Point separates grief from glory, hero from heartache

YOU would need a heart of stone not to be moved by the Armagh celebrations in Croke Park yesterday, as the oh-so-precious new green sward changed colour under the swarming orange hordes that broke down from the towering stands, sweeping aside every effort to hold them back.

More than a century of fruitless endeavour, this was Krakatoa, an eruption of full-flame fiery pent-up emotions as now, finally, another football-mad county officially joined the elite. All-Ireland winners.

One would also have needed a heart of stone not to feel sorry for those who had just lost that All-Ireland final, those magnificent men who had fought their way through the proud Kingdom's hardest-ever journey to Croke Park on the biggest day in football's calendar, only to come up short, by the most narrow, the most cruel of margins.