Tag Archives: John Kiely

All-Ireland Hurling Final 2018 Pt 2

Aug
22
2018
by Brendan Ó Sé | Comments Off

Sunday’s All-Ireland Final was the 15th All-Ireland Final I have been to, but the first one that did not involve Cork. Back in May when I set out on this project the dream was that the Rebels would reach the final, win it and that there would be a glorious homecoming back to Leeside for Liam McCarthy after, what is for us, a huge wait of 13 years. Not to be. Not this year. No, this year was destined to be Limerick’s.

I got the Luas into town about 10.30. It was busy, even at that early hour. At each stop more and more fans got on. Hushed conversations about tickets, rumours of injured players and who had predicted what in the Sunday papers could be heard. Getting off at Stephen’s Green and heading down Grafton Street the green of Limerick  began to become very evident and outnumbered the maroon of Galway. Young families decked out in green pushing buggies, groups of young fellas caped in Limerick flags out looking for an early house to settle the nerves and elderly gentlemen with discreet greens walking alone, all killing time, trying to stay occupied until the throw-in at 3.30.

The Lyons family from Kilcormannan

“I’m a teacher. The kids in my class got me this t-shirt last year. It has brought me luck thus far. Let’s hope it continues today.” Vincent Brannelly told me.

Vincent Brannelly

“I flew in from Denmark yesterday, but I’ll tell ya, if we win today, it might be a long time before I get back.” Frank O’ Carroll (on left) told me. Here he is with his friends Tadhg Carey and Liam Horgan. The lads had tickets for the banquet after the match. I can only imagine the craic they had at that.

Frank O’ Carroll, Tadhg Carey and Liam Horgan having a few pre-match calmers

“The two Mannions. They’re my favourite players.” Young Darragh Monaghan told me. “Mine too!” said his brother Cormac.

Edel and Helen Monaghan with Darragh and Cormac Monaghan and Breda Gardiner

“We’ve a Cork lad with us! Look at him!” “Make sure you say I’m 9 years hanging around with these lads.” John Buckley from Cork told me. “I’ll be slaughtered!”

We’ve a Cork lad with us

Gas lads enjoying the craic of All-Ireland Final day.

From left to right: Rob Henehan, Laurence Hogan, Will Hayes, Darrach Skelly and John Buckley – ‘the Cork lad’.

“Don’t kill me now, but for the life of me I cannot remember your name.” I said. “That is Sir William O’ Dea.” his match day friend John Lillie told me. Willie was too young to remember 1973 but his two friends John Lillie and John Keating did. “What stands out for ye about the day?” I asked. “The bloody rain. The rain and the ink from the paper hats running down my face!” John Lillie said.

John Lillie, Wille O’ Dea and John Keating

“What do I remember from ‘73? The rain! It was torrential. That and the pitch invasion afterwards. It will stay with me forever but I hope today will be better.” Bill Chalk told me.

Bill Chalk

“They were asking me in check in in Gatwick if it was March 19th. No, March the 17th is Patrick’s Day and no, it’s the All-Ireland. Limerick are in it. Sure they didn’t have a clue.” David Lysaght told me. “How’d ya get your ticket?” I asked. “Would you believe I promised a Wexford man in London I’d buy 50 cases of his gin off him. I work in live music venues. Ya, he got me the ticket. 50 cases of Bonak Gin now. But it will be worth it if they win. “

David Lysaght

“Oh, we’re friends now, but come five o’clock we mightn’t be!” Breen Doris from Galway told me. “Ya, he might have to take the bus and I’ll get the train!” Colm Woods said.

Breen Dorris from Galway and Colm Woods from Limerick

Over the course of the past three months and sixteen games I’ve gotten to see familiar faces at the games.  Always been a pleasure to meet Galwayman John Ward at the games. Always up for a chat and to display the colours.

John Ward from Galway selling matchday colours

“OK. I am confused. That’s a Kerry jersey, but you have a Limerick flag and Limerick hat. What’s going on?” I asked. “Well, I wanted to get a Limerick jersey but they were all sold out. So, the only one that was left that was green was this one.”Luke Fox who was heading to Croke Park with his dad Ger told me.

Ger and Luke Fox

“I’ve been going to All-Irelands for every year for the past 20. I haven’t missed one in that 20 years.” “I’m a Kilkenny man.” Tom Corcoran told me. “So, you’ve seen great days here at Croke Park. What has been the best for you? “2010.” “Tipp won that.” I said. “It was a brilliant game of hurling.” Tom said. “But ye lost?” “Still, it was the best.” “What about 2009? The 4-in-a-row; that was a great game?” “It was, it was that.”

Tom Corcoran

“Galway girl!” Ji Jay told me. “Ye’re following Galway girl because of Ed Sheeran?” I asked. “Yes. Ed Sheeran. Galway girl!” he replied.

Ji Jay and Kelly Lo from China

“We won!”

Karoline McKeogh and Tommy Rehilane

“We lost!” “But we both saw them win last year, but it is still very hard!”

John and Aaron Fahy

“You got married last week? The All-Ireland is your honeymoon?” “No. We postponed when Limerick got to the final. We will go now in October. But this is better than a honeymoon.” “Where’s your husband now?” “Inside in Gill’s getting us drinks!” “That’s the way to have it.” I said.

Pat O’ Brien and daughter Martina Burke

“We did it!”

Joanne McCarthy Colbert and Kadie Colbert

Big gang of delighted Limerick supporters

And so it comes to an end. This has been the most wonderful experience for me. Sure, Cork did not make my dreams come true, but I am very proud of them. They played some magnificent hurling and won out in Munster. We will look to next year. I got a feeling it will be Cork’s year. For now, it is all about Limerick. So happy for the great people I met from Limerick over the summer that 45 years has been bridged. Congratulations again!

I cannot finish up here without thanking Bord Gais Energy, in particular Conor Barron who was so supportive in getting the project off the ground. Ellen Mackessy was fantastic to work with throughout and am really grateful to her. Thanks to Karena also and all at Bord Gais Energy.

To everyone who stopped and chatted and shared their stories with me – a huge thanks. I will never forget it.

Here’s to dreaming it all up again for 2019. Here’s to hurling!

The heart of hurling

 

 

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All-Ireland Hurling Final 2018 Pt 1

Aug
21
2018
by Brendan Ó Sé | Comments Off

The pre-match parade

78 minutes and 38 seconds into Sunday’s All-Ireland Hurling Final and Joe Canning stands over a free in his own half under the Hogan stand. His Galway side that he has carried for the most part of this game find themselves trailing by 1 point. We are over time. A full 1 minute and 38 seconds of the 8 added on minutes over.  The 82,000 inside the stadium and the millions watching on TV and listening on the radio hold their breath. Could Canning level the match? A Galway side that looked dead and buried on 68 minutes when Shane Dowling scored Limerick’s 3rd goal to give them a 8-point lead somehow rallied to bring the destiny of the Liam McCarthy for 2018 to a 1-point game. Joe Canning has been in this position before. In 2012, not too far from the spot he is now standing on, he scored a free into the Hill 16 end to salvage a draw for Galway against Kilkenny. This time he is further out and facing the Canal end a full 100 metres away. But this is Joe Canning; no ordinary man, no ordinary hurler. This has been the season of the comeback in hurling. Sides have seen big leads clawed back. And in the back of every Limerick person’s mind is 1994. Could Limerick trip up when the end line is so close in sight again? Canning lifts and strikes. The sliotar soars and sails towards the Limerick goal. It is on target, but does it have the length? For 5 seconds it sails through the air before coming down in the large rectangle where 9 Limerick and 6 Galway players wait. The players tussle and swipe, desperately trying to get the sliotar. Then a green shirt breaks from the pack. Limerick’s Tom Condon bursts out with the ball. The referee blows the final whistle. And with that 45 years of hurt disappears. Limerick have won the All-Ireland Hurling Final of 2018. They have won, what many will consider to be the greatest All-Ireland of all time. They are champions. Liam McCarthy is theirs.

Limerick fans celebrate the final whistle

The roar from the Limerick crowd is deafening. The stand shakes and shudders such is the intensity of their celebrations. The stadium is awash with green. The Limerick supporters surrounding me are hugging each other. Tears of joy running down the faces of men who would have been but boys when their county last won. Down below some supporters burst on to the pitch. They have waited a generation to see their hurlers win. Now they want to acclaim them on the field. Much has changed since their last win in 1973 and one thing is stewards will not allow fans on the field after the game. They are shepherded back to their seats. On the big screen and over the loudspeakers John Kiely is interviewed: “”We were always the bridesmaids – but today we got over the line.” On the pitch the players are running from one to another jumping into each other’s arms, hugging tightly. They have done it. They’ve won. The Cranberries’ song Linger blasts out over Croke Park and the relief of finally getting over the line now seems to turn to joy; to enjoying and savouring this moment. Limerick’s moment.

Tom Morrissey scores Limerick’s second goal

Shane Dowling scores Limerick’s third goal

The match was not a classic. What it did have was a classic ending. Limerick were by far the better team, but so easily could have blown it in the end. They went 30 minutes in the second half without scoring a point. They had 20 wides. Galway were flat and never looked capable of reaching the standards they had set in matches like the Leinster Final replay and the 2 All-Ireland semi-final against Clare.

Man of the match Kyle Hayes scoring a point

My take on it is this. I feel the new format, while being a great success and giving us some absolutely classic encounters, was one that teams found hard to manage. The players are amateurs. They were asked to play so many high intensity matches at intervals they had no previous experience of. In seasons gone by teams have played as few as 3 games and won All-Irelands. Kilkenny won most of theirs playing 4. Galway played 9 this season. Limerick played 8. I saw evidence in Galway’s play that they were in decline from the Leinster Final replay. In that first 20 minutes they produced the best hurling of the championship blowing Kilkenny away and racing 9 points up. But in the 2nd half Kilkenny mounted a comeback and got within a point of them. The 2 matches against Clare followed a similar pattern. Galway could not maintain their momentum. The arrived to the final tired. Limerick on the other hand were that bit fresher, but not at their peak. Their score of 3-16 was their lowest of the championship. Placing 3rd in the Munster Championship created a path to the final which benefitted Limerick. They had a 3-week break from their defeat to Clare before playing Carlow. With all respect to Carlow, Limerick’s next real championship game came a week later to a Kilkenny side who would play their 3rd championship match in a row in the space of 2 weeks. Limerick then had a 2-week break to the semi-final against Cork and another 3 weeks to the final. Yet, while they were clearly the better side on Sunday and clearly the best team of the championship, I felt they were not at their very best in the final.

Joe Canning

Looking to next year, I think teams and the GAA will have learnt an awful lot from the new format this year. I would imagine the GAA will convene and from this there will be some minor changes to allow all teams a break in the round robin series to ensure no team has to play on 3 consecutive weekends. With no papal visit next year, we will probably see the final being pushed back to the first Sunday in September. For teams, the challenge will be how to manage players’ fitness and to manage the squad. With the games coming thick and fast it must have been hard to get those who did not make the first 15 to match–day levels of fitness with so little hard training possible with the quick turnaround of games.

All-in-all it has been a brilliant season of hurling. I have loved every moment of it, bar my beloved Cork hurlers losing to Limerick in the semi-final. I got to go to stadiums I have never been to. I saw some classic encounters. But what I will take away from it all is the sense of pride and identity the sport of hurling brings us. Over the 3 months of the championship I met with hundreds of supporters from all the participating counties and many with no allegiance to any side. I can literally count on one hand the number of people who walked past me or said no when I told them of my project. Invariably I was met with a smile and a warmth. People were quick to gloss over crushing defeats they experienced and tell me of the craic they had with their friends or family on the way to or from the match instead, or they would tell me with hope how this year would be different. I heard many the story of great rivalry, but none of bitter hatred you might get in other sports. Engaging with them, I have heard their stories and learnt what their county means to them; discovered how hurling lets them live off past glories and dream of ones to come. Hurling is something we all share and cherish. We may be selfish in our dream of glory for our own county, but hurling is all of ours. A national treasure passed down through generations. Its story tells of who we are.

Seán Finn block down without his hurley

Part 2 – with photos of the fans I met will be posted tomorrow.

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Cork versus Limerick, July 29

Aug
01
2018
by Brendan Ó Sé | Comments Off

It is time again to allow yourself dream. To dream that this year is going to be the year that sees that Liam McCarthy trophy come home. The year that your beloved hurlers will conquer all-comers and emerge triumphant in August.

That was my dream as I set out on this photography project back in the month of May.

Cork and Limerick fans in Hill 16

Sitting in the Hogan Stand in Croke Park on Sunday with 7 minutes to go in normal time of the All-Ireland Semi-Final against Limerick I am dreaming. Dreaming of an All-Ireland Final in 3 weeks. Dreaming a gap of 13 years without Cork winning the Liam McCarthy being bridged. Then Limerick begin to claw Cork back; point by point over the next 10 minutes. With each of these points the dream is distancing. The momentum has swung. Limerick sense Cork are dead on their feet. The Limerick crowd in Croke Park sense it. Cork cannot get a hold of the game.

Daniel Kearney hobbling off

1 minute over the regulation 70 and Aaron Gillane pulls Limerick level. The score stands at 1-26 a piece. Anthony Nash pucks out. Cork’s Robbie O’ Flynn fields the ball and turns. Racing towards the Limerick goal he sees his captain, Seamus Harnedy calling for the ball. A hand pass in and Harnedy has to jump to control it, but he has the ball in his hand. He takes two steps and readies himself to strike the ball home and put the game beyond Limerick. Three Limerick players line the goal. The ball leaves Harnedy’s hand and he pulls his hurley back to lash it. The sliotar seems to stop in time and space and another hurley, that of Limerick’s goalkeeper Nicki Quaid in flight, stretches across from the right of the goal across Harnedy’s body and bats the sliotar away. Harnedy’s swing continues but there is no ball there to be met. The chance has gone. Limerick work the ball out and up the field to Pat Ryan. Damien Cahalane fouls him on the left-hand side of the square. Limerick have an easy free in front of Hill 16. An easy free to go 1 point up in the final minute of added on time. The dream looks dead. Aaron Gillane taps it over. Limerick lead by a point and there is 73.10 on the clock. Nash knows his puck out will lead to the last chance for Cork to rescue the game. He pucks out. Lehane gathers the ball for Cork on the 70 yard line under the Cusack Stand. The referee sees a foul and Cork have a chance to level the game. Pat Horgan comes out. Stands over the ball. Stoops and rises and in one movement pops the ball over the bar. The teams are level again. And we head into extra time.

I breathe.

Limerick’s John Kiely orchestrating things from the sideline

For me, the two 10-minute periods of extra time had an inevitability about it. I felt Limerick would not be beaten. Cork had seen their best players go off injured. Limerick’s subs made a monstrous contribution. And it came to pass. Limerick powered through Cork in the end and were fully deserving of their victory. The hurlers of Limerick and Cork left everything they had on that sod of Croke Park. Cork left their tears too. The roar of the Limerick crowd when the final whistle went is still echoing in the stands. Limerick had every right to rejoice. Cork will have a lot of questions to mull over in the dark winter months ahead. As Joe Cole, a Cork fan, said to me before the first Cork game of the championship: “‘Winter is sad until we get going again in summer.’  The summer of 2019 seems so distant now, but the dream goes on. For Limerick, the dream is alive. In a little over two weeks they will come to Croke Park again. This time they will play for the biggest prize in hurling. I believe they will win it.

Limerick and Cork teams

Sunday’s match was not the easiest for me. First there was the rain. A lot of rain. Not what you want when you were are not dressed appropriately for it and not what you want when you want to stop and engage with fans on their way to the game. At the best of times, stopping fans on their way to the stadiums is not the easiest of things to do. Usually there is a convoy of people making their way along the footpath or road to the game. Stopping them can result in holding up those coming behind. In fairness, the people I have met have all been so patient and supportive. Sunday was a little trickier. The rain was bucketing down for a good hour before the match. I didn’t feel comfortable stopping people in the rain to get their photographs. 

“I used to go to all the games. I’m De Chief. I used to have an Indian headdress.” “I’m not going to the match today. I just came up for the atmosphere. I’ll watch it with some buddies in The Shakespeare.” Cork super fan Ger ‘De Chief’ Feehan.

Ger ‘De Chief’ Feehan

These two neighbours go to all the matches together. “Pa loves to dress up and sure why not. He looks great. Look at those shoes.” Liam Goodwin told me. “Beating Kilkenny was like winning the lottery for me. Better! Everything is possible now. We got them off our back.” Pa Buckley said. 

The Dalton family from Limerick. “What’s the best thing? I asked. The buzz; the thrill of it all!” The father Paddy told me. “We always go as a family. Always have. It’s what we do.”

Two Cork supporters, Tom McCarthy and John O’ Connor. “We grew up in Millstreet. It was football all day long, but that’s changing now. Before there’d be no players from there on the Cork team, but now sure we’ve Mark Ellis.”

Tom McCarthy and John O’ Connor

“I just live five minutes away. Ya, it’s great. I get discounted tickets and I can cycle to the games.” “Can we make the story that you cycled up from Limerick? I asked. “If you want to, ya.!” Local teacher Rob Griffin is a teacher who lives in the Croke Park area.

Rob griffin

Cork fans dressed for the rain

 

Limerick fans – No more about it!

Fans on their way to Croke Park

Fans on the way to Croke Park

Throughout this project I have never hidden the fact that Cork hurling means everything to me. I am not impartial in any way. I admire and respect all counties and am happy for the wonderful Limerick fans I have met on the way. When I was in the tunnel of the Gaelic Grounds in June I loved that they had murals depicting the greats of Limerick hurling down the years, but it really struck me that it was so long since they had won an All-Ireland. 45 years. Many fine Limerick teams and players have come and gone in that time and many times they got close to bringing Liam McCarthy Shannonside again, but didn’t. I have a feeling this is their year. I really hope that they have not peaked and that they can reach an even higher level in the final. They play a great brand of hurling. Dynamic, skilful and powerful hurling. It would be great to go to the Gaelic Grounds in 2019 and see new murals on the tunnel walls of this young Limerick team with the Liam McCarthy trophy.

I have loved following the rebels this year. There were some glorious days. Sure, last Sunday was a bitter disappointment, but I am immensely proud of the team and the management. They gave it all they had.  They played some blistering hurling along the way and while the manner of losing a 6-point lead on the home stretch will cause anguish, I am sure that will come back stronger, better for the experience. The dream lives on. Here’s to 2019. Here’s to number 31. Rebels Abú!

We’ll be back!

 

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