Reconnecting with people on Champions League night

Cork’s Oliver Plunkett Street is 850m metres long. And while business was not brisk on Thursday morning around half-nine, you were still able, on a walk from one end to the other, to eavesdrop on at least seven separate animated conversations about Wednesday night’s Champions League action.

It is not clear exactly how everybody is watching it, because we are certainly not all paying for BT Sport or Virgin Media. But we are getting there somehow, taking our place among the nations of the earth on these great communal nights.