In the Lyons den

WHEN you first individually meet with the three members of the original Clare management triumvirate, the men who orchestrated the breakthrough in 95, the most striking thing about them IS their individuality.

Meet Ger Loughnane and you come away thinking, ah yes, that’s why Clare overcame all the crippling psychological barriers that had barred their progress over the years. He is forceful, passionate about Clare, and has a fanatical belief not in his people’s superiority over everybody else, but in their equality. He’s got mesmeric eyes that instantly engage, lock their audience, so that when he speaks, you understand - yes, those lads were hypnotised. Ger Loughnane was indeed the Messiah, and all the rest were followers.

Then you meet Tony Considine, and that theory is blown to smithereens. If anything, Considine is an even more forceful personality than Loughnane. Each is intelligent, eloquent, but Consodine is more physical, a striking figure, all coiled energy, every word accentuated, energised. So now you’re thinking, okay, there were two of them in it. Until you meet Mike McNamara.