Brolly put manners on the Kinvara tattle-tales?
Joe sent the K4 curtain twitchers home with their flat whites in their mugs
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I donât know that and neither do you? Also, there are a number of exceptions to the âruleâ, such as business, family reasons, and whether one is under restrictions in the US.
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Ah I get that he may have got off on a technicality 
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Not unheard of in the GAA.
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We nearly got turfed out of winning the all Britain final one year as the other crowd we had beaten appealed that we hadnât filled in the team names correctly (Iâd used the first initial rather than the full name on the , quite literally back if a torn envelope Iâd handed to the ref.
The only reason we didnât is they had brought on a sub in the second half (who was I suspect a senior IC player) who was, in fact, still in bed 100 miles away.
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Anyone got it on the parents coffee table?
Iâm time boxing 40 minutes in a hectic day for full analysis of this.
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Iâll throw it up for my Galway brothers
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Itâs heartwarming to see you extend the hand of friendship to Flatty after your recent tiff. Pure mule.
Glynnâs in a New York state of mind
Galway hurler has a very colourful sporting catalogue which could have a few more twists
DERMOT CROWE
Near the end of November, 3,000 miles away in his apartment in Yonkers, Jonathan Glynn watched Galway hurlers surrender to Limerick in the All-Ireland semi-final. At the end the sense of loss he felt was confirmation that the connection hadnât been broken by time or distance. He has heard of people who were once involved with teams nearly hoping theyâd lose and he could never fathom it. Some of those Galway players remain very close friends.
Glynn is 27 now, young enough to be still playing for his county, but he doesnât know if he ever will again. Last year a report circulated that he had formally retired. He says that no decision has been made in that regard, but realistically the prospects of him reappearing are probably remote. Last year he transferred back to Ardrahan but didnât get to hurl because of Covid. His last Galway appearance was in the defeat to Dublin in Parnell Park in summer 2019.
After returning home for matches for three straight years to play for his county, last season loosened that bond and left an absence. "I wonât lie,â he says. "It is hard watching them. When theyâre winning itâs grand, like when they bet Wexford (in the Leinster semi-final), itâs easy to watch that. But then in the Leinster final when they lost to Kilkenny, Jesus, youâre f***ing going mental looking at it. One thing I used always say, and I hated it, is when you are at the top and youâre winning everyone loves you, and then when you lose, everyone hates you. Thatâs why itâs hard to watch. Because you know the effort the lads have put in. And you know what is going to be said after the game. You see things when you are not playing, I might be reading more stuff, or seeing stuff online more so. Like I used to never watch any of that shite when I was playing.
"I have the âIrish boxâ so I basically have all the Irish channels. The neighbours downstairs might have thought Serena (his girlfriend) was getting lynched in the sitting room because I was roaring and shouting. But any game that Galway have been playing since Iâve been over here Iâd always watch it, be it football or hurling.â
Glynn went over with Serena a week after the 2015 All-Ireland hurling final loss to Kilkenny, with the intention of returning home the following April. The couple had gone to New York for the first time for her birthday a few years before, staying with his older brother Brian in Yonkers, and they were smitten. Since 2015 it has been their base, for how long more theyâre not sure.
They were due to get married on New Yearâs Eve, but that has been postponed until next December due to Covid. They plan to marry in Ireland, hold their reception in Athlone. But as of now, the future is New York. For most of his time there he has been employed as a project manager with TopLine Drywall, a company owned by two Leitrim men, PĂĄdraig McGourty and Johnny Kenny. Having played in two All-Ireland senior finals, and won an All-Ireland minor medal in 2011, he transferred and played with New York footballers against Roscommon in 2016.
Galway hurling was in the process of a divisive heave against Anthony Cunningham over the previous October and November. Cunningham brought Glynn into the senior squad in 2012 and put him on in the All-Ireland final replay against Kilkenny at 19, in which he scored a goal with a breathtaking top corner finish, the first of eight senior championship green flags.
"Ah there was a bit of stuff happening with Galway at the time, with the whole management changing and Anthony Cunningham, all that,â he recalls. "I would be the sort who just wants to hurl, I donât care about politics or anything like that. I just want to hurl. It was around Christmas that year I said, âDo you know what, I am going to take the year out because I just donât like dramaâ. I am as plain as you come. And when I was playing I just wanted to play. I never cared about any of these expenses or any of that shite, I just wanted to play. So when it came to the drama side of things I didnât want to be part of it. So I took the year out.â
In the months following the 2015 All-Ireland final, he returned on three occasions to play with Ardrahan as they successfully fought off relegation, a pattern of homecomings repeated later with Galway. He makes light of the commitment. "To be honest with you people would be talking to you and theyâd say, âOh how did you do it?â Itâs actually very simple. You know, everyone thinks itâs hard â itâs not hard at all. Sure everything was done for me. The hardest thing I had to do was to get to the airport. I was getting on a flight in New York, it was five hours home to Shannon Airport which is only 20 minutes to the door of my home house. And my father (Martin) was always there to pick me up. So by the time Iâd get off the plane, Iâd be lying in bed within 40 minutes. So it wasnât too bad. It sounds a lot worse than it was.
"I had the routine going well. I wouldnât even bring a bag. Just bring the passport. Get on the plane. Iâd sleep anywhere anyway. So Iâd sleep the whole way home, wake up and Iâd sleep for a couple of hours and I was sound.â
The travelling paid off. In 2017 Glynn managed to resume his Galway career, making three visits home, for the league final, All-Ireland semi-final and final. In the 1980s Gerry McInerneyâs trips from the US for Galway became a familiar part of the hurling summer. The game has changed. The standards and time commitments that apply now have made that kind of arrangement seem almost fanciful. But after taking over as Galway manager for 2106, MicheĂĄl Donoghue established a line of communication with Glynn with a mind to getting him back when the time was right.
In March 2017, Glynn had to return to Ireland to renew his visa. Donoghue asked to meet him. "We met for a coffee and a chat. Iâd never met him before properly and we chatted for an hour or maybe two hours and I remember saying to dad, whatever I need to do to make it work I am going to do it, because he was that sound, you know that sort of way? There was no hidden agenda with him. It was just whatever it was to help Galway to win he was willing to do it and that was it.â
The plan was to come back for the final rounds of the National League and the championship. He injured his knee playing for Ardrahan in the spring, then aggravated the injury in the league final when he was introduced against Tipperary. After an operation in Dublin he returned to the US and continued his rehab there.
He watched the Leinster final win over Wexford from a beach in the Dominican Republic, during a short holiday break. The next morning Donoghue was on the phone. He wanted him home for the semi-final. He came on against Tipp in the semi-final and started the final, before being replaced in the second half by Niall Burke. "I was absolutely goosed. Iâd ran out of steam by the second half. Ah look it, I was there.â
The prospect of playing at that level with limited exposure to training and matches didnât deter him. "Obviously the hurling wouldnât be good enough, because youâd be over here training, but I said what I could do was be stronger than everyone, because you can work on that, and be fitter than everyone. I remember in the league final I came on against Tipperary and I remember going on this solo run and I couldnât f***ing shake the lad that was running after me. And usually, not that Iâm the quickest, but Iâm not slow either. I had to hand-pass the ball away to Conor Whelan for him to finish because I couldnât get rid of your man. So I looked back on the game that week and I wasnât fat but I was awful big from the gym. I was just swelled. I had done so much gym work, I think I was up to 108kg, I was a crazy weight, it wasnât fat but I couldnât move. From there till the All-Ireland I was just training, training, training, I got my weight back down to where it was supposed to be.â
He converted one room of their two-bed apartment into a gym. "I was going to the running track, pitch, doing whatever I could. There was a ball alley nearby and I used to be down there and youâd have people looking at you wondering what is this lad doing against the wall, they wouldnât have a clue what it was. I was training with a football team. Ah itâs not the same but it was the best I could do at the time.
"I always say I was very lucky. Galway didnât win an All-Ireland because Johnny Glynn was there. Whatever age I live to I can thank three people: thatâs MicheĂĄl Donoghue, and my two bosses, Johnny Kenny and PĂĄdraig McGourty, to allow me to go over and back. I will always be indebted to the three boys. If it didnât work out that way, if any of the three had said no, it wouldnât have happened.â
That pattern continued for the next two years, including a fourth All-Ireland senior final appearance in the loss to Limerick in '18. One of the highlights of the semi-final win over Clare was Glynnâs goal in the replay in Thurles, when he stunned a high ball one-handed overhead, and finished with a one-handed whip under pressure from David McInerney. He is grateful to Francis Forde for the time he spent with him sharpening his touch on the ball wall.
On work sites around New York, Glynn meets people who know nothing about hurling or of his past life back home. Now and then someone more knowledgeable enlightens them. More than once theyâve gone looking for evidence online and unearthed the post-match interview from Thurles in 2015 after Galway defeated Cork in an All-Ireland quarter-final.
Having rampaged through the Cork defence that day with a dramatic solo goal inside a minuteâs play, Glynn was cornered by RTĂ after the match, still trying to catch his breath, vast quantities of vaseline smeared over his eyebrows. Whatâs this about Galway having only one forward, he was asked? "Ah itâs f***ing bullshit,â he blurted, the adrenaline racing, before realising that he was before the nation and swiftly apologising.
"'Twas a stupid question and it got a stupid answer, put it that way,â he says now, adding that he has "maturedâ since then.
It is impossible to tell what this year will bring. Last year he became a selector with the New York football team, managed by Gerry Fox, although the coronavirus meant the season never took off. They were due to face Galway in the Connacht championship. In March he and his girlfriend both tested positive for Covid but made quick recoveries. He can still work in New York now but there are restrictions on bars and restaurants with only outdoor dining allowed. "At the minute it could be minus eight degrees outside,â as he says, "sure who wants to have a pint in minus eight degrees? But there is an awful lot of stuff still open compared to what Iâm hearing back home in Ireland.â
His most recent visit home was for Christmas 2019 and the main objective at the moment is for him and Serena to extend their visas, a procedure also slowed by Covid. On this particular Sunday in late January he is after completing a practice session in his latest exercise venture, jujitsu. With little GAA activity in New York until spring, even in normal times, that has been keeping him busy.
"I picked it up a year ago and Iâm flat out at that. Iâd be getting choked out of it every day of the week but I still want to get better. One of my bosses PĂĄdraig McGourty is good at it. Two lads heâs friendly with, Kevin McGeeney and Kieran Rogers, theyâd always be saying come down, you should try it out. One day Kevin came and literally brought me down. Thatâs a year ago and I love it. Training four or five times a week. If I ever have kids the first thing theyâll be doing is jujitsu.â
Why? "Ah everything. Itâs also great to have a bit of self-defence. I was two hours up there this morning. Going around fighting different lads.â
In late 2019 he ran his first marathon, the New York version, after only a short time training, and followed up with the Philadelphia equivalent three weeks later, each completed under four hours. It adds to an interesting sporting catalogue. On the wall of the living room is a picture of the family, the father Martin, mother Kathleen, brother Brian, sister Laura and himself after the match against Roscommon in 2016.
His older brother Brian has made his own sporting mark, winning a novice heavyweight title in the Ring Masters Championship (formerly known as New Yorkâs Golden Gloves) in 2018 after taking up boxing only a year previously. "His friend Matthew Tinker brought him training one day with the boxing club Matthew trains,â Glynn explains. "Matthew recently turned pro and has a record of 5-0.â
He talks with genuine delight about the victories heâs been part of as player and trainer, though not widely known outside New Yorkâs GAA community. Those contemplations are no less enjoyable han when he talks of the obvious career pinnacle, the Celtic Cross from 2017. "I was back in New York on the Thursday or Friday (after the 2017 final) and all I wanted to do when I got back was turn off my phone and go into a room and lock the door and watch a film. I was well burned out from the drink. For me it was unreal because it was something that maybe 12 weeks before it I wouldnât even have thought would have happened. I was watching the Leinster final from a different country. I was just grateful to be there, to be part of it.â
And seeing Galway recently fall to Limerick, All-Ireland winners now two years out of three, he is asked if he feels his county can reach the summit again. The short answer is yes. He has total faith. "With a few minutes to go it was level and Joe (Canning) went off injured, and Cathal Mannion went off in the first half and they were big losses but we were still there or thereabouts. You were never a million miles away, even the years we were bet, you were not a million miles away. But I suppose nearly doesnât mean f**k all, you either win it or you donât.â
And himself? Never say never. The last thing you expect is a predictable finish.
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Solid as fuck⌠A lovely mix of South Galway and North Galway blood.
Decent article. Only 27âŚ
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Heâs a rare entity in the modern era of self obsessed flutes playing Gah.
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Are you Babs Keating?
We are ALL BABS KEATING.
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Johnny is a gent. I dunno is this true but allegedly he was one if the very few that stuck up for Cunningham in winter 2015. You can tell heâs the type that will never forget a good turn done on his behalf.
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I just want to hurl. It was around Christmas that year I said, âDo you know what, I am going to take the year out because I just donât like dramaâ. I am as plain as you come. And when I was playing I just wanted to play. I never cared about any of these expenses or any of that shite, I just wanted to play. So when it came to the drama side of things I didnât want to be part of it. So I took the year out.â
Marathons, Ju Jitsu, shitting out COVID overnight. Johnny reminds me of that Tommy Tiernan joke about his mate, Declan Moffitt from Glenamaddy.
Some character is Johnny. Pure old school.
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