GAELIC GAMES SIGERSON CUP:WE THOUGHT maybe he was just fashionably late, but Paul Galvin subsequently refused any interviews at yesterday's launch of the Sigerson Cup, despite being paid to be there for that very purpose.

Galvin posed for some photographs – suitably enough given his well-publicised venture into the fashion world – then promptly left Croke Park without explaining his sudden change of mind. A spokesperson for the GAA said “all they could do is apologise” but that was little consolation to the waiting journalists, many of whom had travelled considerable distance on the assumption Galvin would be available for interview.

Invitations to the launch – issued by the GAA’s Higher Education Committee – clearly stated that “Paul Galvin, DIT and Kerry, will be available for media interviews”, along with Liam Rushe of UCD and Dublin, who was there to promote the start of the Fitzgibbon Cup. While Rushe gladly obliged, Galvin had other ideas, much to the bemusement of everyone else in attendance, including the Sigerson and Fitzgibbon sponsors, Ulster Bank. We didn’t even get to see what he was wearing.

Earlier this week Galvin was deemed eligible for this year’s Sigerson competition having recently signed up for a one-year fashion course at the Dublin Institute. The 2009 footballer of the year is recovering from a minor hip operation but is expected to be fit for DIT’s opening game against the University of Limerick, on February 17th – a game DIT will be well fancied to win.

In fact DIT are second favourites to win the Sigerson outright this year, behind defending champions DCU. DIT have yet to win a Sigerson title, but Galvin’s addition and experience with Kerry will considerably boost their chances this year, given they already have the services of other established county players including Galway’s Gareth Bradshaw, Peter Domican of Roscommon, Alan Freeman and Aidan O’Shea from Mayo, and Dublin’s Diarmuid Connolly.

DIT recently recorded an impressive win over Wexford in the O’Byrne Cup, and the least of their ambitions will be to make the finals weekend on March 3rd-5th, where the quarter-finals, semi-finals and showpiece will be hosted by UCD – the inaugural winners of the competition, in 1911.

Yesterday’s event in Croke Park was therefore billed as the launch of the centenary Sigerson Cup, and Galvin’s presence was intended to highlight that. He’d previously played Sigerson football with UCC, captaining the team in 2002, but lost out in the final that year to Sligo IT.

Yet due to Galvin’s refusal to reminisce on any such matters yesterday, it was left to GAA president Christy Cooney to drum up some interest, who said via a press release, that the “dedication and commitment of players participating in the various competitions should be acknowledged and it is heartening to note that the competitions continue to grow from strength to strength”.

Galvin may have failed in his commitments in Croke Park yesterday, although he did talk earlier in the day to the Ryan Tubridy Show on RTÉ 2FM, saying he was looking for “a new abode, up in the big smoke”.

“It’s like I’m 18 all over again and I feel like I’m 18,” Galvin told Tubridy. “I am probably a young 31-year-old.”

A young 31 indeed, with plenty growing up to do yet.