Limerick were brilliant but Cork will be asking hard questions

At the end of the match yesterday, I shook hands with Dave Punch, the former Limerick hurler, who works for RTÉ. He asked me if I saw the attendance. I did, I said — 71,000. Dave corrected me. ‘No, Dalo, 71,073.’

Dave could already detect a hidden link back to Limerick’s last All-Ireland but there was imagery and romance and nostalgia sprinkled all over Croke Park yesterday. And huge, huge emotion.

At the final whistle, ‘The Cranberries’ song ‘Linger’ boomed — no soothed — out over the loudspeakers.