NO JOY for the Oireachtas Golf Society at this year’s Dermot Earley Memorial Trophy outing at the Curragh – the oldest golf club in the country.

The competition involved teams from Leinster House, the Garda, the Army and the GAA. They should go for the full set next year and invite the bishops to take part.

The Oireachtas team won the first challenge three years ago. The Army took the honours last year and the Garda Síochána finished first this week.

The late lieutenant general Dermot Earley was a much-decorated Roscommon footballer, but the Cathaoirleach of the Seanad and captain of the Oireachtas Golf Society, Paddy Burke, controversially argued in the clubhouse that Dermot should have played for Mayo as he was born above Byrne’s bar on Main Street, Castlebar.

Two Assistant Commissioners, Gerry Phillips and John Twomey, led the boys in blue to their trophy success.

The golfing politicians included Labour’s Jack Wall, Arthur Spring and Lorraine Higgins, Independent TD Noel Grealish (inset), former Fianna Fáil deputy Tom Kitt and former senator Donie Cassidy.