Buzz back for Banner

IT was only yesterday, wasn’t it? 1995, closing minutes of the Munster championship first round, Clare battling like hell to close the narrow gap on Cork.

Centre-back Seanie McMahon had broken his collarbone but, because they had already used their full quota of subs, he refused to come off the pitch. “I can’t go off”, he told manager Ger Loughnane, as related in Loughnane’s ‘Raising The Banner’. “I’ll go corner-forward”.

Minutes to go, he forced Cork’s Timmy Kelleher into conceding a line-ball, the most fateful line-ball in Banner hurling history; Fergie Touhy stepped forward, ball into the Cork square, Baker goal, Clare win by a point, go on to conquer Munster, to win their first All-Ireland title since the 20’s. All so recent, all so long ago.