Robbie O’Flynn’s last shot drags wide in front of the Hill 16 and, somehow, that’s that. They won’t care how the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship final confluded, in Ennis, in Miltown Malbay, in Killaloe -- Liam MacCarthy is coming to Co Clare again, and just like in 2013, Cork are the ones to suffer.
On Jones Road, it’s all Clare. They’re screaming “Up the Banner!” and calling home to let them know what just happened, even though, as one Clarewoman notes, “Everyone and their mother’s here from Clare!” The vendors are selling the mock driver’s registration plates – it’s the year of 24 CE LIAM, 11 years in the making.
Still inside the great amphitheatre looming above them, Tony Kelly is about to lift the Liam MacCarthy Cup. “Hurling is like religion, and Brian Lohan is like God,” he says, hoisting hurling’s biggest prize to the heavens.
Donal Lawlor, from Newmarket on Fergus, can’t have heard Kelly – he’s on Jones Road soaking it all in – but it’s clear he is a devotee to the Church of Lohan.
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“He deserves everything he gets today, he’s a genius. A legend in the hurling field, and a legend off the hurling field. The greatest of all, and that’s for sure.”
It was heart that drove Lohan’s team to victory, Mr Lawlor says, thumping his chest. “Four years of pure pain.”
Len Gaynor, three-time All-Ireland winner with Tipperary, appears beside Mr Lawlor to give his two cents.
“It was a very good win,” Mr Gaynor offers. “And he’d be one of Lohan’s biggest fans!” Mr Lawlor points out. “That’s right yeah,” Gaynor confirms. “He’s a tough man.”
Further down the road, Mossy Bunyan, from Ballincollig, is being very diplomatic, standing beside Edel Casey, from Cranney, Co Clare. “She’s over the moon. Great game, serious game of hurling,” he says.
He’s gracious in defeat, he agrees – for now. “We’ve still to go home now in the same car,” Ms Casey points out.
Dick Edmonds has a good distance to cover before he gets home. He’s travelled from Hartford, Conneticut to see Clare lift Liam MacCarthy.
“I’ve been 59 years in America, I came back for the match. Well worth it. I’m from Killaloe,” he says, a New England twinge to his accent. “I thought I’d have a heart attack.”
But it’s not his first All-Ireland: he was he in 2013, too, and 1997. “It’s tribal, right?”
Martina Flynn, from Tulla, was there in 1997 too, but that too long ago for her daughter Nessa, standing beside her, to remember.
It’s special to be in Croke Park this time around, she agrees. “Your heart would be in your mouth!”
The Banner just had that bit more this time. “I think just the drive and the momentum, and the hunger, it kept us going towards the end, especially in the extra time,” Nessa says.
On Clonliffe Road, a stream of red jerseys are already on the road home, faces sullen and eyes puffy. It’s 20 years waiting for another Liam MacCarthy title now.
“Hopefully not another 19 years to get [the All-Ireland title], thought,” says Aileen Caffrey, from Midleton, taking a breather as she hikes towards Dorset Street with the Rebel masses.
She’s happy she was there at all – she got a ticket 30 minutes before throw-in – but it’s still a blow.
Her brother Colm Caffrey is “just bitterly disappointed”. He’s got some opinions on the referee’s performance, and the calls that went against them, but ultimately: “Fair play to Clare, they came out flying and swinging.”
“We’ll be back next year,” Aileen says.
Earlier, thousands converged on Croke Park for the clash with Cork, spilling into surrounding streets and public houses and carrying various levels of optimism about their respective counties’ chance.
A clammy Jones Road was a pulse of red and blue-and-yellow activity, punters trying to fit it all in before throw-in – sorting a spare last-minute ticket, finding the nearest bar to quench nerves with cider or making time for a quick reunion.
Summing it all up, Pat Keane, from Sixmilebridge in Co Clare, said: “Today, as somebody said, it’s like Christmas Day for hurlers.”
Opinions were split on Cork’s stunning semi-final victory over Limerick earlier this month – denying the Treaty County a chance to make it five All-Irelands in a row – and how it might have a bearing on Sunday’s match.
Sean Murphy, from Youghal, leaned against a hatchback, denim jacket over his Cork jersey. “We’re overdue [an All-Ireland], that’s the truth. Especially when you beat the favourite twice, in the one year... we have to push on,” he said.
“We’re due one. It would be wicked if we would lose three in a row, wouldn’t it? That’s not on.”
For a hurling stronghold like Cork, has it been hard for the people of the Rebel County, to go 19 years without a title? “It’s hard for me, I can tell you. I haven’t too many years left,” Mr Murphy said.
[ Cork v Clare live updates: All-Ireland hurling finalOpens in new window ]
But Flan Lynch had other ideas. “The way we think is,” Mr Lynch, from Sixmilebridge said, “they won their All-Ireland beating Limerick.”
In the Higgins family from Lissycasey, Co Clare, loyalties are split. Joe, originally from Wilton in Cork City, was wearing red, and his wife, Lorraine in blue and yellow, still in good spirirts some two hours before throw-in.
“We’ll get revenge for 2013, won’t we,” Joe said, looking down to his son Harry – wearing a half Cork, half Clare jersey – who obliges. “Yep.”
But it’s the Cork fans who will have to wait at least another year for revenge.
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