Nostalgia: Cork hurling remains a constant in a changing world

THE last time Cork won an All-Ireland senior hurling final, we were still called the Evening Echo, and we covered the event with some style.

The final took place on Sunday, September 11, 2005, four years to the day after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States had upended the global geopolitical map.

Deirdre Clune was lord mayor of Cork, Bertie Ahern was taoiseach, and Mary McAleese was president. George Walker Bush was eight months into his second term in the White House, and Vladimir Putin was five years into his presidency of Russia. Pope Benedict XVI had been elected that April.

Micheál Martin was minister for enterprise, trade and employment, Simon Harris was studying journalism and French at the Dublin Institute of Technology, and Michael D Higgins was Labour Party TD for Galway West.

Donald Trump was on TV in The Apprentice, playing what The New York Times called “a highly flattering, highly fictionalised version” of himself.

Rebel army

The day before the All-Ireland, the Echo led with ‘Seán Óg takes his Rebel army into battle’, over a front-page report by Bill Browne.

“There was a quiet emptiness over the famed Ó hAilpín family home in Cork this weekend. The brother of Cork’s iconic captain Seán Óg Ó hAilpín, 26-year-old Teu, told how his family were already on their way to Dublin for the biggest game of the year.”

Teu said that everyone in the house had been gone by 8.30am, and Seán Óg would be heading up on the team train that afternoon.

Younger brother Setanta was in Melbourne, we reported, trying to find an Irish pub where he could watch the match around midnight local time.

“We can always send him out a tape of it if he doesn’t get it live,” Teu said.

“Messages of good luck were pouring in today,” our report concluded, “including one from the Bishop of Cork, Dr John Buckley.”

More than a century earlier, when Cork played its first All-Ireland senior hurling final, against Wexford, on Sunday, November 16, 1890, there was no Evening Echo to report on it because we were still two years from our first edition. Ireland was under British rule, with Victoria on the throne and Lord Salisbury in Downing Street. Benjamin Harrison was the president of the United States, and Pope Leo XIII was on the chair of St Peter.

Aghabullogue

The Cork Examiner reported the match on the top of page three of its Monday edition — prime newspaper real estate, given that the front page in those days was devoted entirely to advertising. The match had been held in Clonturk Park, in Drumcondra, with Cork represented by Aghabullogue and Wexford by Castlebridge.

“The Aghabullogue men proved themselves far superior to their opponents, the Wexford men, but their opponents made such a violent onslaught that the Munster men had to appeal to the referee. The Aghabullogues then left the field. The Wexford men remained on the ground until the time was up, and then left, claiming the victory. It is believed that the umpires will decide that the Aghabullogue men are entitled to the victory.” Wexford were leading 2-2 to Cork’s 1-6, because at that time a goal was worth more than any number of points, but the title was later awarded to Cork.

The first edition of the Evening Echo was published on Tuesday, June 14, 1892, three months after Cork beat Dublin 2-3 to 1-5 in that year’s All-Ireland final, in what was again a contentious game, with Dublin leaving the pitch over a disputed goal.

There are unfortunate gaps in the early years of the Evening Echo’s archives, meaning we can’t see our coverage of Cork’s performances in the 1893 final, when Cork beat Kilkenny 6-8 to 0-2, or in 1894, when Cork completed the first three-in-a-row, beating Dublin 5-20 to 2-0.

Nor can we see the Echo’s coverage of the 1902 final, which took place in August, 1903, when London beat Cork, represented by Redmond’s, 1-5 to 0-4, at Jones’ Road.

We do, however have the Evening Echo’s coverage of the 1902 All-Ireland senior hurling final, which was held on Sunday, September 11, 1904, as part of the opening ceremony at the brand-new Cork Athletic Grounds in Ballin-temple.

Rematch

The final featured a Cork rematch with London, with Dungourney representing Cork and Brian Boru representing London. Cork beat the defending champions 3-13 to 0-0. That made the front page, but not for the reason modern readers might expect.

In those days, part of a morning reporter’s brief was to do a round-up of the previous night’s hospital admissions, with the names of the patients and the reasons for their stay published.

Under the heading ‘South Infirmary’ we reported: “A large number of accidents were treated at this infirmary last night, and a good number of them were sustained by people in endeavouring to gain surreptitious entry to the new athletic grounds on the occasion of yesterday’s international matches.

“The general character of the injuries was contusion of the hands and face, caused by being torn by wire palings, timber railings, etc, and in the first seven cases in the appended list as many as three stitches had to be undertaken.” Overleaf, our editorial said: “The opening of the new athletic grounds at the Cork Park brought together an immense concourse of people from all parts of the country to witness the interesting matches between the London Gaels and the champions of this country.

“On no previous occasion have so many people assembled to witness Gaelic contests in this country, and the scene presented along the Marina and on the points of vantage around the Agricultural Society’s grounds was a most animated and remarkable one. Trains, trams and cars were freely utilised by visitors from all parts.”

Some 101 years later, on Monday, September 12, 2005, the front page of the Evening Echo featured a photo of Seán Óg Ó hAilpín hoisting the Liam MacCarthy Cup, above a block caps headline reading ‘CHAMPIONS’.

In a report which began ‘Hail the warrior chief’, Vincent Kelly wrote of Seán Óg’s early days in Cork, after he arrived her from Fiji, his school days in the North Mon, and how far he had come. Now he has six All-Ireland medals across three grades of hurling. Prior to yesterday he was among the greats. Now he is a legend the length and breadth of the country.” The report ended: “A massive welcome party is planned for the returning heroes tonight”.

Two decades on, Cork is waiting with bated breath Sunday week’s All-Ireland.

Win, lose, or draw – and of course we’re praying for a win –whatever happens, we know the homecoming for this generation of heroes will be absolutely epic.

• Send us your pictures and a description of your treasured All-Ireland final moments. We will be sharing them between now and All-Ireland final day - on Echolive.ie, in The Echo and on our social media channels. See https://www.echolive.ie/competitions.