SHC Qualifier Round Three: Seán Moran explores the historical echoes Killarney's Fitzgerald Stadium will carry for the hurlers of Cork and Tipperary today

It is the GAA's most picturesque major venue. Cast against the backdrop of the Reeks, Fitzgerald Stadium in Killarney is also unusual in being a football ground with a rare hurling resonance. This afternoon in the Guinness All-Ireland qualifier series Cork and Tipperary resume a rivalry that has taken them only twice to south Kerry but both occasions have assumed the status of legend.

Back on the 23rd of July 1954 the counties met in the Munster final. Tipperary were on the way to the second All-Ireland of their famous three-in-a-row. Cork provided their principal opposition and would follow their neighbours' success by a three-in-a-row of their own between 1952 and 1954. Between them they ruled the hurling world for the best part of a decade and a half from the early 1940s.

A massive crowd, over 10,000 in excess of the official attendance of 39,000, packed the ground, overcoming the minimalist stewarding arrangements of the day, and thronged the sideline.

There were a couple of reasons for an unusually tense atmosphere. Firstly, it was a boiling hot day and, secondly, the previous year's replay between the teams had been so vicious that Cork's Jack Lynch had written to the papers in protest a week later.

According to Tipperary's eight-time All-Ireland medallist John Doyle, his team reached their peak that day in Killarney. As Tipp threatened to run away with the match, leading at one stage by eight points, elements of the Cork crowd grew restless and, according to Séamus J King's History of Hurling, there was a pitch invasion midway through the second half, after which Cork were a transformed side.

Christy Ring scored a goal to spark a Cork comeback.

As the excitement intensified there were minor encroachments with virtually every score. In the end Tipperary hung on to win by three points.

Tipperary's Mickey Byrne, in an interview with the late Raymond Smith, said the Limerick referee had to be rescued from the wrath of Cork supporters: "Christy Ring stepped in and stood between the angry crowd and Bill O'Donoghue. They obviously respected their hero for they retreated a few paces and then Christy and the police escorted the referee from the field."

Cork's Johnny Clifford, who would win senior All-Irelands as both a player and a manager but was still a minor that day, was in the crowd. He feels accounts of the rowdiness have been exaggerated.

"I don't remember it being that bad. There was a huge crowd but I don't remember any serious interference.

"There was one guy from Cork, O'Mahony I think was his name, who was a harmless creature but drink used get him into trouble. One bottle would set him off. That day he got onto the field but Jack Lynch, being the politician, put him off again.

"What I most remember was the Cork defender who was called in to hit the puck-outs. I was just behind the goal and it was an incredibly hot day. This fella would huff and puff over to take them and then turn back out to his position. At times the ball would be back over the bar before he'd got there."

Clifford was centre stage again in 1987 when Cork and Tipperary next came to Killarney. He had managed Cork to the previous year's All-Ireland and was in pursuit of a sixth successive Munster title. Tipperary for their part were on the verge of ending what would become known as the famine, an unprecedentedly barren 16-year spell without a provincial title.

Nicky English, like Clifford an All-Ireland winner as player and manager, was on the Tipperary team for whom Killarney would hold a special memory. All told the team played four championship matches in Fitzgerald Stadium that year, including the replay of the Munster final that had been drawn in Thurles.

"Senior members of our team - and we weren't that senior but had been around since 1982 and '83 - had been through the 1984 final when we were caught on the line. In '87 there was that danger again when Cork got two points ahead in Thurles after we'd dominated the game and were leading by five during the second half.

"So the draw wasn't that big a disappointment. At least we'd got back into the match and drawn it, survived. Leaving the ground that day we felt that Cork would probably play better in the replay but that at least the tide was turning.

"We were offered a toss for venue and said no, which suited us because it meant Killarney would have to be the venue. The Gaelic Grounds in Limerick were unavailable because they were building the Mackey Stand. Ultimately that's why we went to Killarney as often as we did that year."

Clifford remembers being equally hesitant about tossing for venue in the wake of the drawn match in Semple Stadium. The home and away arrangement between the counties expired with that match and there would be a problem deciding where a subsequent agreement would start. Tipperary refused to concede the replay to Cork and wanted any new rota to start that year in Thurles.

"I'd hoped that Tipp would agree to come to Cork after the draw in Thurles. I spoke to Frank Murphy in the Anner Hotel and he said that Tipperary wouldn't come to Cork. I asked him not to toss because I didn't want to come back to Thurles for a second week. I always left that sort of thing up to Frank and he came back at about 7.30, saying that we were going to Killarney."

English has no doubt that the venue was an advantage to Tipperary.

"I remember it being a fantastic surface, much better than Limerick and as good a pitch as we played on. It was also a novelty because we used to stay overnight in a hotel. By that stage we had a routine and were very familiar with the venue."

Clifford's problems ran deeper than the venue. According to Clifford the team's championship preparations had been disrupted by an All-Ireland champions' trip to the US just before the summer.

"That set us back and in fact Limerick should have beaten us the first day," he remembers. "And by the final we were struggling with injuries. There's no doubt Tipp were the better team the first day in Thurles but I felt that we were the better team in Killarney for 60 minutes.

"We were decimated with injuries by extra time and had to bring people back on that we'd already taken off. Even if we'd won though we'd have found it very hard to raise it for Galway in the All-Ireland semi-final, which was only two weeks away."

English remembers a difficult start to the replay: "For most of the first half it looked like Cork would hammer us. Pat Fox had a goal disallowed. It hit the stanchion and came out but the umpires ruled it out.

While we were arguing about it Pat Fitzelle scored a point and that was that. But you could see on the television that it had gone in. "Then Tony O'Sullivan had one disallowed for Cork with 10 minutes to go. They said he was in the square but it was shown later that he wasn't."

That incident, which might have given Cork a six-point lead, still haunts Clifford.

"My big memory was Tony O'Sullivan getting a very good goal that was wrongly disallowed. I went a bit mad and if I'd seen the television replay I'd have been worse. I know they had the same earlier on but when you're the manager you're only thinking of your own team."

Despite the historic nature of the day from a Tipperary perspective, English says that the afternoon's outstanding performer was on the losing side. "Teddy McCarthy was magnificent that day," he says.

"Remember this was the day when Tipperary won a first Munster title in 16 years. If they could have made someone from Tipp man of the match they would have, but unanimously Teddy McCarthy got it without any Tipp player close."

Nonetheless, his strong memory is of rising confidence the longer the match progressed. "Throughout the second half I felt we were going to win. Once we had got away with the first half without being buried."

Still Tipperary needed an equaliser to send the match into extra time. English was the provider, calmly palming over the crucial point when advancing on goal, the winner apparently at his mercy.

"I felt I could have been hooked and that anyway a score wasn't definite from that angle. In hindsight it was a great decision because we won. If we'd lost by a point it wouldn't have been so great.

"Once we got to extra time I knew we'd definitely win. I remember John Fenton, who had been scoring all day, something like 12 from 12, but he missed the 13th and a huge roar went up. Everyone knew Tipperary were coming."

Goals from Donie O'Connell and Michael Doyle finished off Cork in extra time and the flattering nine-point margin allowed Tipperary players soak up the atmosphere as the clock ran down on the county's long wait for a Munster title.

Clifford remembers it all magnanimously. "I'm a great believer in people having their day. And I feel Tipp people are the best hurling people there are and in a way it was great to see them back."

Glittering prizes awaited English: All-Irelands, a scoring record in the final, more All Stars and the hurler-of-the-year accolade in 1989. But that afternoon 17 years ago would not be bettered.

"Of all my experiences as a player and as a manager no day compared to that day. It was the highlight of my career."