FRANK BRANDON ... A memorable night in the City of the Tribes as local stars honoured

Our man Frank on a memorable night at the Connacht Rugby Awards; Venting his frustration (again) at what he considers to be lenient court sentences… and in praise of nature…

It’s six o’clock on Saturday evening last, and even though Carol and I are only up in Galway, we might as well be in a different world.

We are in the City of the Tribes to attend the Connacht Rugby Awards Dinner in the Galmont Hotel, and although the meal is timed for 7.30 pm, by the time we arrived the place was absolutely hopping.

We had booked a Big O taxi to pick us up at our accommodation, which thankfully was a family member’s apartment – as a night in the Galmont was a little dear. The taxi firm was extremely professional. We got a text message to tell us the taxi was on its way, in addition to the make and registration number of the car and the driver’s name.

Needless to say the taxi was on time, and delivered us into the Galmont just as the second half of the Leinster-La Rochelle match started. Many in the large crowd were watching the game, but we got sitting beside four people from Boston, who were only in Galway for a few days’ break and had no interest in the rugby. While they had very little Irish blood, if any, they were thoroughly enjoying their visit and we had a lovely chat with them while trying to keep one eye on the Heineken Cup final. As it happened, one eye was enough to see Leinster suffer another heartbreaking defeat. As the Leinster team is pretty much the Irish team in different coloured jerseys, it is a loss that must cast some doubt on our ability to win or even reach the semi-final of the upcoming World Cup. Anyway, before too long the bell rang for us to make our way to the ballroom, and close to 600 people sat down to dinner. In fairness, considering the size of the crowd, everything about it was good – the food and service was top class, and all told it passed off very smoothly.

All through the meal there were interviews and speeches and awards, and for all of us Creggs folks the highlight was undoubtedly when Eoghan Coyle was announced as the Junior Club player of the year in Connacht, an award that was well deserved after the outstanding season he had. Carol and I were delighted to see that the winner of the Women’s Senior player of the year was Orla Dixon, a family friend, and another player who had an outstanding season. It was great to see Eoghan and Orla honoured. Heartiest congratulations to them both!

During the meal, there were interviews with Bundee Aki, Mack Hanson and Finlay Bealham from the Irish Grand Slam-winning senior team, and also John Devine from the U-20 Grand Slam winning team. They were all great craic, but especially Finlay Bealham, who was later lucky enough to