DJ Carey hurling clinic: A glorious summer day and there's DJ Carey giving a hurling clinic on a rugby pitch. That was the scenario yesterday as the nine-times All Star put first-year students from Willow Park School, Blackrock, through their paces.

Earlier in the morning he had spoken to students from the senior school, Blackrock College, about the virtues, not just of hurling but sport in general before reiterating his talk on the under-13s' rugby pitch to the whole junior school.

Strange as it was to see DJ and the Liam McCarthy Cup in this environment, the ecstatic reaction was no different than if he was parading through St Kieran's College, Kilkenny, hurling's equivalent to the rugby nursery.

"What I didn't realise is that the GAA was founded here. I don't think that's widely known, which is a nice bit of history. We all thought it was founded in Thurles but it was founded in Blackrock College," said Carey.

Well, that's not exactly true. The sentiment is correct though. The main man behind the Gaelic Athletic Association was Michael Cusack, a teacher in Blackrock at the time of the GAA's foundation in November 1884.

The GAA officially got off the ground in Hayes Hotel, Thurles, but initially Cusack held meetings in the front parlour of the school.

Aptly, DJ began his visit yesterday in that very same parlour. There is a direct link between DJ and the south Dublin school. Two farms back on to each other in Gowran, Co Kilkenny. One belongs to the Careys, the other to the Goughs. Fr Joe Gough is the games master in the college.

"I would have a link here with Fr Joe Gough, who is my next-door neighbour in Gowran and a very good friend of my father in particular as they would have gone to school together (Gowran primary). So, when he rang to know would I bring in the cup I couldn't say no."

With that DJ was gone. Shuffling up the avenue with the McCarthy Cup tucked under his arm, ambling through a throng of students and dispensing his knowledge to a new generation.

If alive today, Cusack would have liked nothing better than to see the country's most decorated player spreading the hurling gospel, especially after the weekend his native Clare have just experienced.