The Cork to Limerick road

He hasn’t discovered any short cuts. The familiar signposts — Mallow, Buttevant, Charleville — still mark the winding road from Cork to Limerick and John Allen has seen a lot of them in recent months.

“It’s given me an appreciation of what it was like for Ben and Jerry O’Connor and Cathal Naughton, travelling up to Cork from Newtown,” says the Limerick hurling manager.

“It’s two hours, you’re hitting traffic on the way up, but I’m finished teaching so it’s not a huge issue for me.”