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COULD this be the end for John Kiely in Limerick?

He has been there for the last eight years and has masterminded five All-Ireland wins between 2018 and 2023.

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Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

But the Treaty, that have scaled so many heights during their era of dominance, are now at the foot of the mountain following their exit to Dublin in the quarter-finals last month.

The involvement of billionaire Limerick businessman JP McManus has often been referenced, but the idea that money wins you Liam MacCarthy Cups is nonsense in my view.

Men like Kiely and his players are what lifts sides up the Hogan Stand steps.

But many of those players may be approaching the twilight of their careers. Sometimes, you’re just blessed to get a special bunch like that.

I was lucky to be with a Tipperary gang that won five All-Irelands. We waited 18 years for another.

Limerick began the Championship by drawing with Tipp in a very ordinary Munster game. Shane O’Brien’s 0-4 pulled them through against Waterford the next day — so to see him dropped for the final came as a shock.

Other than a fourth-round romp against Cork, they failed to dazzle and none of the forwards had performed anything near what we expected — Cian Lynch the exception.

The Rebels learned their lessons and did a man-marking job on him in the decider and I’d have questions about how Kiely approached this campaign.

It was names-out-of-a-hat stuff to decide a couple of the penalty takers in the Munster final. You’d find it hard to understand why Declan Hannon was called upon to take one.

He hardly played any hurling this year — so it’s no wonder he missed, along with Barry Murphy.

The performance against Dublin was so bad too. Nickie Quaid couldn’t be blamed for the two goals but his six backs — seven if you include the spare man — were atrocious.

Limerick are starting at the same level as everybody else next year. It will be interesting to see if they can make it back to the summit — and if Kiely is the man to lead the trek.

Motorists were left fuming in a bumper-to-bumper snarl yesterday morning after a colossal chemical truck toppled over, shutting down a busy stretch of Highway 36 in Chon Buri. The drama unfolded around 11am yesterday, July 4, near the entrance to Ban Khlong Yai Monastery in Pong subdistrict. An 18-wheeler Hino truck, white and lumbering under …

The story Driver dozes off: 18-wheeler chaos clogs Chon Buri highway as seen on Thaiger News.

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NOBODY — and I do mean nobody — saw Dublin beating Limerick.

I’ve been going to hurling matches since 1952 and I can’t think of a bigger upset.

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Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

Limerick were 1-25 to win. To pull off what Dublin did — down to 14 men after 15 minutes following the dismissal of their captain Chris Crummey — was incredible.

Now, can they repeat the dose against Cork today?

Of course they can. It would be fantastic for the GAA if Dublin could follow up what they did at Croke Park two weeks ago.

But what they did to Limerick was not there against Galway and it was not there against Kilkenny in the Leinster round robin.

In the last 70-plus years, I’ve never seen anything like that from any team, in how they upped their game as much as Dublin did — particularly with a numerical disadvantage — against the hurling powerhouse that Limerick have been for the last eight years.

This is Dublin’s first semi-final appearance since 2013.

Rebels chief Pat Ryan has been forewarned but Cork are Cork, with all the history behind them.

After a 20-year drought, the Leesiders are badly in need of an All-Ireland title — but Cork come with a health warning.

Having led by seven points early on in last year’s decider, Clare pulled level with 20 minutes to go.

Then Tony Kelly turned the game. The Ballyea star and Shane O’Donnell stepped up and the Banner ran out 3-29 to 1-34 winners after extra-time.

What was worrying for Cork was that Séamus Harnedy, who had turned 34 four days earlier, was their best forward. And a hamstring injury rules him out today.

Alan Connolly and Shane Barrett really disappointed me against the Banner, though defenders Niall O’Leary and Seán O’Donoghue were outstanding until Kelly and O’Donnell took over.

From the Dublin starting team against Limerick, there were no huge names apart from Conor Burke and Chris Crummey — and Crummey is suspended today.

I must admit I didn’t know much about Seán Brennan but the Dublin keeper was superb against Limerick, saving his side several times.

Wouldn’t it be amazing to see a genuine Dublin hurling revival?

For a county with a population of more than a million to be waiting since 1938 for an All-Ireland title, it would be wonderful for the GAA if Dublin could take advantage of the decline of provincial rivals Wexford and Galway.

Niall Ó Ceallacháin’s men are big underdogs again today of course.

Still, the Rebels are not a team you’d be putting your house on — but I just think Cork being Cork, they’ll do enough to get over the line and back to the final.

PRESSURE GAME

As for tomorrow, all of the pressure is on Kilkenny boss Derek Lyng against Tipperary.

This fixture has so much history. It takes me back to the 1967 All-Ireland final. Kilkenny had been hurt by Tipp in the decider three years earlier but on this day they beat us.

The Cats lost the 1999 final against Cork but then came with one of the greatest teams ever.

But Tipperary still deprived them of another couple of All-Irelands. They were odds-on to win the five-in-a-row in 2010 and Tipp killed that off with Lar Corbett’s hat-trick.

The Cats had been lucky to beat the Premier in 2009 when Henry Shefflin was awarded a controversial penalty that decided the game.

The thing that worries me about Tipp is the performances of the forwards in the All-Ireland quarter-final against Galway.

Don’t get me wrong, 1-28 was a nice return, but they left a lot more behind them against a poor side.

I asked a former Galway player — who I won’t name — to rate the two teams. He rated Galway at 2/10 and Tipp 5/10. That didn’t sound too encouraging about a team going into an All-Ireland semi-final.

Nevertheless, when it comes to Tipp and Kilkenny, anything can happen.

The Kilkenny full-back line are probably as good as you’ll get at the moment. Huw Lawlor and Mikey Butler are exceptional players.

We’ve had some great performances since that sobering defeat against Cork in the league final.

Fair dues to Liam Cahill — it says a lot when the Tipp public are happy. But I’d be a bit worried now that Kilkenny are back at full strength, with Eoin Cody back in the team following a leg injury, having missed four games.

TJ Reid is basically just walking around in some matches but his experience is just so valuable.

This is a young Tipp team, an awful lot of whom have no Championship experience at Croke Park.

The county’s last game there was the 2019 final. Ronan Maher, Michael Breen, Séamus Kennedy, Willie Connors, Jake Morris, Jason Forde and John and Noel McGrath have been here before but the rest have not.

Six years is a long time away from HQ and Kilkenny have been there every year, winning six Leinsters in a row and playing in six consecutive semi-finals, not to mention the 2022 and 2023 deciders.

This is so new for a lot of these Tipp youngsters and that’s an awful lot of pressure.

I don’t want to be accused of knocking people — a la Kerry’s Jack O’Connor calling out former players last week.

I have huge admiration for what Cahill has done with these players on this journey. He had stated that patience was key and he has them back playing good hurling and playing with confidence.

But this is a huge game at Croker against a team who have been in every semi-final at least since 2019.

ON THE DEFENSIVE

The Kilkenny full-back line are probably as good as you’ll get at the moment. Huw Lawlor and Mikey Butler are exceptional players.

In terms of Tipp’s defence, I’d worry about them keeping Cody, Mossy Keoghan and TJ Reid quiet.

From Tipp’s perspective, all we’ve been looking for is good performances from Cahilll’s team with the back-up of the All-Ireland Under-20 success and the minors coming through.

The signs are good for Tipperary, and a strong performance would keep everyone happy. But that experience Kilkenny have at Croke Park is why I think they’ll shade it.

Hopefully it’s another epic chapter in the wonderful history between both counties.

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A BBC star who rose to fame in the 60s and dated Sarah Alexander has died aged 96.

Gerald Harper, who made his name on British TV, sadly passed away on Wednesday, his agent confirmed.

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Gerald Harper as Stephen Ashley in ‘Crown Court’ in 1979[/caption]

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Gerald Harper in the ‘Murder by Misadventure’ Play performed in the Vaudeville Theatre in 1991[/caption]

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Harper in the 2000s[/caption]

CDM Talent Agency posted on social media: “It is with great sadness that Gerald Harper has recently passed away – he was a valued client before he went to Spain to enjoy his retirement.”

It is unclear where the actor died or his cause of death.

Gerald is best known for starring as the lead role in the adventure drama Adam Adamant Lives! and then as the main character in Hadleigh.

Gerald then went on to forge an illustrious career on the stage, featuring in various West End shows, including Crucifer of Blood and A Personal Affair at the Haymarket Theatre.

He will also be remembered for his relationship with Coupling and Green Wing star Sarah Alexander.

Sarah, 54, was only 25 when she was first spotted dating Gerald Harper, then 68, in 1996.

A passer-by told the Sunday People of Alexander and Harper: “They were super-glued together! They were all over each other and didn’t care who saw them.

“Funnily enough, the young lady was making a lot of the running and kept grabbing him to French kiss him – it was quite a display.”

Friends said Harper was “absolutely bereft” when Sarah left him for Amandaland star Peter Serafinowicz in 2002.

Before his relationship with Sarah, Gerald was married to Carla Rabaiotti, a former Pan American air stewardess. 

The pair, who later divorced in 1983, share a son.

Harper was previously married to actress Jane Downs from 1957 until they divorced in 1975. They share a daughter.

At the height of his fame Harper was TV’s most eligible bachelor in ITV’s Hadleigh, which ran from 1969 to 1976.

A young Chinese man fell from a six-storey building in Pattaya, resulting in his death. The incident occurred at a hotel on Soi Paniadchang, North Pattaya, and raised suspicions of its use as a call centre operation base. Police Lieutenant Anirut Jehrao of Pattaya Police Station received the report yesterday, July 4, and coordinated with …

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CONTROVERSIAL rock ‘n’ roll legend Chuck Berry demanded a groupie at one of Ireland’s earliest ever folk festivals — and got one — despite being told: “We’ve no call girls in Sligo.”

The Johnny B. Goode star was a veteran of 50 when the Boys of Ballisodare organisers broke the bank to lure him in 1981.

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The desperation to shell out on a superstar who didn’t really fit the bill was typical of the early Irish festivals — which were eventually derailed by money, rivalry and tragedy.

As attendances grew and competition between organisers heated up, festivals began looking outside of Ireland for their headline acts.

This development convinced Philip Flynn to shell out $17,000 on the ageing American rocker.

Philip said: “Just the idea of Chuck Berry, with Johnny B. Goode and, you know, like . . . Jesus! We decided to go for it.”

Listen to Fields Of Dreams on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts

Getting the fading star to a field in Sligo was a drama in itself, before he put on a rocking show.

Berry — derided a “cheapskate” and “not a very nice man” by organisers — demanded two first-class airline tickets, for him and his daughter, and cashed in her ticket when she didn’t make the trip.

Flynn dispatched his dad-in-law to a bank to withdraw $10,000 in cash to hand over to Chuck as he disembarked at Dublin Airport.

And it didn’t end there.

Berry wanted a groupie, and was willing to wait in the Mercedes which was provided for him.

Flynn said: “(Berry’s minder) came to me, and this was a Sunday evening, and said, ‘Chuck would like some company’.

“I’m standing there saying, ‘You know where we are . . . even if it was possible . . . we don’t have call girls in Sligo’.

“We know, as the country is a small place, where the car went and it came back an hour later.

“I mean, that’s a fact. And so somebody got what they needed. Who knows what happened?”

The pioneering events in the ­Seventies helped transform Ireland’s concert scene, but by the early Eighties they had run aground in the face of fierce competition.

For five years festivals run by people with big dreams and tiny budgets dominated until a different kind of event took over the live entertainment calendar.

“I’m standing there saying, ‘You know where we are . . . even if it was possible . . . we don’t have call girls in Sligo’.”

Philip Flynn

Rory Gallagher played to 20,000 fans in tiny Macroom, Co Cork, in 1977 — a rock festival event set up by locals to help save the town from the economic brink.

‘NOBODY HAD DONE ANYTHING LIKE THIS’

Festival historian Roz Crowley said: “Nobody had done anything like this in Ireland. I mean, there was no template or anything for it.

“A lot of people came from Cork, of course, and slept in doorways — they couldn’t afford anything with the price of it.

“A lot of people had to walk because they didn’t have a car and they couldn’t afford the bus fare.

“And they walked for the best part of eight hours to get to the concert in pretty poor footwear.

“So the poor things arrived into Macroom a bit bedraggled.

“So much so that the locals who saw them arriving looking exhausted put on batches of scones and came out to their gates and fed them glasses of milk and a scone to take them into the town.”

‘EARLY INNOCENCE QUICKLY LOST’

The festival was a huge ­success, but like others which were being put on all over Ireland, the early innocence was quickly lost and it came to an end a few years later.

Roz explained: “A different element crept in. I would say that maybe they weren’t all music lovers, you know.

“And then, as time went on, managers recognised that, my gosh, this is a kind of a cash cow.

“‘We could be charging more here for our artists’, and it became a different business really.

“And it probably killed it in the end.”

Boys of Ballisodare founders Philip and Kevin Flynn saw their folk acts — including Christy Moore — tempted elsewhere.

FEES BEGAN TO SPIRAL

Major festivals sprang up in Lisdoonvarna in Co Clare, Carnsore in Co Wexford and Castlebar in Co Mayo.

The fees — which had started out at a few hundred pounds at the Sligo event — began to spiral as rival promoters lured in the big name acts.

Philip said: “Lisdoonvarna, when they came on the scene, they were paying IR£600 for the same acts that we were paying IR£200 for.

“They had no idea. They just needed to get in. Whereas I had come to it from a relationship with the acts, at least.

“The parents of one of, I think, Jim Shannon, put up their farm as collateral for bank loans. And they lost money the first year.

“In fairness to them, I have great admiration for the fact that they stuck with it. They came back.

“So they did actually make profit after that and did well for a few years.”

TRAGIC ENDINGS

Early Irish festivals were tinged with tragedy — the first at a punk event in Dublin’s UCD in 1977.

The Radiators From Space were topping the bill in Belfield, where a young man was stabbed to death.

Radiators star Pete Holidai said: “We weren’t involved in the actual stabbing incidents — what happened was a scuffle broke out early on in the night.

“There were a couple of band members who were in, trying to break the scuffle up and get people to calm down.

“But unbeknown to us some fellow stepped in and stabbed someone and then f**ked off.

“No one realised what had happened and it wasn’t until we were on stage later in the evening where we suddenly became aware.

“What happened was that the ambulances were called and it appeared then this guy had died.”

A young man was later convicted of killing 18-year-old Patrick Coultry, from Cabra in Dublin.

The biggest of Ireland’s earliest festivals was Lisdoonvarna, which came to a tragic end in 1983.

HELLS ANGELS DRAFTED IN

The event was moved to the end of July to capitalise on the August bank holiday, with Rory Gallagher and Van Morrison topping the bill.

A staggering 40,000 people attended, but a huge number turned up without tickets and tried to breach the fence.

As a result, Hells Angels bikers were drafted in to lend a hand with security.

Separately, eight people drowned while swimming on the hot Sunday afternoon of July 31.

The dead, all men aged between 19 and 30, included three brothers from Co Carlow.

‘PART OF US DIED THAT DAY’

Stockton’s Wing guitarist Mike Hanrahan remembers: “I was there and it was dark.

“There was a bad vibe at the festival all weekend because of the security.

“We saw the big fencing being knocked over. It was a bad energy at the festival.

“And to cap it all off the young people who lost their lives on the Sunday, to drown in a part of Doolin that we all know.

“It was like part of us died that day as well.

“I remember somebody saying that was the day the music died. I guess that was the beginning of the end of those ­festivals as well.”

• The first two episodes of Fields Of Dreams are available on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts

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THE devastated parents of a 14-year-old boy who died while swimming in a river have paid heartfelt tribute to him.

Police scrambled to Beccles Quay, off Fen Lane, in Suffolk, just before 7.30pm on Wednesday after concerns for the safety of a teenager in the water.

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Flowers laid at the scene at Beccles Quay on the River Waveney in Suffolk[/caption]

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Nischay Patel was named locally as the boy in the tragedy[/caption]

The boy had entered the River Waveney with friends but had not resurfaced, said cops.

Despite the efforts of onlookers, emergency services and of members of the public, the youngster – named locally as Nischay Patel – tragically died at the scene.

Ketan and Praptiben Patel, owners of Tabers Newsagents at Market Street, Beccles, paid tribute to their son Nischay in a Facebook post.

Their heartbreaking statement read: “We are deeply grateful to the Police, Suffolk Fire & Rescue Service, East of England Ambulance Service, and HM Coastguard for their swift and compassionate response during this incredibly painful time.

“Our heartfelt thanks also go out to the wonderful people of Beccles and those from across the country who have shown us so much kindness, love, and support.

“The outpouring of sympathy—from kind words and beautiful flowers to thoughtful gestures—has brought immense comfort to our family.

“We would especially like to thank Sir John Leman High School, Thirst Youth Hub, the Beccles Community UK Facebook page, and the local newspapers for their continued support and compassion.

“This loss is unimaginable, and as we grieve, we hold close the love of our friends, family, and customers.

“Your compassion has touched our hearts more deeply than words can express.

“To everyone who has supported our family—particularly the emergency services and those who went above and beyond—please accept our sincerest gratitude.

“As we take time to process this tragedy, we kindly ask for privacy and space, knowing your continued support surrounds us.”

His death has devastated the town, with dozens of flowers and cards left both at the quay and outside the family shop.

Richard Crozier, 80, a friend of the family who runs a neighbouring shop, said it had been a “terrible tragedy”.

“Nischay was a special person. He had a capacity for friendship across generations,” he told Eastern Daily Press.

“He wasn’t a boy of great numbers of words but he was a very tender-hearted lad.”

Barry Darch, mayor of Beccles, said: “Beccles is a tight knit community and I’m sure the whole town is in grief.”

A special operations team from the Department of Public Administration carried out a raid on a gambling den in Bangkok yesterday, located near a metro station. Acting on a direct order from Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Phumtham Wechayachai, officials swooped in to enforce social order as part of the newly launched crackdown dubbed …

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