Do hurlers not deserve to stand and sing our national anthem?

After St Patrick’s Day had segued into the Bank Holiday Monday, I sat down to watch Michael Conlan’s fight against Ruben Garcia Hernandez. Madison Square Garden was hopping. It was full of Irish, juiced up on beer and patriotism, but the roof nearly came off The Hulu Theatre when Conlan made his entrance walk.

The beams on the structure must have been nearly ready to collapse by the time Conlan entered the ring because the walk lasted eight minutes. The craic began with two bagpipers leading Conlan to the ring to the backing track of ‘The Minstrel Boy’. That was followed by ‘The Rising of the Moon’ before the haunting track ‘Grace’ came on. Conlan wasn’t finished there either because the walk finished to the Wolfe Tones track ‘Celtic Symphony’, which was even more explosive considering the controversial connotations around the chants used by some of the crowd.