The gravely-voiced presenter of RTÉ’s ‘Morning Ireland’, David Hanly, is a great lover and aficionado of hurling, not least when his beloved Limerick are playing, writes An Fear Rua …

This may come as something of a surprise to those who prefer the clichéd perception of RTÉ as some kind of hotbed of ‘anti-national’ shoneenism when – in AFR’s experience – the opposite is often the case.

Hanly tells a great story of coming out of a Limerick against Cork Munster hurling final in the dim and distant past. It was one of those games where Limerick had led for most of it, with Cork staying in touch through a series of lucky flukes aided by dodgy refereeing decisions. Anyway, with less than two minutes to go, Cork had whittled away the Shannonsiders’ lead and had then equalised. A minute to go, and Cork had taken the lead by a point, with just enough time left for a forlorn puckout from the goalkeeper.

Understandably, the Limerick fans were deflated by this turn of events. As they trudged disconsolately through the exits, a jubilant ‘Rebel’, purple of cheek and bulging of eyes, bellowed at them: ‘We gev’ ye a ‘shniff’ of it anyway!’

At Páirc Uí Cheacescu, on Sunday, the only team that got a ‘shniff’ of anything was Cork. And that was the pungent ‘shniff’ of defeat. There can be no excuses about missing players or anything else. This was a classic cauldron of a Munster hurling game. Fifteen men in red jerseys went out against fifteen in green. Once the whistle blows and the game is on, everything that went before hand goes out the window and there is only the struggle at hand. Credit to Limerick. The better team won. Credit, too, to Eamon Cregan – not everyone’s favourite manager or hurling pundit. Cregan has a lot to prove with Limerick and his determination to do so on Sunday was palpable.

In a single stroke, Limerick have blown the 2001 Munster and All Ireland championships wide open. For that, they’ve earned the gratitude of hurling fans everywhere. If they go on to take Munster or All Ireland honours this year, none will begrudge them, for their success is built on painstaking attention to the game at Under-21 and Minor levels as well as preparation at senior level. Counties that quietly go about their hurling business in this way deserve every bit of success they get.

However, one Corkman at least must have left Páirc Uí Cheacescu shortly after five o’clock on Sunday with a thin smile hovering about his moustachioed lips. Gerald McCarthy, the Waterford manager, if he has a taste for modern history, might do well to ponder the text of Mr Winston Churchill’s telegram to De Valera in 1940, in the depths of World War II, offering to swap neutrality for Irish unity: ‘Now or Never! Now and Forever! A Nation Once Again!’…