DEAR Santa, I’ve been a good boy this year—well, mostly. I’ve cheered, I’ve groaned, and I’ve written more words about GAA than I care to count. So instead of socks and selection boxes, I’m asking for something different: a few gifts for the game we love. After a rollercoaster 2025, here’s what I’m hoping for in 2026.

IRISH literature has a long tradition of producing writers who capture the mood of the times that we live in. Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels is a classic searing satire of Georgian Britain’s greed and moral bankruptcy. In every era writers have emerged from Erin’s shores as voices who have been able to chronicle the experiences of a generation and articulate their concerns.

THE rumble of two stomachs demand that lunch be taken and where better than our scheduled stop at Mullaghmore Harbour? On the everlasting entry road, we pass three identical cobs leaning over the stone wall at the perimeter of their field, there are rabbits ahead and we park by seagulls at the water’s edge.

WITH the Provincial Championships now wrapped up and the All-Ireland group stage in full swing, the 2025 intercounty football season has already delivered its fair share of drama. The draw has been made, the first round is half-way complete, and if recent results are anything to go by, we’re in for a rollercoaster summer.

TWO games into the league and it’s been so refreshing—the rules have really given football a boost