He hasn’t discovered any short cuts. The familiar signposts — Mallow, Buttevant, Charleville — still mark the winding road from Cork to Limerick and John Allen has seen a lot of them in recent months.

We’re in Nowlan Park so we’ll start with the visitor. When I say ‘Kilkenny’ what comes to mind, Seán Óg?

I’ve no problem admitting it.

The week a politician discloses his sexuality to the public, you’d imagine a quiet couple of days would be in order.

Stephen McDonnell can thank his Cork team-mate Jamie Coughlan for the No 3 jersey.

“Into the face of the young man... there had crept a look of furtive shame, the shifty, hangdog look which announces that a hurling fan is about to talk Gaelic football.”

James O’Reilly and his pals on the Ballincollig junior B football team had an idea.

You hear about it occasionally, an occupational hazard for inter-county coaches — players who’ve seen it all, who expect innovation and novelty from the moment they sit in the dressing room.

If he had gotten down to Camp Four that day and had heard the Koreans were in trouble, chances are he would have gone back up to try to help them. He was just that kind of person.

Ronan O’Gara was frank as ever yesterday, stating plainly that Munster simply didn’t take their opportunities in the Heineken Cup defeat to Ulster last Sunday.