My last column before Christmas is a plum pudding from which I will pluck out some sweet plums and a few bitter almonds.
First plum: the Cork Holly Bough, which carries a fine picture of a relieved and happy Micheál Martin with his family, probably taken after he was finally reunited with them after his long Covid separation.
It also carries my modest piece on the politics of Niall Tóibín, who in New York once reflected that if Jewish comedians could make jokes about the Holocaust, surely we could get over the Famine?
Another fine plum is my annual letter from Tadhg O Leary of Mayfield, Cork, in flying column form this year. He begins as usual with ironic congratulations: I must commend you for your consistence in sullying the names of our Freedom fighters. And he goes on to excoriate the British Empire for its colonial crimes.
How Christy Ring became hurling s reluctant superstar
Updated / Monday, 14 Dec 2020
16:02
Christy Ring established himself as the greatest hurler of the modern age during a career that stretched over an astonishing 25 years
Analysis: perhaps the Corkman s greatest achievement is the regard with which he was held beyond the county
As long as there is hurling, there will be arguments over who is the greatest hurler. As long as these arguments happen, Christy Ring of Glen Rovers and Cork will be mentioned. However, the constant homages to Ring goes against the nature of the man himself, the game s reluctant superstar.
Ring established himself as the greatest hurler of the modern age during an extraordinary career that stretched over an astonishing 25 years. Known locally as the rock of Cloyne, he joined Glen Rovers in 1941 and played well into his forties. His first taste of Croke Park was with the Cork minors in 1938 and his final appearance there was with the county seniors i