What have I done now mate?
I agree with you flatty. County games a great piss up, day out etc but losing to a local rival in a championship club game is sickening for a few days, losing a county game, might be disappointed for 20 minutes but ready to go on the piss then again.
Iron mike is a Limerick man who moved to KK when fairly young and refused to mix with Kilkenny people until he was an adult.
You give me grief about a club as well - I grew up in Moyross in Limerick and no one would come near the place … Thankfully We had a few teachers in primary school that attempted hurling with us but decided Gaelic football was easier given we were all soccer and rubby mad … this spilled over into the community and for a few years up to u14 at least we had what you could call a club I suppose … by then lads were starting to discover glue tho and things fell apart. I then moved to Westbury, a new housing estate in Corbally but which is just inside the Clare border… there was no club in the whole of corbally - it was soccer or rubby again. Parteen (Clare) have their pitch behind me family house and I often went a watched them play but they weren’t my club tho my brother played with them for a few years. The auld lad played underage with Christians but went down the soccer route with Star Rovers and rubgy route with pres… that’s a standard urban experience — crossing over between multiple sports… In rural areas clubs are the life of the community and anyone involved with a club would and should put it first… that’s if you were catholic of course and not protestant and played rubby or cricket.
In the case of Limerick City that you like to have a dig at- the parnellite split had a devastating effect on GAA and the Gaelic League in the city - in Cork City it was the opposite. You then had a new state who had very little ambition to address urban issue and placed all their eggs in rural Ireland and insisting until very recently that rural Ireland was real Ireland — this culminates in a host of social issues , most notably a housing crisis worse than anything that’s being experienced today – so local authorities throw up random badly planned housing estates - ghettos - with no amenities , no facilities, and more crucially - they have pulled families from all over the city - families with ties to organizations and clubs and societies in their own neighbourhoods and displaced them to the other side of the city…
Historical, social, cultural, political forces were all at work to place any of us where we grew up in the type of community we did… rural places were static and centred around a few institutions - GAA- pub - church …
I would certainly concede that club is probably more important to anyone from a small rural area or who is highly involved with their club … that doesnt mean you get to dismiss the importance of county either or you get to dismiss people who may not have the same club orientated experience and upbringing as yourself.
County is a piss up - a day out – a show — but it’s also a tribal shared experience that can have a massive effect on a whole county - that shared sense of belonging to something bigger is something we as humans crave … the club of course fits into that but the club is more like family – much stronger bonds on a smaller scale…
But It’s 2019 and we can be what we want and wear what we want and I wont have any little bollix telling me any different. I wont be shamed for being myself or wearing my white goalkeeper jersey to games.
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That all well and good jimbo but are you going to the semi final in croker?
Ooooft
Not a hope -too many bandwagoners going.
FAO of all the great clubmen of TFK:
www.winthehouse.ie
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I was in tears reading that…
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Thats it in a nutshell. And similar to what Art said earlier, you can have club with out county, but you cant have county without club. Everywhere is different, you have places where club rivalry is mental and tribal, but yet players wouldnt bother their bollix going to a county team set up.
Both have their importance and fans of either or both will place more emphasis on one over the other. Dodgy made a point too about club players involved on county teams, like our Leinster wins last week, I was far more happy with the minor one because there was 2 lads from the club involved and it was brilliant to see them win and know that you helped in some form get them to that stage.
And I know lads from around here that probably wouldnt even know those lads were on the team, but yet were up for the senior game and wouldnt miss a senior match, yet I’ve never seen them at a club game. Some love their club, some dont have a club. Some love their county wins more than a club win and vice versa.
But this is TFK, so it has to be one or the other or else you are a fence sitting cunt.
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A real rags to donated clothes type story that the whole forum can get behind.
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Agreed chocolate mice, each to there own. I know some clubs are a clique from experience, hard for new people coming from outside to be accepted so I can see why the county would mean more to some people. I know one lad in particular, loves he’s hurling, bit geeky, never hurled so I’d imagine it wouldn’t be easy for him to rock onto he’s local club. He follows limerick everywhere, league games, etc loves the game so is a true supporter. Everyone entitled to follow who they want, I enjoy both.
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As usual there is a nuanced answer but TFK has made it a black and white debate.
Club and county mean different things to different people. From my own perspective, I have been a member and heavily involved in five different GAA clubs. I was privileged enough to be part of some excellent underage and adult teams with my home club and cherish some of the memories I have of it, yet I can’t remember the last time I went out of my way to go and watch them at any level when I have been back home yet I would think nothing of changing plans and driving the width of the country and going out of my way in order to play a division six hurling league match of little consequence in Dublin. That is as much down to a love of hurling than a love of the club or team I represent. The fact that a sizable number of the lads I would have hurled with are no longer living in the area also probably eroded that bond/link as well.
As someone who no longer resides in their home county I have found gaa clubs a great outlet to meet people and put down roots for use of a better term in the communities in which I live but it is intercounty hurling which is inextricably linked with my pride of my home place and shapes my year.
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Everyone entitled to their opinion. Your situation completely different to mine so I can see why the county means more to you.
Would this be considered ‘explaining’?
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OMG like - it’s 2019!! I can explain if I want, like…
But not really on this occasion I think. Maybe educating might be a better term?
Don’t allow him to gaslight you mate.
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Be the hokey
At least two Rockies in that squad like