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It was Richie Connor in the early 1990s who first introduced me to the concept. For the Offaly team he captained, ultimately to the 1982 All-Ireland, beating Dublin in the 1980 Leinster final had he said been their most significant achievement.
This was because winning the province represented a longer journey from where the team under Eugene McGee had started than the distance from there to the Sam Maguire.
Maybe the reasoning was slightly different in Clare but it amounted to the same thing. In the few weeks that shimmered in the radiant summer of 1995 between winning Munster and the All-Ireland semi-final against Galway, manager Ger Loughnane was certainly of that view.
“In Clare, Munster is the Mount Everest. All along Munster was what was talked about. I remember stopping Nenagh on the way back from the League final and a man saying, ‘if only we could win Munster once, it would make up for everything’.
“The reaction to our winning Munster has been far greater than what would happen in other counties if they won an All-Ireland.”
Clare had got to the stage where they were being upstaged by their footballers whose first Munster title since 1917 had been sensationally won in 1992 leaving the hurlers by-passed.
Anthony Daly, prominent in 1995 as the exuberant captain of the hurlers, remembered the big-ball community’s notions. He went to support the footballers in their All-Ireland semi-final against Dublin three years previously. In a bar beforehand he was mocked for band-wagoning.
“Do you go to our matches at all,” asks Daly.
“I do, I do,” comes the response.
“And when you do, does anyone ever tell you to f*** off back to west Clare?”
Boom, boom.
Twenty-five years ago today (Thursday) the county hurlers climbed Everest and in unexpected style. Clare had qualified for a third successive Munster final but the previous two, against Limerick and Tipperary had ended in heavy defeats.
This season would be different. Loughnane’s elevation from selector to manager crystallised the potential that his predecessor Len Gaynor had harnessed to reach Munster finals in 1993 and ‘94. They had taken the lessons of losing to a Zen level.
I remember seeing Loughnane and his selectors Mike McNamara and Tony Considine sitting in the Queens Hotel in Ennis after a league match with a fairly full-strength Tipperary.
They were super-pleased with the win, one of a number of markers laid down in a season that ended with defeat in the final against Kilkenny after which the manager famously declared that they would win Munster. The approach had been clear: find some new players, get incredibly fit and start beating likely rivals.
The winter had been a time of slog under McNamara’s fundamentalist training but the late spring with its brightening nights would be a time for sharpening the hurling and adding speed to their playbook.
“In a way the League final was the best thing that happened us,” said Loughnane after the provincial success. “All the old failings were there. We were too tense: all frenzy, no method. We were going to have to use our heads. If we’d won the League we definitely wouldn’t have won the Munster championship.”
Limerick were in a valley season between two demoralising All-Ireland final defeats but were raging favourites, having beaten Tipperary while Clare had laboured to get past Cork.
Clare also had their past, 11 Munster final defeats since the previous win in 1932 and well beaten by Limerick the previous year. The League final defeat a mere two months previously didn’t help the argument that the team had the ability to win big matches.
As a match it doesn’t look great these days. There are too many errors and too much imprecision in the play. Limerick look lethargic and off-key. They play the first half with the advantage of a strong wind but trail at half-time.
In a low-scoring, scrappy affair Clare aren’t doing themselves justice either but for a team,who had been trimmed in their previous finals they’re hanging in there for most of the first half. In other words the match isn’t getting away from them, either - which is an improvement on the recent past.
Goalkeeper Davy Fitzgerald’s expertly hit penalty edges Clare in front and tactically they have taken a grip. Fitzgerald is also excellent in goal producing a couple of saves that prevent Limerick from getting too involved.
Ollie Baker, of whom a lot had been expected when he was drafted into the team for the league, has a non-stop match, physically overshadowing the powerful Limerick pairing of Mike Houlihan and Seán O’Neill and beside him James O’Connor overcomes a difficult start and is on to everything, fast and fluent.
His six points include four from play and his only failure of marksmanship is a shot that hits the post late in the match. PJ O’Connell also gets four from play but is selected as MOTM for the job done on disorientating Ciarán Carey with his constant movement.
“I knew I had to keep Ciarán Carey away from the puck-outs,” he says afterwards, “so I kept him running around. I had done a lot of work for this and I knew I would not get winded or caught for pace. I just kept running him and I could see it was having an effect.”
Seán McMahon broke his collarbone in the semi-final against Cork and returns for the final a week earlier than ideal but thrives as Gary Kirby, who had destroyed him a year previously, falters.
Clare’s grip tightens. Limerick manage just four points in the second half, as the winners pull away steadily.
It’s a stunning win - a tribute to Loughnane, who in the years before the acid erosion of controversies and fallings-out is a charismatic leader, whose prescriptions were single-mindedly adopted by the players and embraced by the Clare public.
“The feeling was that at long last a barrier had been broken,” he said before the All-Ireland semi-final. “The atmosphere in the county was incredible. It was great for the footballers a couple of years ago but they hadn’t been waiting and failing the way the hurlers had for years and years and years. It was very emotional, more because it was so unexpected after Limerick trouncing Clare last year. A good few didn’t even go to Thurles because they were afraid.”
For those few weeks, they are on the cusp of history, something almost spiritual. In the week before the Galway semi-final, Loughnane recounted how he had happened upon a car accident.
He hurries to check on the elderly motorist, who is shaken but not injured. They are joined by a third man.
“This other fella is looking at me and says, ‘Ger, isn’t it?’ I said, ‘yes’ and he says to the poor old man: ‘It’s Ger Loughnane! Isn’t that enough to make you better?’”
A nurse arrives with the ambulance and pauses to comment.
“I hope everything’s right for Sunday.”
Need she have asked in that summer of summers?
Date | Performer(s) | Opening act(s) | Tour/Event | Attendance | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
29 June 1985 | U2 | In Tua Nua, R.E.M., The Alarm, Squeeze | The Unforgettable Fire Tour | 57,000 | First Irish act to have a headline concert. Part of the concert was filmed for the group's documentary Wide Awake in Dublin. |
28 June 1986 | Simple Minds | Once Upon A Time Tour | Guest appearance by Bono | ||
27 June 1987 | U2 | Light A Big Fire, The Dubliners, The Pogues, Lou Reed | The Joshua Tree Tour | 114,000 | |
28 June 1987 | Christy Moore, The Pretenders, Lou Reed, Hothouse Flowers | ||||
28 June 1996 | Tina Turner | Brian Kennedy | Wildest Dreams Tour | 40,000/40,000 | |
16 May 1997 | Garth Brooks | World Tour II | |||
18 May 1997 | |||||
29 May 1998 | Elton John & Billy Joel | Face to Face 1998 | |||
30 May 1998 | |||||
24 June 2005 | U2 | The Radiators from Space, The Thrills, The Bravery, Snow Patrol, Paddy Casey, Ash | Vertigo Tour | 246,743 | |
25 June 2005 | |||||
27 June 2005 | |||||
20 May 2006 | Bon Jovi | Nickelback | Have a Nice Day Tour | 81,327 | |
9 June 2006 | Robbie Williams | Basement Jaxx | Close Encounters Tour | ||
6 October 2007 | The Police | Fiction Plane | The Police Reunion Tour | 81,640 | Largest attendance of the tour. |
31 May 2008 | Celine Dion | Il Divo | Taking Chances World Tour | 69,725 | Largest attendance for a solo female act |
1 June 2008 | Westlife | Shayne Ward | Back Home Tour | 85,000 | Second Irish act to have a headline concert. Largest attendance of the tour. Part of the concert was filmed for the group's documentary and concert DVD 10 Years of Westlife - Live at Croke Park Stadium. |
14 June 2008 | Neil Diamond | ||||
13 June 2009 | Take That | The Script | Take That Present: The Circus Live | ||
24 July 2009 | U2 | Glasvegas, Damien Dempsey | U2 360° Tour | 243,198 | |
25 July 2009 | Kaiser Chiefs, Republic of Loose | ||||
27 July 2009 | Bell X1, The Script | The performances of "New Year's Day" and "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight" were recorded for the group's live album U22 and for the band's remix album Artificial Horizon and the live EP Wide Awake in Europe, respectively. | |||
5 June 2010 | Westlife | Wonderland, WOW, JLS, Jedward | Where We Are Tour | 86,500 | Largest attendance of the tour. |
18 June 2011 | Take That | Pet Shop Boys | Progress Live | 154,828 | |
19 June 2011 | |||||
22 June 2012 | Westlife | Jedward, The Wanted, Lawson | Greatest Hits Tour | 187,808[24] | The 23 June 2012 date broke the stadium record for selling out its tickets in four minutes. Eleventh largest attendance at an outdoor stadium worldwide. Largest attendance of the tour and the band's music career history. Part of the concert was filmed for the group's documentary and concert DVD The Farewell Tour - Live in Croke Park. |
23 June 2012 | |||||
26 June 2012 | Red Hot Chili Peppers | Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, The Vaccines | I'm with You World Tour | ||
23 May 2014 | One Direction | 5 Seconds of Summer | Where We Are Tour | 235,008 | |
24 May 2014 | |||||
25 May 2014 | |||||
20 June 2015 | The Script & Pharrell Williams | No Sound Without Silence Tour | 74,635 | ||
24 July 2015 | Ed Sheeran | x Tour | 162,308 | ||
25 July 2015 | |||||
27 May 2016 | Bruce Springsteen | The River Tour 2016 | 160,188 | ||
29 May 2016 | |||||
9 July 2016 | Beyoncé | Chloe x Halle, Ingrid Burley | The Formation World Tour | 68,575 | |
8 July 2017 | Coldplay | AlunaGeorge, Tove Lo | A Head Full of Dreams Tour[25] | 80,398 | |
22 July 2017 | U2 | Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds | The Joshua Tree Tour 2017 | 80,901 | |
17 May 2018 | The Rolling Stones | The Academic | No Filter Tour | 64,823 | |
15 June 2018 | Taylor Swift | Camila Cabello, Charli XCX | Taylor Swift's Reputation Stadium Tour | 136.000 | Swift became the first woman headline two concerts in a row there. |
16 June 2018 | |||||
7 July 2018 | Michael Bublé | Emeli Sandé | |||
24 May 2019 | Spice Girls | Jess Glynne | Spice World - 2019 UK Tour | ||
5 July 2019 | Westlife | James Arthur Wild Youth | The 20 Touror The Twenty Tour | The 5 July 2019 date sold out its tickets in six minutes. Second date released were also sold out in under forty-eight hours. | |
6 July 2019 |
Unfortunately for H.P. Bulmer, it wasn’t long before the company again changed hands. Coming out on the losing end of a legal dispute with the creators of Babycham sparkling perry over a competing product, they were forced to sell Bulmers Clonmel during the 1960s. Having become part of the C&C Group – a soft drinks and cider company then jointly owned by Guinness and Allied Breweries – production of Irish Bulmers was moved five years later to a modern complex at Annerville, outside Clonmel.
With the Tipperary cider greatly exceeding sales expectations in Ireland, the C&C Group sought during the late 1990s to sell it outside of its home country, particularly in the burgeoning international Irish bar market. But as H.P. Bulmer still owned the rights to that name everywhere other than Ireland, they decided to call the brand after its original owner when exporting it – bringing Magners Irish cider first to Spain, then to Germanyand the UK. In spite of the the differing name, the two products are identical.
Still produced at Annerville, today Irish Bulmers and Magners are made from 17 different kinds of apples, left to ferment and mature for up to two years. Continuing to grow in popularity, the cider can now be found in bars throughout Europe, Asia, North America, Australia and New Zealand.
In 1920 the War of Independence was ongoing in Ireland.
On the morning of November 21st, an elite assassination unit known as ‘The Squad’ mounted an operation planned by Michael Collins, Director of Intelligence of the Irish Republican Army (IRA). Their orders were clear – they were to take out the backbone of the British Intelligence network in Ireland, specifically a group of officers known as ‘The Cairo Gang’. The shootings took place in and around Dublin’s south inner city and resulted in fourteen deaths, including six intelligence agents and two members of the British Auxiliary Force. Later that afternoon, Dublin were scheduled to play Tipperary in a one-off challenge match at Croke Park, the proceeds of which were in aid of the Republican Prisoners Dependents Fund. Tensions were high in Dublin due to fears of a reprisal by Crown forces following the assassinations. Despite this a crowd of almost 10,000 gathered in Croke Park. Throw-in was scheduled for 2.45pm, but it did not start until 3.15pm as crowd congestion caused a delay.Whirlaway | |
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Sire | Blenheim |
Grandsire | Blandford |
Dam | Dustwhirl |
Damsire | Sweep |
Sex | Stallion |
Foaled | 1938 |
Country | United States |
Colour | Chestnut |
Breeder | Calumet Farm |
Owner | Calumet Farm |
Trainer | Ben A. Jones |
Record | 60: 32-15-9 |
Earnings | $561,161 |
Major wins | |
Breeders' Futurity Stakes (1940) Hopeful Stakes (1940) Saratoga Special Stakes (1940) Walden Stakes (1940) A. J. Joyner Handicap (1941) Travers Stakes (1941) Lawrence Realization Stakes (1941) Saranac Handicap (1941) Dwyer Stakes (1941) American Derby (1941) Massachusetts Handicap (1942) Narragansett Special (1942) Clark Handicap (1942) Jockey Club Gold Cup (1942) Louisiana Handicap (1942) Washington Handicap (1942) Trenton Handicap (1942) American Classic Race wins: Kentucky Derby (1941) Preakness Stakes (1941) Belmont Stakes (1941) | |
Awards | |
5th U.S. Triple Crown Champion (1941) TSD American Champion Two-Year-Old Colt(1940) U.S. Champion 3-Yr-Old Colt (1941) United States Horse of the Year (1941 & 1942) U.S. Champion Older Male Horse (1942) | |
Whirlaway (April 2, 1938 – April 6, 1953) was an American champion thoroughbred racehorse. The chestnut horse was sired by English Derby winner Blenheim, out of the broodmare Dustwhirl. Whirlaway was bred at Calumet Farm in Lexington, Kentucky. Trained by Ben A. Jones and ridden by Eddie Arcaro, Whirlaway won the U.S. Triple Crown in 1941. Whirlaway was widely known as "Mr. Longtail" because his tail was especially long and thick and it would blow far out behind him during races, flowing dramatically in the wind. |
Desert Orchid | |
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|
Sire | Grey Mirage |
Grandsire | Double-U-Jay |
Dam | Flower Child |
Damsire | Brother |
Sex | Gelding |
Foaled | 11 April 1979 in Goadby, Leicestershire, England. |
Country | Great Britain |
Colour | Grey |
Breeder | James Burridge |
Owner | James Burridge, Midge Burridge, Richard Burridge, Simon Bullimore |
Trainer | David Elsworth at Whitsbury Manor Racing Stables, Fordingbridge, Wiltshire |
Record | 70: 34-11-8 |
Earnings | £654,066 |
Major wins | |
Tolworth Hurdle (1984) Kingwell Hurdle (1984) Hurst Park Novices' Chase (1985) King George VI Chase (1986, 1988, 1989, 1990) Gainsborough Chase (1987, 1989, 1991) Martell Cup (1988) Whitbread Gold Cup (1988) Tingle Creek Chase (1988) Victor Chandler Chase (1989) Cheltenham Gold Cup (1989) Racing Post Chase (1990) Irish Grand National (1990) | |
Awards | |
Timeform rating: 187 | |
Honours | |
The Desert Orchid Chase at Wincanton Desert Orchid Chase at Kempton Park Racecourse Statue, ashes, headstone - Kempton Park Racecourse |
"The An Post-GAA Team of the Millennium was unveiled at Croke Park yesterday. The selection which serves as the first 15 inductions into the GAA's new Hall of Fame has also been marked by an issue of 15 commemorative stamps by An Post. The stamps will be available in a variety of combinations from today. Next year, a similar exercise will take place to honour 15 hurlers.
There was some comment on the absence of Dublin's Brian Mullins and Jack O'Shea from Kerry but it seemed generally appreciated that there were only two centrefield slots on the team and someone had to lose out. Tommy Murphy, the Boy Wonder of the 1930s Laois team which won three Leinster titles in a row, who was included ahead of Mullins and O'Shea had the added distinction of being the only player honoured who had not won an All-Ireland medal.
Not surprisingly, Kerry - who top the All-Ireland roll of honour with 31 titles - lead the way on the team with six selections. Despite being clearly second behind Kerry with 22 All-Irelands, Dublin provide only one player, Kevin Heffernan at left corner forward. Galway and Mayo have two players each with one from Cavan, Down, Meath and Laois making up the balance.
Joe McDonagh, President of the GAA, described the project as a reflection "on the history and evolution of our association, its games and its central characters, the players who have left such giant footprints in the sands that is the chronicle of the GAA".
The Hall of Fame which is inaugurated by this team will be represented all through Croke Park, according the GAA director general Liam Mulvihill. He said that the Hall will be added to with a small number of inductions on an annual basis.
"We decided that this team would be the initial members of the Hall of Fame and we were planning to honour those selected around the main areas of the concourse of the re-developed stadium, in the bottom tier and the upper tier. We wanted those ordinary tiers where ordinary supporters gather as the most appropriate place to honour those players.
"The inductions will be in very small numbers, we're probably talking about two a year. Two footballers, two hurlers or one footballer and one hurler. It has to be made very, very special."
Paddy Downey, formerly GAA correspondent of The Irish Times, was one of the adjudicators and confirmed the widespread feeling that the task of selecting such a team wasn't an enviable one.
"It's nearly impossible because there's so many players, particularly in what you might call the big, central positions: midfield, centre-back, full back. Already people are saying to me: `why isn't Brian Mullins on, why isn't Paddy Kennedy of Kerry, Jack O'Shea - above all at the present time' and so on.
"We also had the problem of not picking a half-century team of people we had seen ourselves. You could also argue how could we pick someone we hadn't seen - Dick Fitzgerald, apparently one of the greatest players of all time, Paul Russell of Kerry, Jack Higgins of Kildare, from the earlier part of the century.
"I was conscious that we could have gone further back and taken the word of our predecessors in journalism who had praised these players and done so in print. Inevitably it came to be more a team of the second half of the century than the early years."
Martin O'Connell of Meath was the only player of what might roughly be called contemporary times - one whose career was largely after the selection of the 1984 Centenary Team - to earn a place.
"I was surprised," he said. "I didn't even know until I came up here. I arrived a bit late and Micheal O Muircheartaigh was just reading out the names. I was absolutely delighted."
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Event | 1951 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship | ||||||
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Date | 23 September 1951 | ||||||
Venue | Croke Park, Dublin | ||||||
Attendance | 78,201 | ||||||
Date | Performer(s) | Opening act(s) | Tour/Event | Attendance | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
29 June 1985 | U2 | In Tua Nua, R.E.M., The Alarm, Squeeze | The Unforgettable Fire Tour | 57,000 | First Irish act to have a headline concert. Part of the concert was filmed for the group's documentary Wide Awake in Dublin. |
28 June 1986 | Simple Minds | Once Upon A Time Tour | Guest appearance by Bono | ||
27 June 1987 | U2 | Light A Big Fire, The Dubliners, The Pogues, Lou Reed | The Joshua Tree Tour | 114,000 | |
28 June 1987 | Christy Moore, The Pretenders, Lou Reed, Hothouse Flowers | ||||
28 June 1996 | Tina Turner | Brian Kennedy | Wildest Dreams Tour | 40,000/40,000 | |
16 May 1997 | Garth Brooks | World Tour II | |||
18 May 1997 | |||||
29 May 1998 | Elton John & Billy Joel | Face to Face 1998 | |||
30 May 1998 | |||||
24 June 2005 | U2 | The Radiators from Space, The Thrills, The Bravery, Snow Patrol, Paddy Casey, Ash | Vertigo Tour | 246,743 | |
25 June 2005 | |||||
27 June 2005 | |||||
20 May 2006 | Bon Jovi | Nickelback | Have a Nice Day Tour | 81,327 | |
9 June 2006 | Robbie Williams | Basement Jaxx | Close Encounters Tour | ||
6 October 2007 | The Police | Fiction Plane | The Police Reunion Tour | 81,640 | Largest attendance of the tour. |
31 May 2008 | Celine Dion | Il Divo | Taking Chances World Tour | 69,725 | Largest attendance for a solo female act |
1 June 2008 | Westlife | Shayne Ward | Back Home Tour | 85,000 | Second Irish act to have a headline concert. Largest attendance of the tour. Part of the concert was filmed for the group's documentary and concert DVD 10 Years of Westlife - Live at Croke Park Stadium. |
14 June 2008 | Neil Diamond | ||||
13 June 2009 | Take That | The Script | Take That Present: The Circus Live | ||
24 July 2009 | U2 | Glasvegas, Damien Dempsey | U2 360° Tour | 243,198 | |
25 July 2009 | Kaiser Chiefs, Republic of Loose | ||||
27 July 2009 | Bell X1, The Script | The performances of "New Year's Day" and "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight" were recorded for the group's live album U22 and for the band's remix album Artificial Horizon and the live EP Wide Awake in Europe, respectively. | |||
5 June 2010 | Westlife | Wonderland, WOW, JLS, Jedward | Where We Are Tour | 86,500 | Largest attendance of the tour. |
18 June 2011 | Take That | Pet Shop Boys | Progress Live | 154,828 | |
19 June 2011 | |||||
22 June 2012 | Westlife | Jedward, The Wanted, Lawson | Greatest Hits Tour | 187,808[24] | The 23 June 2012 date broke the stadium record for selling out its tickets in four minutes. Eleventh largest attendance at an outdoor stadium worldwide. Largest attendance of the tour and the band's music career history. Part of the concert was filmed for the group's documentary and concert DVD The Farewell Tour - Live in Croke Park. |
23 June 2012 | |||||
26 June 2012 | Red Hot Chili Peppers | Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, The Vaccines | I'm with You World Tour | ||
23 May 2014 | One Direction | 5 Seconds of Summer | Where We Are Tour | 235,008 | |
24 May 2014 | |||||
25 May 2014 | |||||
20 June 2015 | The Script & Pharrell Williams | No Sound Without Silence Tour | 74,635 | ||
24 July 2015 | Ed Sheeran | x Tour | 162,308 | ||
25 July 2015 | |||||
27 May 2016 | Bruce Springsteen | The River Tour 2016 | 160,188 | ||
29 May 2016 | |||||
9 July 2016 | Beyoncé | Chloe x Halle, Ingrid Burley | The Formation World Tour | 68,575 | |
8 July 2017 | Coldplay | AlunaGeorge, Tove Lo | A Head Full of Dreams Tour[25] | 80,398 | |
22 July 2017 | U2 | Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds | The Joshua Tree Tour 2017 | 80,901 | |
17 May 2018 | The Rolling Stones | The Academic | No Filter Tour | 64,823 | |
15 June 2018 | Taylor Swift | Camila Cabello, Charli XCX | Taylor Swift's Reputation Stadium Tour | 136.000 | Swift became the first woman headline two concerts in a row there. |
16 June 2018 | |||||
7 July 2018 | Michael Bublé | Emeli Sandé | |||
24 May 2019 | Spice Girls | Jess Glynne | Spice World - 2019 UK Tour | ||
5 July 2019 | Westlife | James Arthur Wild Youth | The 20 Touror The Twenty Tour | The 5 July 2019 date sold out its tickets in six minutes. Second date released were also sold out in under forty-eight hours. | |
6 July 2019 |