Cork GAA - They're going home! - sponsored by Sports Direct and Super Valu

Very sad, may God be good to him

Remember watching it at the Stables around 10am on a Friday morning

1 Like

Nasty post

I was discussing this point with a friend over a pint last weekend.
I can remember the details of sporting events from my childhood in the mid 80s as clear as day but would have to rewatch the Sunday Game or Match of the Day to remember what happened last month. Is it the excitement and joy we associate with those memories as a child that keep them alive for us…

Jesus clear as day I can remember

My first Limerick Championship game, replay v Cork 1983 in the old Pairc. JBM goal, Limerick losing, Eamon Cregan coming on near the end and my father and his friend telling me how great he was.

Limerick routinely losing to Cork and Tipp over the next years, the hope of that drawn game you mention in 87 and losing the replay well. I loved that Cork team as a young lad, Teddy and John Fitzgibbon especialy.
Liverpool v Roma penalty shootout 1984, Grobbelar, Dalglish chest and volley v Chelsea to win the League 86
The rise of Ireland under Jack, the 2-2 draw with Belgium and a late Brady penalty, the road to Euro 88 and the tournament itself. The joy of Houghton and Whelan goals, the agony of Kieft.

Mexico 86, the pure magic of Diego, those goals against England and Belgium and Enzo Scifo.The names of Jose Luis Brown, Burruchaga et al.

Dennis Taylor and the 85 snooker final
Roche and Delgado the 87 Tour de France
McGuigan beating Pedrosa in Loftus Road in 85
Sevvy and that smile striding the fairways and Becker winning Wimbledon as a kid

Childhood memories are the best.

12 Likes

Ah stop, he could hardly kick a ball.

Cork would break your heart in those days. Still better than losing to Tipp though

5 Likes

Cork in the mid 80s were our nemesis, we always seemed to run them close and we werent far away with that team that won the League twice. Again as a kid I remember a game in thd Gaelic Grounds where the great Tommy Quaid let one slip through his fingers for a goal and another ricocheted in off the leg of the equally great Leonard Enright.
Tipp then gave us a few hammerings 88-91.

Was that 1985?

1984 I think, but could be wrong

Could be yeah.

It’s like music, the sporting figures and memories of your youth carry intense personal meaning. You remember where you were and what you were doing.

But I think the events and characters you listed there are iconic in a way it’s very hard to match nowadays. The years you cover were years of seismic drama and importance in Irish sport, all sport, and in Irish society and the world.

We don’t get many good iconic characters in society any more, but we do get plenty of awful ones.

The GAA of that period was rich with great, iconic characters.

2 Likes

Totally agree, I often say that to friends that jesus the characters that adorned the sporting world we grew up in were unreal.
Also I do of course know some of it is nostalgia.

Another huge factor I think was the novelty of big sporting events even on TV in those days. We had All Ireland semi finals and finals, the FA cup final and then a few league games mostly on Sports Stadium. I can remember begging my father of a Wednesday night to be allowed stay up to watch FA cup replay highlights on Sportsnight on the BBC.
When we got to watch these events we were engrossed, we looked forward to them, nowadays with the saturation coverage we half watch things while scanning our phones.

1 Like

That 1986-1994 must have been the greatest ever in Irish Sport.

Euro 88, Italia 90, WC 94, Stephen Roche/Sean Kelly in the Cycling, Tipp back in Hurling, Meath v Dublin 1991, Down, Donegal, Derry making breakthrough’s in Football, Cork being at the centre of it all. The birth of the Premier League.

3 Likes

Did you leave out Offaly beating Limerick in 94 to placate us? :rofl:

2 Likes

The 80s! No asylum seekers or immigrants and lots of casual racism and hardly any money around. Everyone trying to pretend they were middle class / upper class putting on twangs down at the pollock holes calling for little Johnny. Quality.

No something like that wouldn’t be on my radar at all being honest.

1 Like

No matter what the form book says, my mam is always afraid of Cork, and always reckons we can beat Tipp

6 Likes

:joy::joy::joy::joy:

It isn’t nostalgia, it’s objectively true. Beyond Tony Kelly, David Clifford and before that Joe Canning, who will leave a deep and enduring imprint on those who have seen them because of their special gifts, it’s hard to imagine many or even any of today’s GAA players leaving such an enduring imprint on the mind as Pat Spillane, Bomber Liston, Paidi O’Se, Mick Lyons, Joe McNally, Willie Joe Padden, Plunkett Donaghy, Gerry McInerney, Tony Keady, Noel Lane, Brendan Lynskey, Donie O’Connell, Aidan Ryan, Nicholas English, Pat Fox, Kevin Hennessy, John Fitzgibbon, Larry Tompkins, Teddy McCarthy. Or Mick O’Dwyer, Billy Morgan, Sean Boylan, Cyril Farrell, Babs Keating. And that’s not even covering the 90s, only the 80s. There’s much more GAA now but in terms of characters, it’s much duller and much less impactful.

Scarcity was what made things memorable back then. Sport, music, world events. There was a commonality and communality to it all. Information overload destroys memory and the art of making memories.

I’d remember more fellas on the Armagh team in 02 than the last two all Ireland football senior football winning sides.