This is what it’s all about. Let’s head to battle.
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Nice buzz around the city this morning even though it was early enough when I was out for a stroll. A lot of lads throwing lots of bags of cans into cars in various garage forecourts along the dock road in particular:beer:
Sunburns will be off the charts in workplaces tomorrow.
I reckon the only one in recent memory was the Munster final 2022.
Munster Rugby had a hooge win
Christy O’Connor
Sunday April 21 2024, 12.01am BST, The Sunday Times
When Hannah O’Brien recently organised a sports journalism workshop for her Future Leaders Group in Transition Year in Ardscoil Rís, there were multiple themes to the exercise, spread across a host of different discussion topics: the failed European Super League, the impact Jake Paul and social media has had on modern boxing, how performance analysis can change the way sport is reported.
Yet the most engaged and energised the class were during the two hours was when they were broken up into focus groups to discuss a topic they are totally familiar with: why have Clare and Limerick been so well matched in recent years?
The students were also given two sub-heading questions to try and tease out the argument. Apart from talent, have the margins been so tight because the players know each other so well? Has that reduced the fear factor for Clare that other teams have of Limerick?
With half the class split between Clare and Limerick students, the results were insightful and revealing. “They know each other so well that they almost know what each other thinks,” says O’Brien. “You can really see the rivalry in the classroom. They’re constantly slagging each other about matches, they’re always trying to find out inside gossip.
“They’re almost creating rumours in their own head to test the other lads to see what’s true and what’s not true. They do have that same mentality, which makes it even more competitive. Every time the counties meet, these games are almost treated like All-Ireland finals.”
After the class, O’Brien who is from Quin, just outside Ennis, was in the lobby chatting with a group of fellow teachers during break-time: former Limerick player, Niall Moran, the Clare player Paul Flanagan, along with Cormac O’Donovan, who scored the winning point for Clare in the 2009 All-Ireland U21 final. Moran estimates that half the teaching staff are either from Clare, or are living in the county.
A few yards down the hall, close to the canteen, the walls are decorated with photos of successful teams and individuals from multiple sports, which includes framed pictures of All-Star winners. Conor Ryan from Clare is there. Ryan’s brother Diarmuid, another former student, has been an All-Star nominee for the last two years.
In the boiling melting pot of the Clare-Limerick rivalry, Ardscoil is the ideal place to take the temperature and sample the taste of the broth. There were nine starters from Clare on the side that contested the Harty Cup final in February; 22 Clare players, drawn from eight different clubs, were on the extended panel, one of whom, Cathal Lohan, is the son of Clare manager Brian.
“The lads really do get on well,” says Niall Moran. “They give everything for each other. Even though the school is in Limerick, we don’t identify with any county in particular. That might be held against us in some quarters, but we have always gone by that All Blacks mantra that better people make better players. The school prides itself on that philosophy.”
On weeks like this though, allegiances are always declared even louder. Because of its proximity to the city, southeast Clare has always been intrinsically linked with Limerick. “When we would talk about going out in town, most of the Clare lads would assume it was Ennis, but the south Clare lads meant Limerick,” says Podge Collins, the former Clare player from Cratloe. “We used to get an awful slagging about calling Limerick town.”
What each county thinks of the other is crystallised and magnified in this pocket but the relationship has still always been harmonious. It is spiky but never scented with sulphur, or laced with the naked hostility that defines other close-border rivalries.
“There was a strong mutual respect, and a strong respect of Clare by the people in Limerick,” says Anthony Daly, the former Clare captain and manager, who was head of the Limerick underage academy between 2015-17. “Nobody ever told me to f*** off back to Clare when I was there, and I dealt with multiple grades.
“Limerick were always wary of Clare. There was definitely a fear of going to Ennis. They’d have seen themselves as a bigger hurling county but Clare had a more successful history at the time when I was there. The rivalry has gone to a whole different level now. More than any other team, Clare would love to stop the drive for five-in-a-row.”
Despite Limerick’s all-conquering dominance, it has still never been in Clare’s nature, or their psyche, to accept any level of superiority from their neighbours. Their recent games have been so memorable because they have evoked so many memories of what Clare-Limerick games used to be like; edginess, unbearable tension, epic individual contests.
The helterskelter nature of the rivalry in the 1990s framed so much of how the relationship is still shaped. “The Clare-Limerick history is etched into folklore,” said former Limerick player Paul Browne before the 2022 Munster final. “It all stems from the 1990s when Clare got their two All-Irelands and we got none. When you talk about the anger and bitterness Clare have towards Limerick now, that was us back in the 1990s. Limerick people didn’t like Clare because of pure jealousy.”
So many of those epic contests between 1996-’99 were fuelled by Limerick’s resentment of Clare having what they so desperately craved. The mood is broadly similar in Clare now but it’s also suffused with a respect for how Limerick have managed to achieve what Clare hoped to, but didn’t.
“Seamus Flanagan came out in an interview after Limerick won in 2018 and said that they didn’t want to be like Clare, that they wanted to win more than one All-Ireland,” says Collins. “That did hurt, but I’d have much rather if we had hurt them by beating them in Munster finals and by winning All-Irelands.
“I’m not there to do it but I’m hoping the lads will. It is very disappointing when you reflect back on the opportunities we had, and didn’t take, but you have to say fair play to Limerick. They went about their business and won their All-Irelands.”
There was a stage when Limerick looked to be striding further ahead of Clare than ever before, winning their 2019 and 2020 championship meetings by an aggregate of 28 points. Limerick were also dominating Clare at underage around the same time.
Moran could see why. One day in school, he noticed Colin Coughlan and Cathal O’Neill walking down the corridor with Colm O’Meara, a Clare panellist. “They were very similar in terms of natural talent but Colin and Cathal were nearly bursting out of their uniforms, whereas Colm’s was almost hanging off him,” says Moran.
“I remember thinking that typified where both counties were at with their underage systems at that time, and how much Limerick had pushed on. But if you look around the corridor now, you won’t see that. From underage, Clare are going toe-to-toe with Limerick in terms of physical preparation, and the mentality goes hand in hand.”
The natural by-product has ensured that Clare have never been closer to possibly the greatest team ever. “In Clare’s worst days, they’ll always think they’re better than Limerick, and vice versa,” says Moran. “I often felt that Clare preferred to come into Limerick than to play in Ennis. If anything, Clare have taken more belief from Limerick’s success last year.
“I think it has increased their natural belief in themselves. Limerick may have won the last two Munster finals but it wasn’t as if Clare lost those finals — they just didn’t win them. It came down to fine margins that had nothing to do with belief. You always feel that you’re better than the boy next door.”
When the Clare minors beat Limerick on Thursday evening in Sixmilebridge, a number of Hannah O’Brien’s class were involved, including Jack Cosgrave, Limerick’s joint-captain. The Clare captain, Marc O’Brien also goes to Ardscoil. When O’Brien was part of last year’s side, the only team that beat Clare in an eight-game run to the All-Ireland title was Limerick.
No separation. No fear. No hang-ups. Never a step backwards. Never.
I can smell the freshly cut grass from here.
I saw Justin McCarthy out in the Pavillion earlier. A very bad omen…last time i saw him we lost
Kyle and Cian out is probably too much with the other injuries. Clare by 5
The intro 
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F.F.S! 
Joe like a lad who said mass this morning
Joanne forgot to take the marbles out
Rory Hayes for Leen
David Mc for Galvin
SOD for Ian Galvin
As expected really
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Limerick to win with a bit to spare.
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Ennis is a graveyard for Limerick. I wish i had your optimism.
Marty talking some scutter
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He is a dose of a man
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The whole fcekin article.
“Chat gpt, write an article about Clare Vs Limerick in the style of Christy O Connor and Mills and Boon”
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