John Fogarty: Cork's Belfast clash with Antrim couldn't be timelier

Antrim may not win but Corrigan Park is something of a fortress for the newly-crowned Joe McDonagh Cup winners

4 June 2022; Thje Antrim squad celebrate with the ciup after the Joe McDonagh Cup Final match between Antrim and Kerry at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Ray McManus/Sportsfile

If that despicable song about the late Michaela McAreavey did something other than unite opposing sides of the community in the north in their abhorrence of such behaviour, it served as a telling reminder to us outside Ulster of the challenges the majority of the GAA people face in the northern province.

Our ignorance, at times blissful, and patronising of the “great work being done” in Ulster, especially in hurling, doesn’t suit us. When Sambo McNaughton talks about how carrying a hurley was provocative and dangerous in his playing days and there being “notes left for me and my name on a bullet” because of his pastime, we have tut-tutted and thanked the heavens that those times are in the past.