Michael Moynihan: All-Ireland dreams are for someone else now — the Cork camogie players

Readers will know what I am referring to, the calamity which struck us all last Sunday week.

Ever since I have seen people coming to a sudden halt at random intervals all over Cork, rubbing their foreheads, looking dazed, lost in thought.

I presume most Leeside readers are still working through the latter parts of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s famous stages of dealing with grief.

This process has not been helped by ‘hilarious’ memes and jokes about points and driving, but such is the aftermath, and there are no complaints on that score. Not from this quarter, nor from anyone of my acquaintance.

The general response, it seems, is simple: more power to the Tipp people forwarding such messages and engaging in similar ball-hopping. To the victor the spoils: them’s the rules.

Congratulations to our neighbours to the north on their victory, which they’re entitled to enjoy to the utmost

Unsurprisingly Tipperary people are putting plenty of energy into their own celebrations, which is not quite the ‘grass is green’ statement of fact you might first think. It’s certainly not something you could say about every county. I was unaware, for instance, that in Cork we are obliged to put up with another step in coping with our grief, one which comes somewhere between the bargaining and depression stages and which Ms Kübler-Ross didn’t include.

Then again, when she came up with those stages of grief and heartache she didn’t have to deal with certain occupants of the Kingdom.

I refer to the hitherto-unknown Smirking of the Neighbours stage, a phenomenon I intend to share with The Lancet when I have the time to put a short pamphlet together.

By this I mean the odd way people living across the border couldn’t enjoy their own well-deserved success but had to cite the All-Ireland hurling final and refer to Cork’s defeat almost immediately 

Readers may have noted this in the coverage of last Sunday’s All-Ireland football final, when the Kerry manager was quick off the mark in comparing his team’s spirit to that of Cork in the hurling final.

For most people the first glow of victory at the final whistle of an All-Ireland final would be enjoyable in and of itself, a sensation of joy powerful enough to drive out any other considerations. Rather than — random example — leading one to make a swift comparison with another county’s disappointment in a different sporting code.

Well, clearly the thought processes involved here are different, You wouldn’t think Gore Vidal figured prominently as a thought leader in Kerry football circles, but his old ‘it is not enough for me to succeed, others must fail’ line seems apt enough here.

Anyway, congrats to the genuine Kerry football folk, of whom there are many.

For those of us in Cork the autumn and winter look a little different. The club games will be back soon if you want to cleanse your palate, while other distractions may also offer themselves. For instance, readers are no doubt aware of the deranged WhatsApp messages which did the rounds after the hurling final, messages which made absurd allegations about the Cork hurling team.

I understand that at least one Cork GAA club is putting quite a bit of focus and imagination into tracking down the origin of those messages. Bail ó Dhia ar an obair: if you need any help I’m here.

Camogie final

Anyway, having been on holidays until last Saturday I was encouraged to see so many flags still flying on my return to Cork, and why not?

The camogie team is in an All-Ireland final on Sunday week, and deserve as much support as the hurlers. They’re going for a third title in a row and it would be terrific to see an army in red and white replicate the supporter numbers we saw in Croke Park a couple of Sundays ago.

Cork women are in a class of their own when it comes to sport, of course.

Yours truly was involved in the production of Hell For Leather, the Gaelic football documentary series on RTÉ which came to an end only last weekend. To launch the series the first episode was screened in the Irish Film Institute, with a panel discussion to follow with a couple the contributors.

A pal of mine was in the audience chatting to the lady sitting next to him when the credits ran and the lights came up. She then turned to him and said, ‘excuse me,’ and went up on stage: Juliet Murphy, the former Cork ladies football captain.

‘No big deal, no boasting,’ said my friend. ‘I’d never have known she played at all until she was introduced as having eight All-Ireland medals.’ 

Outrageous sporting feats are a given with women on Leeside. A couple of Murphy’s teammates on the ladies football team ended their inter county careers with the integrity of their trophy cabinets tested to the absolute limit: Rena Buckley and Briege Corkery hung up their boots when they had amassed eighteen All-Ireland senior medals between ladies football and camogie.

For a quicker route to immortality consider Amy O’Connor: in the All-Ireland camogie final two years ago she took ten shots on goal and ended the game with 3-7, including a hat-trick which was scored in two minutes. Fast work.

At last year’s Olympics Cork was well represented. In rowing Cork provided the women’s lightweight double sculls pairing of Aoife Casey and Margaret Cremen. Three of the women’s four — Emily Hegarty, Natalie Long, Eimear Lambe, and Imogen Magner — were from Cork or had strong Cork links. Given the trail blazed by the likes of Sanita Pušpure that’s no shock.

In a typical Cork flourish Saoirse Noonan was able to play at the highest level in ladies football with Nemo Rangers and Cork as well as starring as a soccer international with the Republic of Ireland as well as Celtic at club level.

In athletics Derval O’Rourke of this parish won a world indoor championship some years back, while more recently Phil Healy collected a silver at the European Championships last year, as well as coming fourth in the Olympics.

Looming over all, of course, is Sonia O’Sullivan, a permanent occupant of any shortlist of the greatest Irish sportspeople of all time. O’Sullivan had to contend with — polite description — opponents of questionable integrity in her career, which makes her achievements all the more remarkable. A World Champion, a European Champion, a World Cross-Country champion, not to mention an Olympic silver medallist. A legendary figure.

In the documentary series mentioned above Juliet Murphy pulled a lot of the strands together towards the end.

“Getting to play in an All-Ireland final was once my dream,” she said. “And now it’s somebody else’s.” That dream will never die.

I’ll see you all in Croke Park on Sunday week.