Dublin dialled 999 for Sam. Serial responders McCarthy, Fitzsimons and Cluxton screamed in to administer vital support. The Boys in Blue were fully restored.
The supporters got trollied.
The Dubs are All-Ireland champions once again.
Victory in any final is sweet at the best of times but beating arch-rivals Kerry to take the honours made this one extra special for Dessie Farrell’s squad. Dublin’s footballers have been so successful in recent times that a 24-month gap between titles was being described as something akin to the wilderness years rather than a routine aberration.
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The county still has a fair way to go before any dreams of drawing level with Kerry in overall championship wins can be entertained: Sunday’s nail-biter in Croke Park sees the Kingdom still well ahead with 37 titles but the Metropolitans have narrowed the gap with their 31st triumph.
But records fell nonetheless.
Dublin won one cup and gained three GOATs. Captain James McCarthy (the first player from the Ballymun Kickhams club to lift the Sam Maguire), veteran goalkeeper Stephen Cluxton and full-back Michael Fitzsimons each made sporting history by adding a ninth All-Ireland medal to their bulging trophy cabinets: members now of the very exclusive Club 27.
Perhaps it was the persistent drizzle, or maybe it was the lack of a football curtain-raiser before the main feature, but the atmosphere in and outside Croke Park seemed more subdued than usual for a big Dublin-Kerry showdown. But the pubs in the city streets around the ground were hopping. With little by way of entertainment to entice supporters to the ground in good time before the game, the small ceremonial preliminaries played out in front of very sparsely populated stands.
Leo Varadkar was rolled out to take the Taoiseach’s salute along with a bishop and a GAA bigwig and was greeted with silent indifference by the small crowd who weren’t even interested enough to roar a few insults. The supporters finally belted in from the bars when the players were already out on the pitch and warming up.
Suddenly, the strains of a sadly familiar melody filled the ground and the big screen lit up with the achingly flawless face of Sinéad O’Connor. The fans on Hill 16 stopped chanting. The stands went quiet as people turned to look at her.
Then everyone burst into applause. That video. Those tears. We weren’t crying.
“Ar dheis Dé go raibh a h-anam,” said the announcer when Nothing Compares 2 U and the second round of applause died down.
This brief tribute could have appeared out of place. But it didn’t. Because this was All-Ireland Day and it was special. It seemed right.
It seemed right, in the same way that a photograph of 17-year-old Keeley Durnan – a big Dublin fan and a valued player with St Maurs GAA club in Rush – was displayed on the screen before the national anthem. Keeley died last week following an illness. The crowd paused in her memory and in solidarity with her family and friends.
Where else would you get it?
[ As it happened: Dublin v Kerry in the All-Ireland football finalOpens in new window ]
[ No pretty pictures painted but the Jacks are back after rainy day in CrokerOpens in new window ]
More than 80,000 people packed into a stadium with no segregation of supporters or need for dividing fences or safety breaks. Even on Hill 16, spiritual home of the Dubs, a not insubstantial cohort of Kerry supporters had annexed a swathe of territory in the upper reaches on the Cusack Stand side. When Dublin fans detonated their blue smoke flares, a fog of green and gold rose up in defiant reply.
Outside on Jones’s Road before the match, RTÉ’s Marty Morrissey fielded the occasional shout of “How are ya getting home, Marty?” and “Do ya need an oul lift home, Marty?” with good humour. Whatever about the current controversy over payments and commercial arrangements enjoyed by some of RTÉ’s big name personalities, as soon as he finished interviewing former Kerry footballer Colm “the Gooch” Cooper and former Dublin star Paul Flynn, he was engulfed by wellwishers begging for selfies.
Sligoman Gerry Boland slipped in smartly and got him to sign a football. “I’m getting it signed for Mickey Kearns, who was Sligo’s first All-Star footballer. He’ll be 80 in April and we’ll be having a big do for him in St Patrick’s in Dromard.”
Other signatories included the GAA president, Larry McCarthy, Pat Spillane and singer Philomena Begley. We hope Gerry spotted Séamus Coleman, captain of the Irish soccer team, before he put away his black marker.
Séamus was also in big demand for selfies. And the aforementioned Marty Morrissey, hoping to keep a low profile, wasn’t doing very well as he was ambushed by Late Late Show host-in-waiting Patrick Kielty and comedian Dara Ó Briain as he tried to make a run for the media entrance.
Another man in demand was Terry Broughan from Cabra, who was dressed as Molly Malone in a flowing Dublin blue dress and matching curly wig. He was carrying a very impressive replica of the Sam Maguire trophy.
“I’m doing this in memory of my father, Tony, who came here dressed as Molly Malone every time Dublin was playing. Everyone knew him. We’re going to be having an under-15s tournament in his honour on September 9th in Naomh Finbarr’s – the Tony Molloy Molly Malone Cup.”
He says a man arrived on his doorstep one day after his father died and handed him the replica. “‘That’s for your Da,’ he said. ‘You have to keep it going and keep doing the work for charity.’ This is my first time doing Molly Malone since he died – three years in September. I feel him here around me now. I feel it in me heart and in me soul and I hear me Da saying ‘We’re going to win it this year.’”
Not if Caoimhe McLernon (7) from Newry in Co Down had anything to do with it. She was dressed head to toe in the Kerry colours, including a large Mexican sombrero. Her auntie Katie from Cahersiveen kitted her out. Katie’s brother is former Kerry star, Maurice Fitzgerald.
Back inside, the pitch looked pristine, expertly mowed into a tapestry of green plaid and broad stripes. But the soft rain hardly let up all afternoon. At times it seemed like the surface had been drizzled with olive oil instead of summer showers.
The play in the opening half matched the weather – dull. Even the crowd drifted in and out of excitement as the two sides cagily circled each other.
Kerry scored a goal on the stroke of half-time and went into the dressingroom one point to the good. Few were willing to predict the outcome when the teams emerged. Tension levels rose on the field and in the stands.
Kerry twice went ahead by three points only to be pegged back. It was an exhausting watch. Nerves were in flitters by full-time when the sides were level with six minutes of added time to endure.
These final minutes were a thrilling torture until Dublin pulled ahead by two points in the heart-stopping closing moments.
Dean Rock – about to pick up his eighth medal – sent the ball over the bar and the Dubs into orbit with his last score. Another veteran doing the business in Dessie’s fine blend of generations. Dublin’s men fell to the ground in ecstasy. Kerry’s warriors collapsed in agony.
Forty-one year-old Stephen Cluxton walked slowly from his goal to joined his jubilant team-mates.
Then the unmistakable voice of Christy Dignam blared from the PA system. Dublin’s own Christy, another star who died recently.
“Everybody hits you with this feeling
Nobody seems to understand
Yeah you stop, you look
You’re searching for the meaning.”
It was a powerful, emotional moment.
And no, we weren’t crying.
David Clifford, Kerry’s young talismanic captain, sat on his own. Inconsolable, as Christy Dignam sang about people’s dreams. Cluxton – he’s seen it all before – walked across and shook his hand as golden streamers blasted from the roofline and fireworks burst into the grey sky.
The Kerry players remained on the pitch for the presentation ceremony, spectators at somebody else’s party. As James McCarthy’s men giddily celebrated, they silently and gallantly watched – desolation in still-life.
“This isn’t my strongest suit, but I’ll do my best,” said McCarthy as he prepared to take possession of Gaelic football’s greatest prize.
“It’s an amazing day,” he cried, before calling for a “massive bualadh bos for Kerry”. No call for three cheers, a development which didn’t go down too well with some of the supporters from the Kingdom who stayed to watch.
James didn’t let himself down, even if public speaking isn’t his thing. His speech was brief but he said all that needed to be said, his voice thick with emotion at times as he thanked the many people who made this special moment possible.
And then, two hours after they took their hopes on to the field of play, Dessie Farrell’s men – young and not so young, multi-medal holders and starry-eyed first timers – did their lap of honour, taking their prize to Hill 16 and its euphoric residents.
Already, Croke Park’s high-vis army were out with rubbish bags, clearing away the golden tinsel.
The victors and their supporters danced to Thin Lizzy and Bruce Springsteen because yes, the Boys were Back in Town and living their Glory Days.
And then, and then.
One last song. Sinéad again. Singing Molly Malone. Lads, what are you trying to do to us?
And the crowd sang about cockles and mussels, overjoyed and a little sad.
No. We’re not crying.
Up the Dubs.
