Cork singing the blues after Thurles
Cork supporters returned home from Thurles last Saturday night in downcast mood. There was no lingering around famed Liberty Square or no stops in Holycross, Cashel or Cahir - no it was a subdued cavalcade of Rebels left the darkness around Semple Stadium.
Waterford fans on the other hand savoured the moment as they were well entitled to do. The Déise hurlers won their fourth ever National Hurling League title by a margin of six points - in truth it could be double that. The Waterford fans mingled with their heroes on the pitch and ‘twas well after ten o’clock before the lights went out in the pitch, bought many decades ago by Tom Semple.
One car load of joyous Waterford fans headed home to Ballyduff but went via Mitchelstown, Kilworth, Fermoy, Glanworth, Ballyhooly, Rathcormac, Watergrasshill, Bartlemy, Castlelyons, Ballynoe and Conna before arriving at their destination sometime after midnight. One of that group was Pad Flynn.
On the Sunday morning, a very solemn yet poignant ceremony took place in the Flynn household. In Lourdes about ten years ago in the month of June, Cork and Waterford hurling fans who were part of the Cloyne Diocesan Pilgrimage to Lourdes gathered in The Agena Hotel to watch the hurlers of Waterford and Cork play a Munster Championship game - long before ‘back doors’ or ‘round robins’ were invented. Things got hot and heavy during the match - this was in the foyer of the hotel now mind! A Tipperary man intervened before any further blows were struck, insults traded or reputations destroyed. Peace was restored and a friendship Treaty was signed, called the Lourdes/Modeligo Pact.
This agreement stated that in future when Cork and Waterford played in a national final the losers supporters would extend the hand and bounty of friendship to the winning side. So on last Sunday morning it fell to a Cork supporter, John Arnold, to traverse the County bounds and present a Waterford supporter, Pad Flynn, with an array of suitably blue wrapped food items. Hands were shook and the goodies were handed over. If Cork come back and beat Waterford in this year’s All-Ireland Hurling Final the reverse arrangement will apply.