KILLINAN END - Beating Cork would underline Limerick’s greatness

Much will be written of Croke Park at the weekend and what might transpire but maybe looking back is a more interesting pursuit.

Limerick’s current status was forged on the bridging, three summers ago, of the long gap back to the county’s 1973 win. The gap that was closed on that rainy day in September was nearly as long itself. You had to go back to 1940 for Limerick’s previous win. At that point Limerick stood comparison with any hurling county – reasonably regular All-Ireland winners and as the second World War was really taking flight they were at the very top of the pile.

Without rehashing the ins and outs of the specific incident which saw Ahane’s and Limerick’s Mick Herbert sustain serious injury during a club game in 1949, it was claimed by Mick Mackey that this set Limerick back for twenty years. Limerick sent out teams in the 1950s it was said with players barely on speaking terms because of inter-club tensions. Certainly the results on the pitch suffered. The middle years of the 1950s saw a brief revival but this apparent renaissance was surrounded by some severe setbacks not least at the hands of Tipperary. Most stark of all maybe in illustrating Limerick’s decline was their record against Cork post-1940.

It was Limerick’s woe in the 1930s that when they were good Cork were not. None of their four Munster Finals of the 1930s were won against Cork, though they took a memorable title in a replay against the Rebel county in 1940. It would be another forty years before they again downed Cork in a Munster Final when they did overcome a star-studded reds courtesy of Ollie O’Connor’s late goal in Thurles. Like many raw statistics the full truth is not revealed – while 40 years is a long time they did not meet in a Munster Final between 1956 and 1975 which is essentially half of that time-period. And they did not meet at all in the championship between the remarkable Munster Final of Ring and the umpire in 1956 and the unexpected blossoming of Cork’s mushrooms ten years later. At the same time there is no context which camouflages the nature of the broader relationship.

However, in the midst of Cork’s great upsurge in the late 1960s and early ‘70s came a result which stands like a clarion call for what was to come. It might be regarded as the day which heralded Limerick’s arrival as a modern hurling force in its own right rather than one which owed its tradition to glorious Ahane. This was fuelled by Claughaun, Kilmallock, South Liberties, and above all Patrickswell. Half a century ago now – 4th July to be precise – it was like the old days in Thurles as the multitudes thronged to see Limerick and Cork. It was newly-crowned League champions against a Cork team which had impressively won the All-Ireland final the previous September.

The game was as impressive as the pre-match billing. Limerick roared into the early stages before a couple of Ray Cummins goals ensured that the teams were level at half-time. Limerick surged again to go five up in the second-half but Cork drew level again. It was that sort of day and when a late Justin McCarthy attempt for a goal was turned over the bar it became apparent that Limerick’s thirteenth attempt since 1940 to slay the Cork dragon was to be successful – 2-16 to 2-14. The story of Limerick’s next match in Killarney is as oft-told as any in hurling’s story. The sequel in the summer of 1973 when they went all the way to hurling’s summit was box-office too.

It was a period based on a broader resurgence in Limerick which was clear from the Minor teams of the early 1960s and the successes of the Sexton Street college’s teams during that decade. The arrival of Joe McGrath, an apostle of the newly-minted coaching generation, showed that Limerick meant business and while their fortunes since have been meandering and punctuated by crises and a sense of underachievement, they have never ceased to be centrally relevant when hurling is discussed.

There is often talk of the Limerick-Tipp rivalry of the early 1970s but in fact Limerick-Cork faced up on many more significant occasions - three League finals and three Munster Finals, all of them going the way of Cork. As with their predecessors of the 1930s, the men of the 1970s won their Munster Finals against other counties. The same can be said of the 1990s’ team. It is one of those curiosities of the GAA which will have Limerick people of long memory a little apprehensive ahead of the All-Ireland final.

Sometimes, like Down footballers’ record against Kerry, there is no explaining or rationalising the facts. In that sense Limerick have a chance to write their own history, a fresh narrative of a different kind. Those who lined out in that 1971 fixture against Cork would have thought you quite mad to suggest that the county would play Waterford and Cork in successive All-Ireland finals. Yet, here we are in the midst of a period when Munster hurling very much holds the whip hand and Limerick on the brink of something extraordinary. To do so against Cork on the biggest day of all in Croke Park would be something considering the backstory between the counties.