I WAS never much of a one for All-Ireland night celebrations. The night of the three-in-a-row Nancy and I hired a rowing boat for the pond in Stephen’s Green. I’m a bit like Connell that way, but, more to the point, a lot like myself.

A COLLEAGUE who sat in on the 1991 All-Star selection meeting was amused by the Northern lobby’s capacity to find ever more important bodily parts, organs, and constituents to equate with members of the Down team, which had just won the All-Ireland.