In a notable but probably humiliating first for JOE.ie, today’s Hospital Pass attempts to introduce a new phrase to the lexicon of the Irish male.
Here at JOE, we like to hang with the youth. Or “yoot”, as they say on the streets. We know. We’ve been there. Every day on our way into the sanctity of our airy offices on Merrion Square.
Anyway, the yoot of the day are prone to the odd exclamation of “OMG”. But that’s a bit girly, no? And it’s also influenced a bit too much by our Yank or British cousins, we feel. So let us propose a new acronym, just for us Irish and just for us lads – WHG.
It was made famous all those years ago in Glenroe, by someone as manly and Irish as anyone in the history of this great little country, Miley Byrne himself.
So when we say that JBM (Jimmy Barry Murphy) is on the verge of being appointed as the new Cork hurling manager, we can holler as one: WHG (Well Holy God).
JBM was a great hurler. He was a great footballer. He was a great manager, and he’s a great man.
But all that greatness is unlikely to be enough to elicit a title challenge in Cork, where they’ve slipped behind Dublin as the GAA’s best dual county for the first time since before anyone can feasibly remember and they haven’t won a minor or U21 All-Ireland in hurling since around about 1886.
Still, when the Cork County Board meets to ratify the recommendation of the appointment committee next Tuesday week, it’ll be great to have JBM back.
Something you don’t hear every day: Donegal set an example
For years, when Donegal’s footballers were talked about at all it was to bemoan and lament the lack of discipline. These lads were fond of a sup, it was said, presumably by teetotallers who never let a drop past their lips. Or not in public, anyway.
This year, though, things have come full circle. We’ve no doubt they, er, enjoyed a bit of a toast to the county’s first Ulster football title in 19 years when they got the better of Derry last month.
But when the hard work has needed to be done, they’ve done it with gusto. And hard work on the training field is something manager Jim McGuinness is fond of, according to the Mayo club footballer in this particular office who’s just about over that training session Jimbob took charge in the general Kiltimagh area last year.
All that means the Donegal of 2011 are a shining example to every other county in the county. Dumped out with their tail between their legs last year, a trait that applies to about three-quarters of counties in the country every summer, they’ve bounced back to stand on the brink of another All-Ireland final appearance.
Joe Kernan, the former Armagh manager, has been impressed. Referring to that qualifier defeat to his county in 2010, he said, “They looked likes fellas who couldn’t wait to get out of there. They had taken Down to extra-time in the Ulster championship a few weeks earlier so you’d expect them to be all fired up for the qualifiers but, instead, a lot of them looked as if they couldn’t wait to be out of the championship.
“Armagh beat them by nine points and, in reality, it was a humiliation for Donegal. Fourteen months later, most of those lads are back as Ulster champions and in with a decent chance of reaching the All-Ireland final. It shows that if you do the right thing, you never know where it might take you.”
Donegal setting the standard for discipline? WHG, indeed.
