It was a soft evening in Semple Stadium as tens of thousands turned out to welcome the new All-Ireland champions home, but occasional bursts of rain did not discourage supporters.
Metaphorically at least, the sun has been blazing down here since about 4.30pm on Sunday, when Cork’s “favourites” tag for this year’s title evaporated like a shower off a hot tarmac road. If the real thing made only a few appearances for the team’s return, it was better to accentuate the rainbow with a pot of blue and gold under it.
All evening, the town square was like the approach roads to Croke Park the previous afternoon, as street traders did a busy trade selling hats, flags and headbands to supporters. The difference in this case was the absence of anything red on the stalls, except on a few half-and-half scarves on sale to Tipp fans who wanted a permanent reminder of who they’d beaten.
There was also the occasional flash of crimson from passing C-registered cars whose owners had driven through the town, out of pride or masochism, before turning left off the square to continue their sad journey south. Never did the nickname of the Cork colours – “blood and bandages” – seem so apt.
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At the Bookworm bookshop on Parnell Street, a sign taunted the bookmakers who made Tipperary outsiders to win on Sunday. “Stick to the horses Paddy Power! Up Tipp!!!” read one side of the sign. “Please tell Cork that they are favourites for next year as well!”
If the weather was soft, meanwhile, the celebrations had a hard edge. At the crash barriers in front of the stage, Anne Nevin from Killenaule traced the origins of Sunday’s victory to the meeting of the same teams in the Munster championship when Tipperary’s Darragh McCarthy was sent off early on (“Cork made a meal of it”) and his team lost by 15 points.
“Our lads were on a mission Sunday,” she said, her confidence in revenge undimmed even at half-time, apparently. But did she not feel a bit sorry for Cork by the end? “Not a bit,” she said, a motion confirmed with a head shake by her friend Carmel Brennock from Ballylooby: “They tormented us that day in Páirc Uí Chaoimh.”
Also wearing hearts on sleeves were Tim Curran and Cecil Ryan from Clonoulty Rossmore. Well, strictly speaking, Tim had no sleeves. But he was wearing the lyrics of Slievenamon on the back of his T-shirt, which is the next best thing.
Veteran supporters who have celebrated Tipperary All-Irelands since 1971, neither man could remember seeing anything like their opponents’ collapse on Sunday. Even so, they too struggled to find any sympathy. With a mischievous smile, Tim even suggested that, thanks to speed cameras, Cork “may have got more points on the way home last night” than in the second half of the game.
Among the youngest supporters in the stadium, by contrast, were identical 15-month-old twins Tommy and Albie Norton, who it turned out had been born in Cork – but only from medical necessity, as their parents pointed out.
When mother Shauna had her first scan, it suggested she would have only one baby. A second revealed monochorionic twins (sharing a placenta), a development that brings certain risks and meant they would have to be delivered in Cork or Dublin.
It’s a rare condition, their father Thomas – a fuel merchant from Grangemockler – said. He struggled to recall the exact odds against it, but they were a lot longer than the 6-1 at which he had a €100 bet on Tipperary at half-time on Sunday.
“Seriously?” The Irish Times asked. “Yes,” he swore. Unable to attend the game because of the babies, he and Shauna watched it in Grangemockler’s The Trap pub. So there are witnesses to his fearless wager. No, he didn’t expect Cork’s second-half collapse: “But we were in their faces the whole first half and I knew they were feeling it.”
