IS IT unreasonable to have hoped to get through the first week of 2019 without two women being brutally murdered? We are so regularly exposed to the killing of, and violence against women, it’s a concern that it becomes a part of background noise — something that is undeniably tragic, but also a fact of life, writes Alison O’Connor.

A crowd of 3,224 is not what you expect for a first-round Munster SHL fixture on a cold and, at times, wet evening in mid-December. Then again, this wasn’t your run-of-the-mill pre-season blowout.

How to feel your age part I: The Good Friday Agreement is a month older than Kyle Hayes.

Arriving onto Jones Road for their All-Ireland semi-final with Cork, Declan Hannon was one of only three men on Limerick’s starting team to have previously played a senior championship game at Croke Park.

I was in the Gaelic Grounds yesterday at 3.10pm. I was still there after 7pm. On another day, I’d have watched three matches in that time but yesterday’s contest was no ordinary game.

Limerick 4-21 Clare 0-33 (Limerick win 7-6 on frees AET)

That finally brought an end to the gripping match five minutes short of three hours – one which is being labelled the longest inter-county hurling game of all time.

Limerick’s Colin Ryan was the hero at the end of a contest that almost ran for three hours.

Garryowen 18 ... UL Bohemian 3: Garryowen claimed their 39th Munster Senior Cup when overwhelming local rivals UL Bohemian 18-3 in their all-Limerick final at the Markets Field last night.

The all-consuming nature of inter-county life finds itself front and centre once more. Burnout tends to dominate GAA discourse this time of year, but the tales of Kieran Bergin and Joe Sheridan have overshadowed however many emerging talents are being pulled here, there and everywhere.

Shane O’Donnell has praised the “absolutely fantastic” influence of former Clare coach Donal Óg Cusack.

Darach Honan has become the fourth member of Clare's 2013 All Ireland-winning panel to announce his retirement from inter-county hurling in recent weeks.

New Dublin senior hurling boss Pat Gilroy should be in a position to name the rest of his management by the end of next week.

David Clifford’s meeting with Éamonn Fitzmaurice does not mean the teenage prodigy will bypass the U20 grade and line out for the Kerry seniors in 2018, board chairman Tim Murphy has insisted.

Hurling Development Committee (HDC) chairman Paudie O’Neill feels attitudes from both managers and officials towards the Allianz Hurling League will change in the wake of Saturday’s historic All-Ireland SHC vote.

KILKENNY 0-11 - LIMERICK 0-17: Familiar territory, this, for Limerick. And a familiar question is again posed: Can this latest U21 success pave the way to senior hurling glory?

Limerick 0-16 Cork 1-11: A bright note on an otherwise dank summer for Limerick.

Even if Cork had Luke Meade and Darragh Fitzgibbon I still would have felt that Limerick were more balanced. And they were, writes Anthony Daly.

Limerick 1-28 Clare 1-15 

With Kilkenny not exactly lighting up Cusack Park on Wednesday evening, it was left to Limerick to fire the first warning signal in the race for All-Ireland U21 glory.

This Limerick U21 team carries shades of last year’s Waterford class.

Colin Ryan shocked Clare hurling fans when he opted out of the senior panel for this season. He’ll watch his former colleagues play Limerick tomorrow. But he won his All-Ireland last week. Playing soccer.

Clare boss Davy Fitzgerald admitted that Ger Loughnane’s scathing post-Leinster final criticism of Galway did his team no favours yesterday.

Waterford 1-21 Clare 0-17: Maybe now we can talk about Waterford as contenders and not as the black sheep of hurling. Maybe now the most blatant fact about them can be accepted – that they are a team that can score and quite a lot too.

It was a brilliant team performance by Waterford and another illustration of superb management from Derek McGrath and his crew, writes Anthony Daly.

Davy Fitzgerald revealed it was his call to appoint Tony Kelly to take the 80 metres-plus free to equalise over Colin Ryan and Conor McGrath.

The Waterford and Clare systems have effectively retired the position of full-forward, writes Donal O’Grady

Tipperary were made to regret an awful display of free-taking as a 67th minute goal by substitute Aaron Shanagher sealed a Division 1 semi-final date with Kilkenny.

Shane O’Donnell is expected to be out of action for a month after sustaining a foot injury. It is believed he picked up the setback in last Sunday’s Division 1B win over Limerick in Ennis.

Jackie Tyrrell makes his first since last year’s Leinster final as one of five changes to the Kilkenny side for tomorrow’s Allianz HL Division 1A clash with Galway at Nowlan Park tomorrow (2pm).

Clare 2-21 Offaly 0-15: Davy Fitzgerald’s Bannermen, similar to the under-construction main stand which provided an appropriate backdrop to this Division 1B contest, are very much a work in progress.