Old habits die hard

ODD intros to hurling articles, No 87 in a series: This year is the centenary of John Wayne’s birth.

No, this isn’t a desperate effort to equate the counties in the hunt for Liam McCarthy to various films in the Wayne canon. Almost every county could be cast in the lead role for The Searchers, maybe, but who’d want to be cast as The Quiet Man? Who would you see as The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance? The, er, Barbarian and the Geisha?

There’s still a reason for drawing your attention to that anniversary — call it certain parallels between perceptions of the hurling championship and Wayne’s movie legacy. Although his films are still applauded for their visual beauty, many critics are less comfortable with the actor’s narrow choice of roles, a reluctance to stretch his repertoire, not to mention those reactionary political views.