Sundireland and the Cork Connection

 

Sundireland and the Cork Connection
Finbarr Barry

Watching proceedings in the Town End of Semple Stadium last Saturday evening with his chin perched on the painted yellow bar, an aspiring eleven year old footballer from West Cork watched as Daniel Goulding clinched Cork's first U21 All-Ireland title since 1994.

Awww sure wouldja lookat...

Alongside him his heavy-set animated dad, bedecked in a ragged looking Cork jersey that pre-dated The Double - long before names like of Barrys Tea and ESAT were sprawled across them - boomed words of encouragement in the direction of the Cork forwards below.

While the words hardly made it to the end of the terrace, not to mind the ears of their intended recipients, this enormous man's frightening energy field was not lost on his son who squawked roguishly similar comments to his fathers', timed perfectly to impress him.

Only on one occasion did Daddy have to have a quiet word in the ear of his heir when the young man's vocal disappointment at an apparent Cork wide was, to his delight, rewarded with a 45. A fatherly pat on the back and a Goulding-converted placed ball later, and they were roaring for their beloved Rebels in unison once again.

Such was the intensity of the physical and vocal celebrations of the pair on the terrace below us that, on close inspection, there appeared to be a hazy sheen of heat rising from them as they danced a jig to the awarding of an admittedly dubious Cork free.

Until this point it was a scene that any GAA purist would have endorsed.

Stadium of Light: no Pairc Ui Rinn but worth a lamp

While play stopped for a Laois defender to receive attention the father turned to his son and noticed he had become quite warm. As a parent one of your primary functions is to regulate your child's temperature by constantly adding or removing layers of clothes as necessary.

Before the child's jacket was removed one would have assumed that this was a family who would probably "shield" it's children from the offensive consumerism of the Premiership, the silly anthems of rugby and the sight of gleaming white cricket pullovers tottering around a lawn while spectators take tea and talk about Prince Charles's "sterling work" with some endangered moss in Devon.

At first the red candy stripes didn't look as out of place. On match days there's often silent competition between Cork fans to come up with the most bizarre source of red and white to flaunt in the terraces.

From Poland's national colours to the more controversial sight of the confederate battle flag, international politics rarely crosses a GAA fan's mind, but taunt them with the colours of a rival code and things might turn nasty - the red of Munster, the rival code or the provocative fabric of a Man Utd. jersey.

The boy: wearing his 'Westlife' outfit

This young fella's geansa'

 
 
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