KIELY NEEDS A LITTLE TIME
After 44 years of failure, Limerick have nothing to lose by being more patient this time around
IF you drive through the pretty village of Adare these days, your eye can’t help but be drawn to the busy construction site on its outskirts, where Adare Manor is getting the necessary facelift to ensure that it will be fit to host the 2026 Ryder Cup. A few months ago, JP McManus revealed that one of his dreams was to bring this battle of the continents to his picturesque golf course in the heart of his county. However that’s not his biggest dream. What keeps the tycoon’s slumbers pleasant is the thought of his home county ending their long and painful wait for another All-Ireland title.
Limerick set out on another summer’s journey this afternoon in a Shannonside derby against Clare. The prize is huge. Not just a place in the Munster final but also a guarateed place in the All-Ireland quarterfinal. But in the Treaty County, history has taught them not to look too far down the road.
It is 44 hard years and counting since Limerick last stood atop the hurling world. For one of the game’s traditional powers, that seems an eternity. The most obvious comparison is with the Mayo footballers. In both counties, hours are whiled away, recounting the sorrowful mysteries of those that got away.
There have been five final defeats in those four decades of pain – 1974, 1980, 1994, 1996 and 2007. And the heartache was artfully chronicled by Henry Martin in his book, the aptly-titled Unlimited Heartbreak.
Current manager John Kiely was part of the 1990s panel that can consider themselves one of the best teams never to win an All-Ireland – and one of the most unfortunate. Not just because of those mad final few minutes in 1994 when Liam MacCarthy slipped from their grasp and into Offaly’s grateful hands but also because they were at the top when Ger Loughnane harnessed the ravenous hunger of their neighbours into an All-Ireland winning machine.
‘I was very privileged to be part of that panel,’ Kiely recalls. ‘They were a fantastic team and we had some fantastic days. We won a couple of Munster titles and narrowly missed out on a couple of All-Irelands. There is no doubt that we had opportunities in the last 25 or 30 years to get that All-Ireland title but it remains to be done at the same time.’
When he interviewed those involved in the 1994 final, Martin felt that the pain was still raw, even 15 years later (he wrote his book in 2009). It took Limerick hurling a long time to recover from what happened in 1994 and perhaps, the scars from that held them back for years.
However, while the pain of 1994 will remain for supporters, it matters little to this generation of Limerick players. ‘When I wrote the book, I did wonder if Limerick hurling ever really got over that final. To have one hand on the trophy and the whole thing slip,’ Martin recalled.
‘But 1994 doesn’t mean as much to this current generation of players. A lot of those that will play Clare weren’t even born when that final took place, others need to read about it in books or watch it on video to see it. Or be told about that day by their parents or siblings or whatever.
‘We now have a generation of hurlers who aren’t carrying the scars of that day.’
The five-minute defeat to Offaly hung around for years. At the turn of the millennium, Limerick were sweeping all before them at Under 21 level, on their way to three AllIreland titles in a row. It sent the county giddy with expectation but that golden generation were never able to translate that success onto senior level − the 2007 season aside when they reached an All-Ireland final.
Even though they lost that decider to arguably the greatest GAA team of all-time in Kilkenny, it was one defeat too many for a lot of Limerick supporters, according to Martin. When the county finally rose again, recapturing Munster in 2013 after 17 years, the sad thing was that many Limerick supporters missed out on those emotional and wonderful scenes in the Gaelic Grounds.
‘I know a lot of Limerick supporters who weren’t at that Munster final, because they couldn’t face another big-day disappointment, supporters who remembered not just 1994, but 1980 too. And there have been other dark days.
‘And it was a special day for any Limerick supporters, I saw former players in floods of tears in the Gaelic Grounds. It’s just a pity that some missed out on it.’
Limerick fell flat against Clare in Croke Park that year but they were back at headquarters a year later. In a gloriously intense semi-final played in a downpour, they took Kilkenny to the very brink. Afterwards, the plaudits all went to Limerick but by the end of September, Liam MacCarthy was making a familiar trip down to the Marble City. They have been close, but not close enough.
The wonderful display against the Cats was the high point of TJ Ryan’s reign which was characterised by wild mood swings among supporters that a frustrated Ryan himself referred to after a League quarterfinal against Dublin last year.
‘In Limerick, we go from talking about winning All-Irelands to talking about sacking the manager. We need to get real,’ Ryan said at the time.
However, Clare’s former AllIreland winning captain Anthony Daly, currently working with the Limerick academy, feels that Kiely and his management team may be afforded a bit of time.
‘John Kiely is in his first year as manager after being with the 21s and Paul Kinnerk has gone in with him as coach,’ Daly observes. ‘I think there is a sense in Limerick that they will be given time. There’s always an impatience in Limerick. I understand it if you were brought by your auld fella by the hand to the ’73 final and then you had lived through ’94, ’96 and 2007, you are frustrated.
‘And it’s easy for a Clare fella to be saying “be patient” when he has seen three Clare teams bringing the cup home in that time. So that impatience will always be there in Limerick but I think with their current group of players, there’s great potential, with those players that won the Under 21 title. And I think if they are given time to put their own stamp on it, they will be contenders in a year or two.’
Who knows? If JP McManus does succeed in bringing golf’s greatest golfers to Adare in 2026, he might do so having already seen Limerick finally make it back to the top of the hurling world.