If Cleopatra's face launched a thousand ships, Pat Holmes has been responsible for creating nearly as many famous headlines.
The High Court still hasn't ruled on which local paper in Mayo came up with that original classic 'The Ideal Holmes Exhibition', but it has been narrowed down to two and I think the Mayo News and ourselves have agreed to an out of court settlement, or what they call in GAA terms, a draw. We both ran it the same week as he brought Mayo to a National League title.
If Pat is the new Sherlock then Dr. Watson appears to be Alan Nolan, as they have teamed up with Castlebar Mitchels and taken over from the Ford administration, which failed to be re-elected after three years in office.
Pat is back and rearing to go, the Moygownagh man accepting the invitation from Castlebar Mitchels to take over the senior team following the vacancy created by the retiring of Peter Ford, Tommy O'Malley and Declan Shaw.
Pat Holmes has been solid as both a player and a manager, and, in fact, is the only manager to have delivered any silverware of significance with Mayo, winning that league title back in 2000.

Castle Street Kids rock the Welcome Inn

Happy faces from the Castle Inn pictured at the very successful Castle Street Traders' post-Christmas party, which was held in the Welcome Inn Hotel. Obviously, a few interlopers got in but word is it was the party of the year with John Scotty and Ger Whyte on lead vocals, Joe Feeney on drums, Kevin Beirne on tambourine, Marty Ruane on base, Andy 'Dufrane' Morris on the flute, Alan Culkeen on the violin, Seamus Quinn on the cello and James Canning on the saxophone with a superb rendition of 'Baker Street'. The band is available for functions and parties over the coming year.
Pictured from left: Marty Ruane, Seamus Quinn, Joe Feeney, Kevin Beirne, Ger Whyte, Andy Morris, Alan Culkeen, James Canning and John Scott.

Under the spotlight

The floodlights may have been officially turned on at McHale Park on Saturday night but it took Mayo a good 35 minutes before they put any money in the meter.
Pat Fallon brought GMIT to town and they served it up to Mayo in the first half as James Horan got his first test as Mayo team manager.
A win is a win, as they say, and Horan is really caught between two stools as he tries out some new players, 10 in all making their debuts on Saturday night, including Ballintubber players Cathal Hallinan, Mike Nestor, Cillian and Ruadhri O'Connor while James Moran (Burrishoole), Lee Keegan (Westport), Kevin Dolan (Tourmakeady), David Killeen (Ballinrobe), James Burke (Ballymun Kickhams) and Aidan Campbell (Swinford) all featured.
Although it was a dank, dirty night, the venue looked superb with the lights shining down and hopefully there will be a bigger crowd for the Down match in the opening round of the national football league on February 5, although around 2,000 hardy souls turned up on Saturday night.
Roscommon will provide the opposition this Sunday in Ballyhaunis and it will be interesting to see another batch of new players on show.
It proved to be an unlucky debut for Tourmakeady's Kevin Dolan who had his jaw broken in an accidental collision with the boot of a GMIT player and we wish him a speedy recovery. They breed them tough up there, as Cathy O'Toole will tell you, so he should be back fairly soon.

Heard it on the grapevine...
Congratulations to former Mayo footballer P.J. Loftus who was recently married in America. P.J. is wished all the best from his legion of friends in Crossmolina.
Birthday boy and colleague Aiden Henry clocked up another year as he heads ever closer to the 60 mark. The office here produced a cake for the Charlestown lad but there was not sufficient room to include all the candles.
Word from the 19th hole at Castlebar tells me that Dave McHale will be driving a new 2011 Merc having nailed a hole in one on the famous 12th.
The defeat of Parke in Manchester was one of the surprise results of the weekend and might be a warning for Mayo as they prepare for their visit to London for the opening round of the championship in May. It seems a lot of good footballers have left the country and the day of the soft touch against teams across the water is well gone.
However, on closer inspection, it seems the Parke result can be explained. Our man on the spot tells me the condition of the pitch was absolutely disgraceful and the game should never have been played.
Frank McHale and the boys will have to just try again next year but they gave us good value for our money in 2010.

 

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