A train of thought on hurling’s biggest day

I thought it was all over for trains and GAA supporters, and I thought I had the exact moment the romance had ended: when Cork decided to go by bus to Dublin.

You may not recall the precise details, but a couple of years ago Cork decided that if they were playing in the capital, it made more sense to get a bus to their Dublin hotel than taking the train.

As a member of management explained to me, everyone getting off the train in Heuston had to be rounded up, someone had gone to get a coffee, someone left their bag on the train, someone else had just popped into the toilet... it could be half an hour before the bus was nudging its way out into the traffic, and the pantomime happened all over again at the team hotel.