Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
HQ RECORD 1995-2013..
Banner flying once again but can they invoke spirit of ‘95?
STEPHEN MCNAMARA was still a teenager when he stood on the Canal End in 1992, wondering what it would be like.
The Clare footballers had come from nowhere to win a Munster title for the first time since 1917 and, naturally enough, took a large following to Croke Park for the All-ireland semi-final against Dublin.
“When the Clare footballers came out, the place rocked and of course you’d never seen saffron and blue in Croke Park before so you’re kind of going, ‘Oh my God’,” Mcnamara (below) recalls.
“It’s all you wanted to do, to see what would it be like if the Clare hurlers got there.”
Three years later, they did, after ending their own 63-year drought without a provincial title.
It was liberating. After years of serial failure against the same opposition at the same grounds, they were heading to play Galway in Croke Park, a team and a venue they had no baggage with.
It was a summer much like this one, the game played in scorching heat and, with Clare involved, it was the biggest semi-final crowd in years.
Justin Campbell (above) started wing-forward for Galway and, when the Clare team came out, the roar shook him.
Mcnamara continues: “I think the Clare support, Jesus, it brought us to a level we’d never been at before. I’ll never forget running out into the Canal corner, remembering 1992 and saying, ‘Oh my Jesus, how are we going to control this?’
“But it didn’t intimidate us, it actually gave us confidence, if that sounds funny.
“We were looking at Galway after winning their three Allirelands in the 80s and we’d have looked up to them and we were saying, ‘Now we’re on the same field as Galway’.
“They still had lads that had All-irelands won and you were there on the pitch with them. There was a kind of, ‘Oh f**k lads, now the real stuff has started. Jesus I’m on the same pitch as Joe Cooney, I only saw him in a club match’.
“You’d kind of be in awe of them like but, ‘I’m here now, I might as well get on with it’.”
Clare were an unknown quantity and trailing well behind Galway in terms of big game experience at Croke Park. Their opponents saw that as an opportunity. “There was still a question mark coming to an All-ireland semi-final to see how they would perform,” Campbell says, “we were hoping we could capitalise on that, that it was a new team out of Munster and it would take a good while to settle and stuff like that.
“We weren’t afraid of them or anything like that, that they were going to blow us off the pitch because we sort of fancied our own chances.
“I think it was one of those games, it was written in the stars that it was Clare’s year. They had momentum.” Galway made the more assured start, Campbell helping himself to a point as they went 0-3 to 0-1 ahead. “I was wing-forward on Anthony Daly. I thought I was going alright at the time but Joe Rabbitte actually suffered from asthma. “I don’t know what degree of heat it was but he was picked centre-forward and after 15 minutes he was in serious trouble in trying to get his breath and he was moved in corner-forward and I was moved in centre-forward in Seanie Mcmahon.
“Anthony Daly was easier than Seanie Mcmahon!”
Clare settled with a goal from Ger ‘Sparrow’ O’loughlin and then Mcnamara booted in a second.
“I was lucky enough the ball dropped and as the boys say, ‘You play football because you’re not able to play hurling’ so I just kicked it to the net.”
Sparrow whipped in their third goal straight after halftime and Clare were eight points clear.
Francis Forde, the current Galway coach, flicked a goal at the other end and a string of points, the last from Campbell, brought Galway back within two. Their spirit was broken by a mammoth PJ O’connell point, however, as he swivilled on his left for a raking score from midfield.
“If it was another player that scored that point it mightn’t be as significant but he certainly seemed to be fierce well liked by the Clare supporters,” offers Campbell. “He was one of these lads that would rally a team really, no more than Ollie Baker who was another one at midfield,” Campbell offers.