Class differences simply do not apply when it comes to
It’s not just about rugby and hurling in the Treaty County but the two sports play into each other
WHEN it was announced that 35,000 tickets had already been sold in Limerick the Monday before the All-Ireland hurling semi-final last month, it was like the secret was out that the people of Limerick knew something special was coming the following Sunday. I hopped on board and bought a ticket for Hill 16.
The last time I watched a game on the Hill was 11 years ago in a nerve-wracking All-Ireland football quarter-final when Kerry beat Monaghan by a point.
I fooled myself into thinking that returning to the Hill as a neutral for this hurling semi-final wouldn’t be as intense as going to watch my own county play.
But there’s no such thing as being neutral – this hurling championship doesn’t work like that.
And especially when it comes to watching the Limerick hurlers this summer.
I was an outsider on the Hill three weekends ago because nearly everyone else wore their county colours as Cork and Limerick supporters swayed, cheered and made an All-Ireland semi-final feel like a final.
I stood beside a Limerick man in his seventies. When Limerick were six points down with eight minutes left, it was like the life had been sucked out of him. But as Limerick started to shoot their comeback points into the Hill end, I began to watch the game through the rising hopes of this Limerick supporter beside me.
When Pat Ryan (left, above) scored a goal in extratime, a strained vantage point meant having to depend on the reaction of others to confirm what had just happened.
The Limerick gentleman beside me started celebrating like nobody was watching. When he turned around his eyes were bursting with disbelief and joy as if he truly could not believe what was unfolding in front of him.
Watching him celebrate that Limerick victory was the most memorable part of the day and got rid of any notion that you could be neutral watching Limerick.
Limerick have previous when it comes to the power of their support. Rewind 12 years to O’Connell Street in Limerick and the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.
It’s the 61st minute of the 2006 Heineken Cup Final and Munster are leading Biarritz 20-16.
There’s a stoppage in play before we were given one of those unique moments in Limerick and Munster sport.
“We’d gone into a bit of a lull, and the supporters had gone a bit quiet too. We needed something to happen – someone make a massive break or a big tackle. Anything to lift us again,” Paul O’Connell (left, below) said in ‘Munster: Our Road to Glory’. “It turned out that we got it from the supporters watching the big screen in Limerick.”
When an O’Connell Street packed with thousands of supporters flashed up on the big screen in the Millennium Stadium it took a few seconds to understand what was going on because we’d never seen anything like it before. Seeing the fans in Limerick’s main street cheering and roaring at seeing themselves on the big screen whipped up a feral energy in the Munster fans in the stadium as they stood up and cheered back at their own people in Limerick.
It was an unprecedented orgy of mutual appreciation. The players felt and saw it too on the pitch.
“Some of the lads were slow to comment on it after the game because they didn’t want to admit they weren’t concentrating on the match,” Marcus Horan recalled in ‘Our Road to Glory’. “But we’ve spoken about it since and it was something we will remember forever”.
Who knows if Munster’s first Heineken Cup had a knock-on effect in inspiring the Limerick hurlers but the following year they qualified for their first All-Ireland hurling final in 11 years.
It came in-between Munster’s two Heineken Cup final wins. The storylines building up to that ’06 Heineken Cup Final were drenched in a need for Munster to reach the promised land and bring an end to what felt like incomparable years of hurt from their two previous final defeats. But the European Cup as a competition was only a decade old when Munster finally won it.
Some people baulk at comparing sports but it helps to give context to the position Limerick hurling is in – they haven’t won the Liam MacCarthy Cup since 1973. Fortyfive years must feel like forever for Limerick hurling.
The county hurlers tried to tap into what Munster rugby were doing.
Renowned Limerick rugby commentator Len Dinneen remembers meeting former Limerick manager Eamonn Cregan outside the old Thomond Park during Declan Kidney’s first stint in charge of the province.
“He wanted to have a word with