For more than three decades she has lived across the water in London, but the pull of the GAA remains strong. Helen Dignam will be glued to the TV this Sunday and thinking of her family and friends back in Tipperary.
Dignam is in her native Carrick-on-Suir for a few days, with her sister Breda Power, also living in London. They are visiting siblings in the town which lies on the frontiers between Tipperary and Kilkenny and are anticipating Sunday's All-Ireland hurling final as much as anyone.
Dignam is flying back on Sunday morning but will be “sitting in the house with a big screen in front of me in good time for the throw-in” . She says “the whole of southeast London” is Irish, so many of the local pubs around Woolwich will be airing the showdown when Tipp aim to prevent a three in a row and ninth title in 12 seasons for the Cats. “My husband, John Dignam from Faugheen, has the whole house booked for the day,” she adds, in case anyone was thinking of using the television for anything else.
Visit from London
Two of their sisters living in
Carrick
,
Sharon Power
and Nóirín McGrath, are delighted to get a visit from London. The blue and gold sombreros sported by the sisters and their friends may have the right colours, but were picked up in Cancun,
Mexico
– not exactly a hurling stronghold. “I got them on holidays in 1998, $40 each, and they’re great,” McGrath says. “We get them out every year.”
Their friend Ruth Fitzpatrick blasts out a few lines of Slievenamon, followed by her own composition, the gist of which goes on about killing cats: "Hopefully we'll be singing on Sunday night . . . "The heart will start pumping on Saturday."
The Carrick estate is packed with flags, bunting, wooden figures of hurlers, the odd painted bicycle and even some Kilkenny colours, reflecting the proximity to the border.
"I'd say it will be a very tight match," Yvonne Norris says, while her son Oisín (4) poses for the camera, complete with hurley and sliotar, in front of a sign depicting "Tipperary Dogs v Scaredy Cats". It's a sign they have had since 2013 but so far it has yet to greet a Tipperary win in the All-Ireland.
Tipperary jersey
Down near
Grangemockler
, again near border territory, Jackie Grinsell is looking forward to watching the match in Kilkenny city, where her Tipp jersey will be slightly at odds with her surroundings. To complicate matters, her husband Tony is from
Windgap
, well inside Cats country. “I’ll get a slagging but I’ll wear it anyway,” she says.
Over the road, Kathleen Brunnock, who is originally from Kilkenny, admires the black and amber flags she has been erecting in recent days, side by side with the blue and gold assembled by son John.
“One of my flags fell down this morning,” she mourns. Tipp supporter John retorts, quick as a flash: “Hopefully that’s a good omen for Sunday.”
Time will tell.
