Cork look to change history in all-Munster deciders

While Limerick didn’t achieve the unprecedented feat of five All-Ireland SHC titles in a row, their place in history is assured.

In winning four on the trot, they matched an achievement that only two other counties have managed – Cork from 1941-44 and Kilkenny from 2005-09. And, just in case anybody might be composing the final elegy to such a great team, it’s worth remembering that, after a Lar Corbett-inspired Tipp ended Kilkenny’s drive for five in 2010, the Cats came roaring back to win the next two titles.

Limerick’s bouncebackability is for another year but it’s a safe bet that they’ll remain part of the hurling landscape for the foreseeable future. For Cork and Clare, the objective is to put their name on the roll of honour after the final on Sunday week, July 21.

It’s a pairing that naturally invites comparisons with 2013, when the pair of Munster counties made the All-Ireland final despite neither of them having won the provincial title. Clare won on that occasion of course, after a replay, but if an optimistic Cork person was looking for an omen, there is one thing to cling to.

Limerick were also the Munster champions that year beating Cork in the final, but rather than the provincial runners-up bouncing back to win the All-Ireland, it was the side who had a longer qualifier run before beating them in the All-Ireland semi-final who went all the way.

That was just the second All-Ireland hurling final to be contested by two Munster sides and there has been just one – 2020 – since then.

However, that first four-in-a-row, won by Cork during what was euphemistically termed in Ireland as ‘the Emergency’, incorporated a rather unusual situation where two Munster counties played the last championship game of the year but without the Liam MacCarthy Cup at stake.

There had been an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Ireland in 1941 and it affected sporting events such as race meetings. While Limerick overcame Clare in a Munster semi-final, the Cork-Tipp tie on the other side of the draw was unable to be played in its original setting of mid-August, on advice from the Department of Agriculture.

The Munster Council’s solution was for Cork and Limerick to play off to determine who would represent the province in the All-Ireland series, with Cork’s 8-10 to 3-2 triumph at the Athletic Grounds sending them to the All-Ireland final against Dublin.

In Croke Park on September 28, a 5-11 to 0-6 victory gave Cork the MacCarthy Cup for the first time since 1931. There was of course an asterisk attached in that they hadn’t won the Munster championship but Tipp were given clearance to play again by the end of October.

With Cork having beaten Limerick, it was determined that they would play Tipp for the Munster title – but, crucially, the possession of the All-Ireland was not up for grabs.

Tipp triumphed by 5-4 to 2-5 at the Gaelic Grounds, leaving an unusual situation whereby they were Munster champions and another Munster team were All-Ireland champions. It would be 2004 before such a scenario materialised again, with Waterford winning Munster but Cork claiming the All-Ireland through the back door.

It wasn’t the Déise they met in the final, though – Kilkenny had beaten Justin McCarthy’s side in the All-Ireland semi. In fact, only twice has the Munster final been repeated at the All-Ireland stage – the first year of the back door, 1997, with Clare twice beating Tipperary, and in 2020, when Limerick twice overcame Waterford.

There have been four occasions – 1998, 2000, 2012 and 2015 – where the Leinster final was repeated, with Offaly turning the tables on Kilkenny in 1998 and the Cats doing the double over the Faithful two years later; a dozen years on, Galway couldn’t repeat Leinster success against Brian Cody’s side, who made sure of provincial and national supremacy in 2015.

That remains Kilkenny’s last All-Ireland and only Galway, in 2017, have broken the Munster dominance since. The dominance has of course been Limerick-heavy but there will be another southern province name on the cup – we just don’t know which one.