Jack O’Shea: How New Street turf lit my fire

TOMORROW, the pinnacle of the GAA season is reached, but it’s an occasion about much more than a game of football between two hyper-trained teams, writes Michael Clifford.

The All-Ireland football final salutes the past, celebrates the present and takes a peek at the future. Ahead of the senior game, old warriors parade on the turf where once they were kings. Prior to that, tomorrow’s men from Galway and Kerry grace the minor match, in the curtain-raiser for a day that cherishes continuity.

And it is that melding of continuity, tradition and community that makes the association unique. Few organisations anywhere in the world can lay claim to such an elevated perch in the national psyche.