Why Clare ‘needs to hates’ those Cork boys a bit more

On the night Cork beat Clare in the 1999 Munster final, Johnny Callanan, the former Clarecastle and Clare hurler, and a great personal friend, told me a funny story. A few pints had helped to siphon some of the pain from the defeat but Cal wanted to try put more perspective on the day’s events.

One Monday afternoon in the early 1980s, the day after Cork had beaten Limerick in the championship, Callanan got a call from his brother-in-law, Seán O’Donovan. An uncle of the former Clare hurler Domhnaill, Seán rang Callanan and asked him to meet Seán and a crew of other Limerick hurlers for lunch.

Seán, who won four senior championships with Kilmallock, was seeking the cure with a handful of team-mates after a painful day at the office. Callanan and Seán were raking through the embers of Limerick’s defeat to Cork when Ger Clohessy, the Young Munster rugby player who many still regard as the original ‘Claw’, joined the conversation.