Ah, yes indeed. 1991. That palindrome of a year.

That wha’ of a year?

Ah, you know what I mean. A palindrome. A word that looks the same backwards as well as forwards.

Just like 1991. The numbers read the same backwards and forwards.
Like Navan. N-a-v-a-n…. N-a-v-a-n … See?

Oh. I thought Navan was just a town in county Meath. Now you tell me it’s a palindrome as well. I wonder how the natives there put up with that, wha?
Is that all you can think about as regards 1991?

Well, what else do you want to know?

I dunno. Maybe, who was in the government? What was Number 1 in the hit parade? What films were we watching or what was big on the telly?

Begod, that’s a tall order. Let me think now. Well, we were all flocking to the Carlton or the Adelphi or the Lyric in Navan to see that film about yer man who ate the other fella’s liver with fava beans and a nice little Chianti.

Who? Mick Lyons?
No, ya eejit. Anthony Hopkins in ‘Silence of the Rams’ or whatever they called it. That put the frighteners on a lot of yis alright. Even won the Oscar for the film of the year.

Yeah, interesting enough. No shortage of rams up around Nobber anyway, still. Anything else?

Well, CJ was Taoiseach, of course. That fella who died recently, Yeltsin, was elected President in Russia and me oul pal Clinton announced that he was going to run for President of America.

All very interesting, I’m sure. Anything then on the sporting front?

You mean like Tiger Woods winning his first major US title and he only fifteen?

Yeah, something on those lines alright. But I was thinking more in terms of the GAH.

Oh, the GAH? Ah sure, that’s easy enough. Tipp beat Kilkenny in the hurling All Ireland and Down got the better of the Meath lads in the football final. Full stop. End of story, like.

Ah, c’mon, there must have been more to it than just the All Ireland finals.

Well, there was the first round of the Leinster football championship between the Dubs and Meath.

A first round! C’mon how could that be worth talking about?

Well … it started of a Bank Holiday Monday in June. It wasn’t over until four games, thirty four days and – you might say – 240,000 fans later. That included three replays with two of them going to extra time. And still only a point separated them at the end of the third replay.

Mother a’ God. What a saga!

Indeed, not so much a saga. More of an epic really. Sure, in the end, the whole country was watching and holding their breath. Ya never saw the likes of it before nor since. Dublin had won the League and they probably thought Meath were on the way out because they’d lost the All Ireland to Cork the previous year.

And how did it go in the end?

Saturday. July the 6th. A crowd of over sixty thousand. Only a few minutes to go. The Dubs were three points ahead and finally cruising into the next round. Yer man, Robbie O’Malley, gets the ball at the Canal End. Down near the corner flag. On his knees he was but he still scrambles it away. Twelve Meath men move the ball without a single Dub getting even a smell of it. The likes of Lyons, McCabe, Harnan, O’Rourke, Beggy, Foley, Gillick and Dowd. Then Foley again. A back. A back! Kevin Foley left foots one of the most famous goals in GAA history.

Still, that was only the equaliser.

True enough. But just seconds after that, up pops the bould David Beggy and slots over the winning point. Dubs dead. Finito. Kaput. Silence of the Lambs, you might even say. Once again, the Royals get out of jail.

Great stuff. Great memories. They sure don’t make replays like that anymore.


Maybe … maybe not. We’ll find out today one way or the other.
Cheers.

Eh, goodbye. Pal … indrome.

First published in the match programme for Dublin v Meath in Croke Park, on Sunday 17th June 2007