Michael Moynihan in scoreboard Fortresses overthrown and fortresses restored. Yesterday in Ennis was Bloomsday, of course, but was there a whiff of Tolkien to the proceedings, with the hills and hosts and stone fastnesses, waiting to be cast down or held in the face of assault?

Clare restored pride with a battling performance but exited the Munster championship yesterday despite beating Cork in Ennis.

If the phoney war taketh away, sometimes the phoney war giveth.

Cork manager John Meyler says preparations are complete for tomorrow’s Munster SHC clash with Clare — so what are his Saturday evening plans?

There’s so much to be taken from those famous lyrics to the adopted Munster anthem ‘Stand Up and Fight’.

For our purposes this game should have been played at High Noon, because all week we were hearing that this would be a western classic.

After the Clare-Limerick game yesterday evening, I turned the car for Cork so I could stay the night and be fully refreshed for this morning’s

All-Ireland champions Limerick are all but guaranteed of a top-three finish in Munster after this 18-point thumping of Clare.

Head high tackles are what the GAA have been keen to crack down on this summer but the application of the rule regarding them over the weekend left a lot to be desired.

Clare were a shadow of themselves as a rampant Tipperary made a mockery of the Banner’s proud home record in Cusack Park.

A Shane O’Donnell and Tony Kelly-led Clare spoiled Waterford’s Munster championship homecoming to leave the Déise playing a dangerous game of catch-up in the coming weeks.

Peter Duggan knocked 67 frees between the posts for Clare in last year’s hurling championship yet ask your average punter to recall an attempt he stood over and plenty would dig up one among the small handful that didn’t make it.

The scoreboard won’t contain the only numbers that matter to Peter Duggan this month.

We are a week into Munster Championship Lent. The 40 days and 40 nights before the start of the Munster SHC on May 12 commenced last Tuesday.

Shane O’Donnell has rejoined the Clare senior hurling panel following his return from Harvard University last week.

Waterford cruised to a win in this NHL quarter-final, with the 2,753 in attendance rewarded with an entertaining first half that gave way to a second-half stroll for the home side.

Donal Moloney has seen a lot of hurling in his time, but yesterday in Cusack Park represented something of a first for him.

I got a text from a good buddy before yesterday’s game in Ennis which neatly set the scene for what followed.

Aaron Gillane pointed a free in the fifth minute of injury-time to snatch a draw for All-Ireland champions Limerick against the only team to beat them in last year’s championship.

Yesterday in Cusack Park was a pick ‘n’ mix of everything the league can give you. High scores and stirring comebacks, spectacular goals, and lapses in concentration. Something for everyone in the audience.

To give an idea of just how glaring Clare’s concession of 15 pointed frees (24 in total) was on Saturday night, it’s one less than the placed balls that have been scored against Limerick across the first three rounds.

The scoreline suggests a rip-roaring contest but that is a false reading.

LIT have booked a home quarter-final in the Fitzgibbon Cup following a 3-22 to 0-8 victory over Trinity College in Moylish.

Limerick Institute of Technology advanced to the Fitzgibbon Cup quarter-finals after a 4-24 to 0-12 win over Garda College at LIT.

There’s usually less debate about the hurling All-Stars than you get with the football All-Stars.

Peter Duggan never feared that Gerry O’Connor and Donal Moloney would be lost to the Clare senior hurlers over the off-season.

"You talk about complacency" — Tommy Walsh

It was Declan Hannon who said it, sitting in the victors’ banquet with the Liam MacCarthy Cup in front of him: ‘We’ve all marched behind the band out the back garden when we were four, five, six years of age.’

It was Declan Hannon who said it, sitting in the victors’ banquet with the Liam MacCarthy Cup in front of him: ‘We’ve all marched behind the band out the back garden when we were four, five, six years of age.’

"You talk about complacency" — Tommy Walsh

Fresh from the Department of No Further Ado, the end of season hurling awards. Often copied but never equalled, the jury (Michael Moynihan, alone) has reported in.

"If you don’t win, you’re not remembered" — Andrew O’Shaughnessy

Clare’s Peter Duggan and Monaghan’s Conor McManus have been voted PwC GAA/GPA Player of the Month award winners for their respective performances in July.

YESTERDAY’S events in Thurles told us more about a man who wasn’t on the field than one who was. If anybody was in doubt about the Westmeath man taking charge of the All-Ireland final, they aren’t now.

At the end of the match yesterday, I shook hands with Michael Lyster. It may be my last time doing a live TV game with Michael, who retires from RTÉ at the end of this year, and I wanted to acknowledge his help to me, and his absolute professionalism, over the years.

Are we now the best little country in the world at rejecting a narrative? Bursting bubbles might be the true people’s game.

Last weekend’s exploits at Croke Park were spellbinding and on occasions, out of this world, says Dr Ed Coughlan.

Over half a century ago Harold MacMillan reduced all of politics to those four words. Even now it’ll have to do as a description of Galway-Clare on Saturday evening.

Stephen Barry picks out three talking points from yesterday's Munster final in Thurles...

The Munster crown weighed heavy on Cork’s head last year but it shouldn’t be a burden this time around.

Olive Esler, who handles the social media promotion for The Sunday Game was manic busy throughout yesterday afternoon.

There was a delay in Cork’s return to proceedings after half-time yesterday. They had gone in four points behind, but it could have been more. Cork used the time well at the break and were a different outfit in the second period.

Let’s get the moany bits, all the more relevant after the week that was in it, out of the way quickly.

David Reidy is also named to start having had his controversial red card from the Limerick game rescinded.