Jack Anderson: There’s no such thing as a Limerick ex-pat for this All-Ireland, we all are at a distance

The connection to home that the GAA and its games give ex-patriates is wired into us far deeper than any network or broadcaster could ever hope to match

GAA training in full swing on a summer’s evening at Victoria GAA Club in Melbourne, Australia. The All-Ireland hurling final throws in at 2.30am on Monday December 14 — an ungodly hour but one that won’t be missed.

Last Sunday, after more than six weeks without a coronavirus case in either Melbourne or Victoria, it was announced that from midnight, Covid-related social restrictions would be eased further in both city and state.

Outdoor public gatherings can now have crowds of 100. Whereas previously wearing a mask was the default option if you stepped outside the door, now it is the opposite. Apart from public transport and some indoor retail settings, you do not have to cover up.

Despite this, as those of us involved in the GAA in Victoria gathered for our AGM on Sunday, we all wore masks. We socially distanced in a small group. We “spread out in a bunch” as they say at home, and we held the meeting in the open air.

The AGM took place in the shadow of a cricket pavilion where a slightly perplexed groundsman looked on warily at the gathering group of GAA tops. Naturally, and to make us feel at home, a shower passed through as the Chair began his opening address and drowned him out, literally.

As those of us who arrived early for the meeting — or as they say in Australia, “being on time” — the chat turned to the game that morning: Dublin v Cavan; and that nothing is likely to stop the Dubs this year, and likely well into this decade. There was also mention of the hurling final. As at home, there seems to be an emerging view that the nearer we get to the final, the stronger Waterford’s chances are becoming. They are, it is said, the hungrier team.

Being from Limerick I was getting a bit irate at this chat. In 80 years, we have only won two All-Irelands. This Limerick team are hardly sated yet and the terrible itch of last year’s semi-final loss to Kilkenny, inflamed by Tipperary winning the final comfortably, remains to be scratched.

Or maybe my reaction to the talk about Waterford is just typical Limerick belligerence; after all a balanced Limerick person has a chip on both shoulders.

Waterford is the only county in Munster that Limerick does not have a border with, nor a real rivalry, and for most Limerick hurling people the “blahs” are probably our second favourite team. If Waterford win their first since 1959, it would be a hard hurling heart that would stay cold.

GAA training on a summer's evening in Melbourne

Whether you are from Kilmacthomas or Kilmallock, if you now live in Melbourne, the All-Ireland hurling final throws in at 2.30am on Monday December 14 — an ungodly hour in an ungodly year. Most of us will probably stay up Sunday night and take in the Joe McDonagh to see both ends of the country, Antrim and Kerry, fight it out.

All this will be facilitated by being able to stream the games easily and inexpensively on GAA Go. In this, we’ll be as close to the crowdless action as anyone at home.

The GAA gets it in the neck from many quarters but the capacity to hold a championship in Covid-times, and the foresight in developing a streaming service, reflects well on Croke Park’s administrators, past and present. The GAA has moved a long way from neighbours gathering in a house to listen to games on the wireless to now accessing it anywhere around the globe on Wi-Fi.

Moreover, the ability to stream club games earlier in the year was a bonus, especially for those of us in the middle of a world record seven-month lockdown in Melbourne. Seeing familiar faces leaning on a hurley roaring from the sideline at the referee for no rational reason, put a smile on many faces over a dreary winter Down Under.

Victoria GAA's jerseys

At Gaelic Games Victoria’s AGM on Sunday, as we trudged through our motions, there was an acknowledgment that playing numbers are down in all four codes. Lots of the Irish in their twenties and on temporary visas, returned home as Covid struck and borders closed.

The ebb and flow of the playing population is a fact of life for those involved in the GAA abroad. The GAA in Melbourne, based on the solid foundations given to us by earlier generations, particularly those who came out with Ronnie Delany in the 1950s, will regroup and thrive again in 2021.

Speaking to many within the GAA community who stayed in Australia, it was poignant to hear, often in passing, mention of how they could not go home in 2020 to attend funerals or weddings or other family occasions.

Beside me at the AGM, in his Milltown Malbay GAA top, was Carl Walsh. The Clare man, sub goalie for the 1992 Munster football win, is now a well-known businessman in Melbourne. In 2020 he lost his dad, Noel Walsh, a progressive GAA administrator of great renown and a Clare football man of even greater devotion.

Not being permitted to travel home to attend the funeral of a loved one — the Milltown Malbay club arranged a drone to film Noel Walsh’s cortege moving through his beloved town — was one of the hardest psychological parts of the lockdown for Victoria’s Irish.

In previous years, if your county unexpectedly got to an All-Ireland, some would make a late dash home to attend. That is not possible in 2020 and there will be no international travel until well into 2021 and even then, according to the CEO of Qantas, Alan Joyce (a Dub), only on vaccination. For now, we will have to rely on streaming the game on Australia’s national broadband network — the CEO of Australia’s NBN is Stephen Rue, another Dubliner.

Thanks to the NBN, the gaze of Australia’s GAA fans can turn to Croke Park on Monday morning. The broadcast coverage and hurling analysis on TV has been good this year, as has the reliability of the technology.

And yet the connection to home, the GAA, and its games, gives us all, is wired into us far deeper than any network or broadcaster could ever hope to match.

- Jack Anderson from Doon, Co Limerick, is Professor of Law at the University of Melbourne.

[b]- You can purchase the Irish Examiner's 20-page All-Ireland Hurling Final preview supplement with your Friday edition of the Irish Examiner in stores or from our epaper site.[/b]