Among the thousands of Kilkenny fans in Croke Park for the All-Ireland final tomorrow, few will have been to as many as Michael Byrne.

Mr Byrne will be at his 70th hurling final in 71 years, and the day will be a double celebration; he will be 53 years married to his wife, Maura.

Although the 87-year-old lives in Drogheda, Co Louth, he was born in Callan, and is still loyal to his home county.

He has been attending finals since 1945. He missed out the following year due to illness, but has been to every hurling final since 1947. He started attending football finals in 1950.

Speaking from his home yesterday, Mr Byrne recalled his first Croke Park visit. “It was Tipperary and Kilkenny and it was 5-6 to 3-6 in favour of Tipperary; we used not to be able to beat Tipperary in them years,” he said.

Programmes

His late brother-in-law, from Kilkenny, had brought him. It cost a shilling to get in and the programme was three pence. “I have it somewhere; I have programmes for all of those years, all those All-Irelands, over 100.”

He was 16 when he made it to the capital for that first final, because he had no way of getting there until his brother-in-law offered. They stayed with an aunt in Leixlip.

He didn’t have to miss the match for his wedding either, on September 4th, 1963, to Maura Allen from Claregalway, Co Galway.

“When we decided the date, we didn’t know Kilkenny were going to be playing Waterford,” he said. “I went to the match on the Sunday and I was married on the following Wednesday; I had a lot on my mind that time.”

Asked for a scoreline prediction for tomorrow’s match, he said he’d rather not give one.

“I’d say there won’t be much in it anyway. There will probably be a couple of goals for both sides,” he said.