Remembering Joe

IN the words of a popular song “there’s a time to remember — a time to recall” and the people did that in their thousands at the funeral and burial of the late, great Joe McDonagh yesterday (Tuesday) and Monday, as well as since news of his untimely death filtered through on Friday night.
Joe, who never forgot his early days in Lavally, Cortoon, Connemara and later in Ballinderreen, was central to one of the most iconic moments in Galway hurling when he gave a rousing rendition of The West’s Awake from the steps of the Hogan Stand in Croke Park as his team mate and friend Joe Connolly lifted the McCarthy Cup for Galway, for the first time in 57 years, on a sunny September evening in 1980.
Once again on a sunny evening, this time on Monday in Barna, as Joe McDonagh’s casket was before the altar in the church, Joe Connolly sadly walked out the door afterwards and quietly talked about another iconic moment which had been hidden from the public on the final day of their training in Athenry for that 1980 All-Ireland.

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