Tag Archives: Munster senior hurling championship

When Clare bring war to Cusack Park it creates a championship atmosphere to rival any other venue in the country, writes Joe Ó Muircheartaigh ahead of Sunday’s game when the Banner County hope to put a marker down and take the All-Ireland champions’ scalp. “Clare, wearing the old saffron jerseys with blue hoops for the first time in years, crashed into the exchanges from the word go in a manner reminiscent of their ancestors’ assault on the English ranks in Fontenoy.” Gerry McCarthy, The Irish Press, 1972 It’s a war to the power of hurling. Same as it ever was. Febrile, hostile, primal and all topped and tailed by all-consuming bursts of noise to the ebb, and flow and giving it that concertina effect – all somehow self-contained within the airspace of the ground. It’s home to what Ger ‘Sparrow’ O’Loughlin calls organised ‘chaos’ and ‘markers down’, while Podge Collins cuts to that almost spiritual and awe-inspiring feeling of having …

On the panel for a number of years now Darragh, nephew of manager Brian, made his Championship debut last year when introduced as a substitute in the Waterford game and went on to start in the All Ireland quarter final victory over Dublin. This season the Wolfe Tones clubman has had plenty of game time to try and impress and he has certainly grabbed his opportunity with aplomb. Starting the League final at midfield, Lohan put in a powerful shift and is of course delighted with his National league medal. “It was an absolute fierce battle against Kilkenny as it always tends to be. We didn’t play as well as we have or as we can do but it’s all about the result and we’re delighted with the win. To be honest it’s great to get a reward for the hard work that we’ve put in over the last few years. To win a medal with your county is what …

IF CARLSBERG did hurling… I always used to refer back to a memorable afternoon by the banks 21 years ago when Clare and Tipperary’s hurling rivalry was at its peak and they loved to hate one another. Those looking on loved it more. It was toxic masculinity, but in a hurling sense of the term and it was magnificent. The back story was that it was the eighth time the sides had played against each other in the championship in as many years and time had marched on from the glory years of the 1990s when the team that Ger Loughnane built changed the hurling world. Forever. It was Cyril Lyons’ time, with the Ruan man being the first member of the Munster and All-Ireland winning alumni of 1995 to step up to try and keep the train moving — other members of this famous club in Anthony Daly, Ger O’Loughlin and Davy Fitzgerald would follow that same track, all …

John Kiely didn’t reference it, but you know that his Limerick team had history on their minds in Semple Stadium as they tried to go where only one Limerick team had gone before. That’s the level they’ve reached in the last few years, how far they’ve raised their own bar. Winning a four-in-a-row was that history, something the great Limerick team of the 1930s had managed between 1933 and ’36. Mick Mackey was the star of that team — now the Mick Mackey Cup was up for grabs for the first time as the Munster Championship trophy and it was everything.  Everything, even allowing for that fact that they’ve banked three Munsters, three All-Irelands and two National League titles since 2018. Everything, because it’s always the game that’s ahead of them; the next mountain they chart, survey, and climb. And, as mountains go this was as big as they’ve ever had to climb. “It meant a huge amount to us,” …

There was pride and loads of it, but after the fall and after coming out on the wrong side of a hurling epic it was hard to find some words to explain the depths of Clare’s disappointment.  The hurt; the regrets, because there’s always more than a few in any losing dressing room. But Brian Lohan stepped out to talk the talk — as a player he had no truck for losing and as a manager, he’s the very same. It cuts to his core, as a man, as a hurler and as a manager.  Munster finals are for winning — he won three of them as a player and wanted this one for his players. He wanted it as badly as he wanted it when he had number three on his back, when Munster finals had all their distinct motivations — to beat Limerick in ’95 for that first one; Tipperary two years later because they were whipping boys …

On sporting occasions such as Munster final day, one can find themselves looking back and reminiscing on past glories. With Clare going for a first Munster title since 1998, the county’s fans will be dreaming of celebrating an historic provincial success as fans flock to Semple Stadium for a blockbuster sell out that has all the ingredients to be a modern day classic. The pairing of Clare and Limerick naturally draws back memories of 1995 and the former’s ending of a 63-year wait for provincial honours. With Ger Loughnane in charge, he, alongside a now iconic group of players showed the established order of the game little respect as the Banner County came from nowhere to usurp the traditional kingpins of the game in spectacular fashion.   Heading in to the final in ’95, Clare were without a provincial crown since 1932 and were hurting, especially considering the anguish suffered in the two previous Munster final defeats to Tipperary and …

THE new Mick Mackey Cup will be presented to Tony Kelly or Declan Hannon next Sunday evening in Thurles to spark wild celebration on one side of the river Shannon, writes Jerome O’Connell. And, it’s most fitting that it’s Limerick and Clare contesting the first final for the new solid silver trophy, which was crafted in Kilkenny by Jim Kelly, who is best known for his work with the Liam MacCarthy Cup. The new Munster SHC Cup  was unveiled at a function in Mackey’s home of Castleconnell last week which was attended by his sons Michael, Pat and Greg and daughters Audrey Lennon and Ruth Doyle. Audrey Lennon set the tone perfectly for a final in which the teams are intrinsically linked. Stopping to check her words, Audrey said, “I’d love to wish the senior hurlers all the best in the Munster hurling final.” From family homes to places of work or education, these are words that will fit perfectly …

ON THE week of the 1995 Munster Final a flag pole was planted on Dr Tommy Daly’s grave on the hill of Tulla — it wasn’t windswept that week because it was a long, hot and benign summer like it was 40 years earlier when Clare and Limerick also crossed sticks in the provincial final. Still, there’s always enough of a wind on that hill for flags to flutter and so it was that the saffron and blue did its thing ahead of the big game. Many times it had been planted, in hope and expectation and a nod to the ‘greatest goal man to ever clutch a ball’, that he might send something Clare’s way. In ’55 until Dermot Kelly took a wrecking ball to Clare history; in ’67 when they came again; on four separate final occasions in the 1970s and all the way to 1995 when the habit of hurling lifetimes wasn’t about to be broken. In …