Yea Sidney, you giant Gaylord.
KC claiming a victory here⌠our work here is done,enjoy the game.
These lads need their little giddy laughs on the internet, they are simple folk extracting the simple pleasures from life, and good luck to them I enjoy a laugh as much as the next guy. But the hamster in their skull gets over excited too easy and the poor gombeens are falling over themselves before long. Best tactic, stand back and let them beat themselves⌠A bit like on Sunday, Papa smurf will have so much ranting and raving done in their dressing room the poor Clare lads will be running into each other coming out the tunnel they will be so confused.
Expect scenes like this all along the Clare coast on Sunday evening.
[SIZE=5]
[SIZE=6]A rivalry that spans more than just the Shannon[/SIZE][/SIZE]
Christy OâConnor â 16 August 2013
[SIZE=5]Early on Sunday morning, a bus will leave Daggers pub in Ardnacrusha, packed with people from Parteen.[/SIZE]
Itâs a Clare bus heading to [U]Croke Park[/U] that will be loaded with a fusion of Clare and Limerick jerseys. When Clare and Limerick meet, no soul in Parteen can ever deny their own heart.
Weeks like this are not a time for ambivalence or uncertainty. Allegiances are never hidden, always loudly declared.
Some houses around Parteen have Clare and Limerick flags hanging out the same windows, a metaphor for mixed marriages and the split personality that defines some households. Living in Clare and rearing Clare families is still never enough to dilute the thickness of blood pumping through Limerick [U]hearts[/U].
There are numerous interfaces stretching along the 20km border between Clare and Limerick but Parteen is at the heart of the frontline. The counties meet and intertwine in this pocket of south-east Clare, and what each county thinks of the other is always crystallised and magnified.
The relationship has always been harmonious and was never scented with sulphur or cordite, or laced with the naked hostility that defines other close-border rivalries.
Unlike other rivalries, there is no real direct connection with cross-border clubs, so the Clare-Limerick rivalry is largely confined to good-natured humour and exchanges from within.
âThe banter is always great on weeks like this because everyone is good friends,â says Paraic Conlon, Chairman of Parteen GAA club. âFathers are going to the match in their Limerick jerseys with their sons wearing Clare jerseys.â
Because of its proximity to the city, south-east Clare has always been intrinsically linked with Limerick. Six of the this yearâs Clare panel went to school in Ardscoil Ris alongside nine of the Limerick panel.
Smouldering
When Ardscoil won their first Dr Harty Cup title in 2010, current Clare senior Cathal McInerney captained a squad that included five Clare players.
That close connection between the two counties has always kept the Clare-Limerick rivalry smouldering, while the fire was constantly stoked by the high number of people crossing the border for work on either side.
Living right on the boundary though, inflated the pride people from south-east Clare always had in their Clare identity.
They have always cherished it. Sixteen years ago, Limerick Corporation first asked the Minister for the Environment to extend the Limerick city boundary into Clare. The Corporation requested over 4,000 acres in Clare, taking in Shannon Banks, Westbury, Parteen, Meelick, Clonlara and Gillogue.
The majority of the 3,000 people living in those areas were totally against the proposal, and a committee called âClare Against the Boundary Extensionâ, which Conlon was a part of, fought the battle for well over a decade.
The clubs of Parteen, Meelick and Clonlara would have all been heavily affected by [U]the move[/U] but Parteen stood to lose more than anyone. The vast majority of their parish was in the proposed new extension.
âThe club effectively would have been wiped out,â says Conlon. âEven our pitch would have been incorporated into Limerick.â
In response to some of their initial questions, Limerick Corporation said that Parteen could continue to play in the Clare championship âif they likedâ. Therein lay the answer. âWe would have been playing in the Clare championship,â says Conlon.
âBut as years went by, people from around the area would be regarding themselves as Limerick people. Then it probably would have come to a vote some day that we play in the Limerick championship. We would more than likely have had to sell our field and buy some place out in Ardnacrusha.â
Some locals had already seen the effects of a previous extension. In 1950, Limerickâs first cabinet minister Michael Keyes granted the city its only boundary extension, which saw Caherdavin incorporated into Limerick.
âCaherdavin was in Clare but in the space of a generation, the Clare link was almost completely gone,â says Jim Gully, who was Chairman of âClare Against the Boundary Extensionâ. "And once that link goes, it never comes back.
âWe were proud of who we were, and we werenât prepared to let it go. It had happened before. It wasnât going to happen again.â
In Parteen, three years ago, around 2,000 people marched in protest against the proposed move, with every underage player in the club marching in their club colours.
The fear had hung over the whole area for almost a generation, but it was finally eradicated when a new government took over and Environment Minister [U]Phil Hogan[/U] quashed the proposal.
Identity within the local clubs had always been important, and it was also heavily intertwined with their struggle to gain full identity within the Clare club culture. Parteen splits the border just over a mile from Thomond Park, home of [U]Munster Rugby[/U].
Almost completely cut off in a corner of south Clare between the canal leading into the Ardnacrusha Hydro-electricity plant and the river Shannon, Clonlara has similarly always been indelibly linked to Limerick.
âThat was something we always had to live with,â says Gully. "When we went up to hurl clubs around Ennis, youâd often get this attitude, âLetâs bate this crowd back to Limerickâ.
âIt was just part of it, but it steeled us even more because we always tried to have an answer for it.â
An amalgamation of Cratloe, Clonlara, Killaloe and Parteen reached the 1972 county senior final under the banner of St Senanâs but they were hammered by Newmarket.
The lack of profile and status those clubs had in the following decades stemmed from a lack of success and from only providing a drip-feed of players to county teams.
Jackie OâGorman (Cratloe) and Colm Honan and Tom Crowe (Clonlara) won [U]National League[/U] titles in 1977 and 1978 but both clubs only had sporadic representation on county teams until the current generation arrived and blew that convention to pieces. Both Cratloe and Clonlara now have a whopping 12 players â six each â on the senior panel.
Clonlara had five starters on the Clare U-21 team which won the 2009 All-Ireland title. Cratloe had four starters on last yearâs All-Ireland U-21 winning team. Gully managed Clonlara to their first senior championship in 89 years in 2008.
Clare senior selector Mike Deegan managed Cratloe to their first senior title in 2009.
Having such a high number of players on the senior panel now reflects how the power in Clare hurling has shifted from the big traditional clubs to the south-east. Clonlara and Cratloe are taking that reality in their stride, but it has boosted the overall self-assurance and outlook of all the local clubs.
âIt has given massive confidence to all the clubs down here,â says Conlon. "Ten years ago, we were only a junior club. Last year, we were beaten in the intermediate semi-final.
âWe are putting in a massive effort this year and are quietly hopeful of winning intermediate. Going senior would bring more of our players in to the limelight. But being successful on the field of play would also really strengthen our identity with Clare.â
On Sunday, south-east Clare will empty and head for Croke Park. They will all travel together; club-mates, friends, families. Not all will shout for the same team, but each soul will be loyal to their heritage. And true to their heart
[quote=âKid Chocolate, post: 818227, member: 553â]I have fcuking walked all over the limerick ⌠I was reading back over it this morning.
[/quote]
#kidchocolateisrattled
Fact
End of
Chewy, the rat, has only gone and banned a whole ip address over on Clare hurlers to stop me posting, the cunt.
limerick knacker
ha ha war limerick surrender monkeys sign a surrender treaty
Whereâs everyone gone
Banned.
Just looking at the Clare v Galway again, christ that Clare defence is average at best. We will murder these fucks.
Fair play horsebox, iâm sure the 4 mins you lasted was top notch.
That Clare full back line is there to be taken to the absolute cleaners. If Hannon stays on the edge of square for any lenght of time he will produce a goal.
When you see wee Damo Hayes winning ball in the air you know they arenât at much. Congest the midfield and break a few of their necks and we will bate them handy.
Been saying it all year. The Clare boys think they are great because they are âpaceyâ!
They arenât even that fast.