May 22 2006
It’s about who we are, and where we come from, the people you meet on the streets
Crap. I forgot that the server peeps were upgrading yesterday. That’s why yesterday’s post has been eradicated, and Peter is missing from the header. There is no hope of me remembering exactly what I said, so I’ll just ramble on again about how great Saturday was. And there is always the possibility that it’ll show up again, then again it may not. But first, Luna Nina says:
- Yours ::
- Charcoal ::
- Platitude ::
- Graduation ::
- Hungry ::
- Somewhere ::
- Nurse ::
- Freak ::
- Unbelievable ::
- Walk ::
and mine will be after the rugby rambles and the cut.
If you read the post yesterday there will be similarities here, but you’ll just have to deal with that 
Now where to begin? Oh yes, with the site of ultra-focused Ronan O’Gara being prodded with an umbrella as he and some of the other rugby lads fought over a red cowboy hat.
See, yesterday saw the Munster team arrive in Limerick for a homecoming celebration. They’d landed in Shannon around 1.00 that morning and after a stay in a hotel began the bus journey to O’Connell St, Limerick. That’d be the street that was flashed up on the big screen in the middle of the match on Sat. And that youtube video is the scenes from Limerick in the final minutes of the match.
Can you picture this, a bus load of semi-drunk fella on an open top bus, in the rain, drinking cans of Bulmers and bottles of Heineken. What a sight Being cheered on by around 40,000 supporters according to some newspapers
It didn’t have any hint of professionalism about it, but that is what made it so great. It was just so honest. And plenty of it was obviously very unplanned. Like Marty Morrissey being summoned on to the stage. Marty, you see, is a GAA commentator, not a rugby man. but he was on duty for RTE covering this event, but well away from the stage. Obviously though he got spotted, and as we’ve all heard this Munster rugby team are not so serious when off the pitch[1] And it ended up with Marty after trying to make his escape being hoisted onto the rugby team’s shoulders. That’s something you don’t see everyday.
I think Marty Morrissey is the nearest thing to O Muirceartaigh that TV has. Though Marty should carry a health warning as he is not good for those of us with even the slightest of cardiac problems! Sometimes you are left thinking that Marty is either going to swallow the microphone whole or jump out of the telly and land beside you.
Who will ever forget ‘There won’t be a cow milked in Clare for a week’ (Munster SFC Final 1992) or ‘By God these Wexford boys mean business’ (Marty, complete with lump in throat, Leinster SHC Final, 1996).
It was a great day, and I’m sure all those who waited frrom 10 in the morning[2] felt it was worth it when they were there to cheer on the team at around 5 that afternoon. It was a long wait in the rain, but after losing 2 previous finals, not to mention a few semi’s, it was one way of showing their appreciation.
Although to the few fans who are now expecting three in a row! Come on, I know that you have to be hungry in order to win at sport, but wanting something and expecting it are two very different things.
Still, they showed up in that rain yesterday, they spent fortunes following the team around Europe. Maybe the fans deserve to have some expectations.
In other sporting news in Ireland most matches were called off because of the rain, including the Sligo v galway one, which means that Galway’s Padraig Joyce will probably be fit for next weekend. The boring golf was also hit, meaning it’ll go into a fifth day today. Although I did like that Darren Clarke[3] excused his bad play on Sat by saying he was too busy watching the rugby to think about his golf game.
And surprise of surprises New york actually won a GAA match. They beat Derry in the opening round of the hurling, although visa issues mean they might not play in the next round. Well, thems the breaks for illegal immigrants. or at least I assume that is the problem they’ll have trying to re-enter the States afterwards if they leave.
Now, is there anything else I mentioned yesterday? Oh yes, the Eurovision. Which, fantastically, was won by Finland, in the form of Monster Rock band Lordi. And I’m proud to report that Irish viewers, clearly taking the competition very seriously, awarded Lordi 10 points. With our 12 going to the weird Lithuanian “We Are the Winners” song[4]
- virtually forcing An Taoiseach Bertie Ahern into a Munster jersey before the Munster Leinster match for example ↩
- maybe earlier ↩
- i think it was him, all golf players are the same to me ↩
- you can listen to all of the songs here ↩
