Battle lines drawn at the border

EVER since the two counties came out of the hat together for the All-Ireland qualifiers a fortnight ago, the banter has been flying over the Laois-Offaly border.

Nowhere has the exchange been as keen as in Portarlington, a town separated only by the River Barrow to the uninformed but by over a century of football rivalry to the locals.

The lines have been blurred by people crossing the water to live and work in the other side’s backyard and Pádraig Dunne has spent the last two weeks embedded deep in enemy territory in his pub “After Dark”.