Paul Rouse: History weighs on Cork shoulders but expectation survives

The roars from the stands in Páirc Uí Chaoimh last Saturday were laced with hope and desire and a desperation to return to the top of the tree

POSITIVE START: Cork’s Tommy O'Connell signs autographs after the Allianz Hurling League win over Limerick. Pic: INPHO/Evan Treacy

“The famine is over!”, proclaimed Richie Stakelum when he lifted the Munster Senior Hurling trophy in 1987 in Killarney. Tipperary had not won the Munster championship for 16 years and the pain of years of defeat was made plain by the scale of the elation that spread out before him.

When Tipperary people speak of that moment they often reference the relief it brought. After decades of success, 16 years within provincial honours had come to weigh heavily on the county’s hurlers and the people who supported them.