Jack Anderson: Around the globe, Irish diaspora await another Holy Moses final

Turns out she was a Ryan from Cork. The excitement in her voice was palpable. The Rebels are ready for Sunday all over the world.

The Taylor Swift concert at Lansdowne Road apparently generated seismic activity in Wexford. If Patrick Horgan points a last minute free to win it for Cork on Sunday, the roar will be heard in Wyoming.

Chatting to the Ryan Rebelette, I did that thing that all Irish people do, which is try and make a connection – where are you from, and do you know such and such? Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh once came to a function in our local School in Doon on the Limerick (South Korea)/Tipperary (North Korea) border. Introduced to yet another Ryan, he eventually, and with a smile, asked, and what kind of a Ryan are you? Because there are so many locally, nicknames are necessary.

The Rebelette Ryan had, as it turns out, no nickname. They are clearly a posher sort of Ryan in Cork. If Cork’s manager Pat Ryan ends the 19 year “famine”, he’ll have no need ever to have to introduce himself to anyone in Cork.

For those of us who think Corkness is a virus best avoided, you can still only smile at the sheer excitement at the county this week - pre-game functions, post-game arrangements, the swagger and the strut.  But so what? Isn’t that what sport is about? Entertainment and distraction from the mundanity.

Fifty years ago, the final was, as the bookies thought it would be this year, between Limerick and Kilkenny, and thereafter the mid-1970s was dominated by the three in a row Cork team of Charlie McCarthy, Ray Cummins and of course JBM. 

Names to still your childish play, as Yeats once said.

Looking back on the first of Cork’s three in a row (1976), there are similarities to the modern day – no Ulster or Connacht championships but it’s also interesting to see that the gap between the top counties and the rest might not have been so big.

Wexford, who won Leinster and got to the All-Ireland, only beat Kildare by four points in the Leinster semi-final. Galway, who took Wexford to a semi-final replay, only beat Kerry by three in the All-Ireland quarter. As it was nearly 50 years ago, hurling needs more counties to be competitive.

As it happens, the All-Ireland in 1976 was attended by just over 62,000. You could have sold twice as many tickets this year.

And so, for all the complaining we do, there is lots to admire with the GAA and with hurling in particular. Of course there is more that could be done. Looking back on this season, it is probably time to consider a free-to-air GAA TV channel. 

The trend in streaming services globally is that there is a tipping point to the amount that consumers will pay, irrespective of how many games they are getting.

GAAGO, which for all the criticism, is excellent value, must in the longer term allow for the fact that the sustainability of streaming services is in advertising revenue not subscriber fees.

My first All-Ireland – or as they call it now, my first “game day” experience – was in 1981, Offaly and Galway. In 1981, we took a slow “are you right there Michael, are you right” train to Heuston and got one of those beige, belching CIE double deckers which listed over the Liffey and dropped us with Ryanair randomness somewhere on the Northside.

After a crowd crush and being lifted over the style – he’s only a garsún – I made it inside with my father, my tin-foiled ham sandwich X-rayed against my chest. But then I climbed the steps in the stand to see the green swarth of Croke Park and the trauma of entry melted away like the pink snack in my pocket.

1981: Iggy Clarke’s clearance, Pat Delany’s soaring catch and solo – three Galway men about to descend on him, says O’Hehir, make that four – the no hands flick to Birmingham, onto the late Johnny Flaherty and the over the shoulder throw, sorry, hand pass to the net. And Offaly lead, and win. Magic.

Nowadays, we probably miss out a bit on having the senior final as a stand-alone fixture – timing your run for half-time in the minor final was, like the first Sunday in September, an elemental part of the hurling season.

Maybe the GAA should consider reviving a Railway Cup or Oireachtas tournament final, or maybe in a fantasy sport way get the public involved in selecting All-Star teams. Or even reschedule the Kilmacud 7s so that the teams that make the final on the Saturday, can play the decider at Croke Park?

For now, neither Cork (who will have the 1999 teams to commemorate) nor Clare (focused on their fifth) could care less about the preliminaries.

Clare are approaching things slightly differently to Cork. They have turned westwards and inwards, as is totally their right. 

I am not sure we will see Brian Lohan eyes ablaze like Ger Loughnane in 1995 saying we are going to do it, but it must be a huge thing for the Clare players to have a figure like Lohan in the dressing room. 

I reckon even the Spartans would have abandoned that mountain pass in Greece if they saw Lohan marching towards them.

Apart from Formula 1, which I find about as exciting as watching submarine racing from a cliff, I, like so many Irish people, enjoy a huge range of sports. But hurling, though an ancient sport, does something to you that is very modern: it demands that you to put down that other screen, and give it your undivided attention.

The sports stadiums of today are being loaded with advanced technology to ensure that fans can have the best immersive experience possible. 

I was immersed by hurling in Croke Park back in 1981, as 82,000 plus will be on Sunday. No tech needed.

I can’t say who will win. The last time Clare and Cork met it took a wonder score from a Clare corner back to take it to a replay. 

With a nod to Marty’s commentary that day, all I can say now is, as with so many Irish around the globe, we await another Holy Moses final with expectant wonder.