience with the story of his protest on the  '30 sets of gear for 40 lads training' as he returned to the Waterford panel after a winter break. Joe Brolly has no doubt that 'we must put the club back in the center of the GAA' and warned against allowing commercial interests to set the agenda. There was a fantastic opportunity for the GAA to set out a community-centered policy and attract commercial backing to support this. The GAA must set the agenda. Bernard Flynn suggested that the association was careering out of control and it's leading officials were at a loss as to how they might regain control.  

Joe Brolly also remembered that famous day in Fermanagh in 1994 when Westmeath, the rank outsiders, defeated the reigning All-Ireland champions Derry in the National Football League ('one of the best day's crack we ever had') as he teased Westmeath supporters with the suggestion that 'Fellows set themselves up in business on the result of that match and boys went to Harvard to study '. Sports psychologists took a bit of a hammering from John Mullane and Joe Brolly while Dessie Dolan and Bernard Flynn spoke of the unique motivational qualities of Sean Boylan and Paidí Ó Sé. Michael Duignan announced that he was bit unfair to Barry Kelly with his 'a referee that doesn't understand hurling' and apologized for the  comment made some year ago. It was that kind of night.    

The atmosphere was electric all-night as members of the Mullingar Shamrocks family and their friends and supporters flocked into the Greville, Pearse Corroon was honoured for his fifteen years of chairmanship, Declan Claffey won the tickets for the Ed Sheeran concert, Karen Hegarty, the bottle of Dingle Whisky and Joe Brolly spoke passionately on his Opt for Life foundation dedicated to raising the awareness of organ donation.  The logo will be worn on the Mullingar Shamrocks jerseys in the season ahead and the Mullingar Shamrocks club made a donation to the foundation.

Well done to all concerned; it was a great team effort and the great night's entertainment and the positive vibes spilling out of the Greville Arms Hotel made it all worthwhile.

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