THE LAST POINT: Leitrim's capital gains on the rise

Fair to say that the country areas of our fine nation has a complicated relationship with our capital city - quite a few citizens of our lovely Leitrim reside in Dublin but depending on your viewpoint, the city sprawling either side of the Liffey is either an exciting and bustling place to live or a tortuous experience, mired in traffic and everyone living cheek by jowl, an anathema to country living.

Dubs are the ultimate 'Townies', a word that carries quite a few undertones and most of them not good when uttered by the residents of the countryside; but the thing about it is that there is nowhere in this country with more 'culchies' concentrated in one place than Dublin's Fair City - in fact, most of the recent success of Dublin gaelic football teams, male and female, is rooted in the children of those who moved up to the country.

I'm the child, as I like to put it, of a mixed marriage - mother Cavan born and bred, Dad a son of Monaghan (similar to the Leitrim & Roscommon rivalry but hotter!) but like so many of the present day Dubs, they met up in the big smoke and made their life together out on the outskirts of Dublin, a place called Finglas that when I was growing up still had working farms half a mile up the road.

Strange this was all of our neighbours had country roots - our terrace alone had Wicklow, Cavan, Offaly, Kerry, Down and Limerick natives and the coaches in our GAA and athletics clubs were, more often than not, country exiles in the city but all came together under the banner of their local clubs and adopted county and certainly the city has benefited.

Much of Dublin's emergence as a super-power in the last 15 years was powered by the children of country folk who settled south of the Liffey, an area that was once regarded as a wasteland for the GAA but now, there are as many southsiders starting for the Boys in Blue as there are northsiders.

THE LAST POINT: GREAT EXPECTATIONS, GREATER HEARTACHE

Country Dubs, that strange subset of Jackeens, that lived on farms out near Ballyboughal, The Naul, Skerries, Newcastle and St Margaret's, always provided the muscle for Dublin teams down through the years but nowadays, those farms are slowly disappearing under the weight of solar farms and industrial estates and Blanchardstown, once a tiny village in the country, has an estimated population of 75,000 - a total greater than seven counties of this fair country.

That puts into some context the inequality a county like Leitrim faces in the sporting arena - facilities are developed quicker where population demands are higher, jobs are more plentiful so those areas attracted more and more young people and as they settle down, their young families become Dubs, perpetuating the cycle where the numbers game is as important as the talent level.

Nowhere was this better illustrated that in two northside sporting temples last Sunday - Morton Stadium doesn't have the same cachet as Croke Park for most of the country but it is a venue graced by some of Ireland's greatest ever sportspeople down through the years, not to mention quite a few legends of world sport. Separated by a few short miles, both venues witnessed Leitrim excellence on Sunday.

Eilish O'Dowd is now firmly ensconced in the Dublin Ladies team but there is no doubting that she is also a proud Leitrim woman. Winning a second All-Ireland Senior title last Sunday moves Eilish into a very elite group of sports people from this county and as much as Sunday's triumph is that of Dublin, there's a fair bit of satisfaction around Ballinamore and Leitrim LGFA circles at the moment and rightly so.

The Dublin team, featuring Ballinamore's Eilish O'Dowd, who won the TG4 LGFA All-Ireland SFC title Picture: Sportsfile

For a woman who has two Senior medals in her back pocket and who is flying out to play in the AFLW with the GWS Giants, Eilish has met and overcome quite a few challenges to get to where she has but I imagine facing her sister Laura, friends and former teammates, club and county, must have among the toughest and most difficult she has encountered.

I remember Declan Darcy encountered something similar when he faced Leitrim in a League encounter in 1999, although he got a somewhat more rambunctious response from some of his former teammates, Darcy coming in for some rough treatment that clearly irked when he chatted to the Observer after the game. Time has passed and the former Leitrim captain's achievements with the Dubs are now a source of pride, not simmering anger.

Gerard O'Donnell is another Leitrim sportsperson making his way in the capital - his Dublin Sprint Club crew had a very good weekend at the 123.ie Athletics Ireland Senior Championships with a 400m double for Sophie Becker and Jack Raftery, a bronze for Adam Murphy and a silver for Gerard himself as he mixes competing himself with guiding the career of some of Ireland's Olympic stars.

Truth be told, the Carrick AC sprinter wasn't even sure on the morning of Sunday's race that he would compete - it was his first outing of the year and simply trying to find time to prepare for an intensely technical event, where a miscalculation of a millimetre can have profound effects, has become ever more trying as his coaching career becomes every more time consuming and taxing.

A clatter into hurdle eight of ten on Sunday put paid to his trademark late surge as Gerard tried to catch Adam Nolan of Carlow, 16 years his Junior, in a desperate dash for the line with Conor Penny, born an incredible  20 years after the Carrick AC athlete, took home the bronze - an almighty testament not only to the Carrick AC sprinters' ability but his continuing commitment to excellence over the past years.

THE LAST POINT: TIPP TOPS OF A MAGNIFICENT SPORTING WEEK

O'Donnell's move to Dublin in search of better facilities, training partners and coaching came 13 years ago and the tradition remains and not just for Leitrim - Sophie Becker hails from Wexford and Adam Murphy from Carlow as college, work and life sees so many crammed within the confines of the M50.

But Leitrim folk excelling in Dublin is not new - Sean McDermotts was a Leitrim orientated club in the city in the fifties and sixties, Packie McGarty played his football with Round Towers while Dan Meehan lined out for Civil Service and so many more, too numerous to mention. And it was only a season or two ago that Templeogue Synge Street had former Leitrim players Ray Gilmartin and Adrian O'Flynn guiding their fortunes.

It has gone the other way too - Declan Darcy the most famous of all but players like Brendan Gallagher, Jason Ward, Ciaran McGovern and hurling folk such as Joe Murray, David McGovern and the O'Riordans have all left their mark on Leitrim teams down through the years. It's not exactly a new story but seeing Leitrim sportspeople achieve success in the big smoke is something we've always taken pride in so congrats once more to Eilish & Gerard on their wonderful achievements.