Our boundaries still inspire these colourful rivalries

AROUND the fairyland beauty of Dooney Lake in Sligo on Sunday morning the elemental black and white flags were rippling and blossoming with hope that the dream would come true for the county’s footballers.

The whole of Inishfree were electrified with excitement about the Connacht final in Castlebar. Lough Gill was shivering in a silvery way in its ancient bed. Benbulben seemed to have lost the frown on its stony brow. That seems fanciful but there is only slight hyperbole. The whole county was highly animated. It was moving to be there.

Every car had at least one window flag. Every house seemed to have three or four. Roadside children at their gates screamed support from underneath the buntings at the traffic massing towards McHale Park in the afternoon.