CONTRARY to what many of the National papers would have you believe, Damien McGrane is not a Wexford man. He is very much born, bred and reared in Meath and proud to be a Royal.

On a weekend when he took the Dubai Desert Classic by storm with two magnificent opening rounds, the large media moguls referred to McGrane as a Wexford golfer.

McGrane started his playing career at Headfort and finished his professional apprenticeship under the guidance of Brendan McGovern while winning many national and international prizes including the Irish Boys’ Championship.

He refers to himself as a Meath man and every golfer in the county was hugely proud of his effort against top-class Dubai opposition at the weekend.

“I think it is nice for people in Meath to have a player on the European Tour, somebody they know and can follow and identify with. I spent most of my life around the area and I’m very much a part of Meath,” he told the Meath Chronicle recently.

It can sometimes be a common thing in the media to mis-represent a player’s origins. It is very common in the English tabloid press especially when it comes to something they wish to claim as their own.

In the past Darren Clarke and Eddie Irvine were ‘British’ when they were winning, but ‘Northern Irish’ when things weren’t going as well. That type of ‘look at us, aren’t we great’ journalism is exactly what turns many Irish people against English success.

Credit where credit is due and this week we are proud to blow our own trumpet and claim Damien McGrane for what he is, a great Meath sportsman.