In the distance, over the railway bridge, a ghost-like whitish glow hangs over the town.

On a foggy, crisp February evening the cold air clutches hard at unfit lungs as we plod up the hill and breath hangs in puffs from open mouths.

The two Saints Mary’s – one Catholic, the other Protestant – are illuminated in unison near the Fair Green and the inner glow of light from the shops and pubs lends an incongruous Dickensian sheen to the early evening.

Past the Gaylord Tandoori and the Rendezvous restaurant and Brady’s overspilling pub, we draw nearer and face up the final hill. The yellow street lights come into play and we discern faces – some we know well and some not so well. Strange to see them marshalled on such a cold night instead of in the height of Summer.

At the turnstile in front of us a few young women say ‘Student’ and are allowed in at a concessionary rate. We know the man on the stile and we plead that we are a student too … of life ups and downs… but to no avail. Though we know him well through under-age football, he bemoans the fact that since the new turnstiles were installed he has no discretion in the matter of admission. No bother. Sure, we were only kidding anyway.

The illuminated park looks good. One hundred and twelve giant bulbs providing adequate lighting on the pitch and the stands and terraces safely lit for the seven thousand or so spectators who have turned up. The Mars bars, though, touched by the near zero temperature are much harder to bit on than on a Summer championship day.

A woman from a nearby town sings Amhran na bhFiann solo, without accompaniment, but has to battle hard against an echoey public address system that does her rendition no favours.

Then the game is on. No disrespect to either team, but its progress and outcome may be summed up in a few sentences. Meath were extremely poor. The only real resemblance between this side and previous Meath teams were the green-and-yellow jerseys they wore. On this performance, Cavan may have something more to look forward to in 2007. They were the faster and more skilful of the two teams.

Donegal referee Seamus McGonigle gave Cavan’s half back Johnathan Crowe a red card after only seven minutes, apparently for some off-the-ball incident. The sending off mystified most of the attendance. Only God and Seamus McGonigle know the reason and, so far, God has not been in touch with the media any more than he usually is. Despite that, Cavan raced to 0-7 to 0-2 lead but a Brian Meade goal on the stroke of half time kept Meath in contention.

In the second half Meath steadied a bit, narrowed the gap and the sides were exchanged point for point. The final minute of added time and – just when it looked like a deserved Cavan victory – Brian Farrell scored a Meath goal with literally the last kick of the game. It brought the biggest cheer of the night. The second biggest was the earlier Fogra announcing the Dubs’ defeat in Croker.

A full moon shone over Pairc Tailteann, in Navan, as we quietly shuffled our from the ground into the biting evening air.

The nation’s eyes may have been on the historic ‘switch on’ of Croke Park before 82,000 spectators. But this was just as important to us – our team, our town, our lights. The magic of the GAA.

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