Garrycastle's date with destiny
The eyes of the country will be on Westmeath senior football champions, Garrycastle this week, as they bid to become the first ever club from the Lake County to lift the Andy Merrigan Cup, by beating Armagh's Crossmaglen Rangers in the AIB All-Ireland club senior football championship at Croke Park on St Patrick's Day.Manager Anthony Cunningham will hope to bring a supremely successful end to his terrific tenure as Garrycastle manager, before moving on to concentrate on his career with Galway's senior hurlers.Read all about the exploits of Dessie Dolan and co. at Croke Park in next Wednesday's edition of the Westmeath Examiner.Shamrocks centre stageThey might have been beaten by All-Ireland club finalists, Garrycastle in last year's county SFC final, but Mullingar Shamrocks will, in some way, be at Croke Park on St Patrick's Day.That's because their talented ballad group, who are making waves in the ranks of Leinster Scór this year, will perform live on the pitch at half time during Saturday's All-Ireland senior club hurling final.With their interval renditions of Eileen Óg and The Parting Glass, they hope to spur on their fellow Westmeath club to victory against Crossmaglen Rangers ahead of the showpiece club football match of the year.The quintet of Paul Doolin, Alan Conroy, Paul McDermott, Tony Irwin and Shane Bardon will be watched by thousands of GAA supporters from all over the country on finals day. Saturday's All-Ireland finals will be televised 'live' on TG4.GAA Beo coverage begins on the Irish language station at 1.30pm. The hurling decider between Coolderry (Offaly) and Loughgiel Shamrocks (Antrim) throws in at 2pm, with the football final set to commence at 3.45pm.TG4's coverage will include pre-match, half-time and post-match analysis on both of the big games. The coverage will also examine how all four teams got to Croke Park today with a review of previous matches in the championships.GAA Beo will be presented by Micheál Ó Domhnaill with commentary and analysis by regular commentators Brian Tyers and Mac Dara Mac Donncha, who will be joined for the hurling final by former Offaly hurler Pat Fleury and former Cork and Limerick manager Donal O'Grady.The football pundits include former Westmeath and Galway manager Tomás Ó Flatharta and Armagh's Jarlath Burns.