Thurles on Munster Final Day Is a Place to Be Seen
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4 The Championship MUNSTER SHC FINAL Irish Daily Mail, Monday, July 10, 2017 Hero: Cork captain Stephen McDonnell lifts the cup at Semple Stadium in Thurles yesterday SPORTSFILE Cork’s redemption on the sacred day T half eleven Mass an hour to play. The outcome was near the number that travelled in team will grow. in Thurles yester- a formality. SHANE the name of Cork. If Galway are a team of enor- The game had failed to match Everything about Clare’s sum- mous power spearheaded by for- day morning, the the legend, but the legend will live mer has been understated so far, wards on form, Cork have a pacier, priest welcomed on. McGRATH from their semi-final win over more fluid look to them. visitors from Cork Why? Because in a system reports from Limerick to the listlessness that Tipperary have picked up the Aand Clare. He followed that awfully out of synch with the mod- Semple Stadium afflicted them too often in this scent of their Championship-win- ern game, the Munster final still match. Their tactics were failing ning form, and Waterford will by congratulating the Tip- makes sense. It concludes a from early in the game yet the never forgive themselves if they perary teams on their quali- Championship that always offers heart football will never come problem was never properly fail to build on their win against fier victories the previous competitive teams. By that crite- near to challenging, and a team addressed. McGrath and Shane Kilkenny from Saturday night. rion alone, it is exceptional within on the march behind Kieran King- O’Donnell constitute a superior Brian Cody’s team are 12 months evening. ston is now supported by a jubi- And he finished by mentioning the provincial system. level of attacking threat, but one in decline, yet their departure Add that unpredictability to the lant army running to tens of struggles to recall one good diag- from the Championship is still Waterford’s defeat of Kilkenny on thousands. Saturday night, an aside that decades of legendary stories onal ball played in to them here. being celebrated as a liberation, salted away within the competi- After Cork captain Stephen Cork are a good, quick, strong as the cheers at morning Mass in drew whoops from within the McDonnell lifted the cup yester- Church of Saints Joseph and tion, and its relevance in the Irish team but they were made to look Thurles testified. That speaks to summer is obvious. day evening, an excited fan got unbeatable. the tremendous achievement Brigid. the microphone and screeched The church is separated from Thurles on Munster final day is a Perhaps they are, although the their long reign under Brian Cody place to be seen. Politicians want out a version of ‘The Banks’ that challenges of Galway and Tipper- has been. Semple Stadium by only the was notable more for its passion width of a road, and on big days in to get into the Árd Comhairle ary are likely to test that conten- But it also reveals the sense of Thurles the 11.30am Mass is seats; those photos of a TD in a tion before the summer is out. freedom now prevailing, too. packed with fans from visiting short-sleeved summer shirt pass They are, incontestably, a team When Galway hammered Tipper- counties. Red jerseys were the for street chic around Leinster with searing speed, and it was in ary in the League final, and the most prominent vestment yester- House still. Thurles on the full-forward line that their latter were then shocked by Cork day, a feast day in the Irish calen- There were, according to rumour, pace did most damage against in the Championship, it was pre- dar that might not be recognised more exotic visitors yesterday. Clare. sumed that Galway were the side as fact by the Vatican, but in its English rugby referee Wayne Munster Alan Cadogan was the prime best placed to fill the vacuum. observance is a sacred date. Barnes was said to have been exponent, but further back That feeling strengthened for Munster hurling final day sur- spotted on the terrace at the the pitch the teenage Mark many after the Leinster final eight vives even as other rituals and Town End of Semple Stadium. final day Coleman continued his days ago, but Cork’s progress has traditions are worn out. There Foreigners beguiled by hurling are remarkable debut to challenge easy assumptions. were reports of traffic tailbacks another favourite of the hurling season. There has not Their three Championship on the Cork Road into Thurles fraternity, up there with mentions is a place been a better player matches this summer have from shortly after ten yesterday of the game in a Guardian in the Championship impressed in different ways, and morning, six hours before editorial. so far, and he is that variety should bring huge throw-in. This was not a match with the to be the leading con- encouragement. The crowd that eventually power to beguile. The outcome tender for They scorched Tipperary with packed into the stadium, 45,558, seemed clear from early on. When Hurler of the their speed and willingness to was the biggest final attendance McGrath scored his goal and a seen Year with take on the Champions. Against for nine years. As throw-in drew Tony Kelly free followed to eight weeks Waterford, they withstood a team nearer, the sun shone and queues squeeze the margin between the than its techni- of the sea- expected to try and physically snaked back from ice-cream vans. teams to two points, Cork reacted cal merits. son remain- bully them. And here, they were It was the Munster final day of quickly and neatly, scoring four of The strange ing. They patient and mature, picking off memory and of legend. the next five points in the reticence in have five their scores and never letting By 5.30pm it was raining. A contest. the Clare dis- weeks to Clare have too much hope. match that never even flattered When their control was chal- play chan- pass now This was no epic, no oscillating the status of legendary was tick- lenged, they reclaimed it with nelled the before their drama befitting the day or the ing to a close. impressive authority. struggle All-Ireland legends it has nurtured. Cork, obviously the better team This pleased the majority of the among their semi-final, Do not fear, though; long lives from the opening pucks, had crowd, as Cork supporters must outnumbered and in that the legend. And long live Cork, smoothed out the anxieties have dominated by a ratio of at supporters to get time the talk revived and believing in them- wrought by a Clare goal from least two to one. heard in Thurles. around King- selves with a fervour only they can Conor McGrath with quarter of Hurling has a hold on the Rebel They could not offer ston’s young muster. OFFICIAL SPONSOR OF THE GAA MUSEUM 20 COMMENT The Irish Mail on Sunday SEPTEMBER 10 • 2017 SMOKES & DAGGERS ROUND the time last Monday that Micheál Donoghue was taking Love, pride, Inside the corridors of power... his father in his arms, another two Galway- men were meeting in Dublin. Advisers, now APresident Michael D Higgins was presenting the playwright Tom Murphy with the title of relief and joy Saoi, the highest honour in you see them... Aosdána. WE WERE perusing the list of Govern- It was one of the less heralded ment special advisers located on the web- Galway victories of the week, site of the Department of Public but there was a powerful con- Expenditure. (We must fill our days some- nection between the two events. how while this do-nothing Dáil is on offi- Among Murphy’s best work, – why this cial hiatus, as opposed to the unofficial emigration is a consistent hiatus when they return from summer thread. In plays like Conversa- holidays. We digress.) In this document tions On A Homecoming and A there appears to be some significant con- Whistle In The Dark, characters fusion. Great blank spaces exist where the struggle to anchor themselves. retinues of Eoghan Murphy, Charlie There is no place called ‘home’. Flanagan and Frances Fitzgerald should Interviewed some years ago appear. Commenting on the blank spots by Colm Tóibín, Murphy recalled homecoming one mandarin sighed: ‘We know good the power emigration exercised advisers should be invisible but this is over the west of Ireland. taking the art to extremes.’ ‘I’ve said it elsewhere that my times of greatest expectation SPEAKING of surfing the web, we and despair were on the railway also spotted, on the children’s section platform in Tuam,’ said Murphy. of the President of Ireland’s website, that ‘I come from a very big family, embrace Michael D is seeking to indoctrinate the and eventually there was just next generation early. In a section my mother and myself left – describing his life before the presidency, everyone else had emigrated. the site describes his career thusly: ‘It was just the beginning of ‘President Higgins was also a famous the Second World War. I remem- poet, writer, academic and a human rights ber my eldest brother leaving – activist.’ Famous? That’s not the word we didn’t see him for 20 years captures we’d use to describe Michael Twee’s and so he became a mythic fig- stature as a poet. ure in my imagination. But nearly everybody’s family in the west of Ireland was decimated Is this Leo’s way of by emigration.’ When Micheál Donoghue stooped in Ballinalsoe last Mon- the essence saying goodbye? day afternoon to hug his father REMEMBER Dara Miko, it was the physical mani- Murphy? He’s the Cork TD festation of a homecoming who once used a Garda car experienced by tens of thou- to ferry him to Dublin sands of Galway people – even Airport.