Thousands arrive as Féile fever strikes Cork

MARC SHEEHAN hits you with a blizzard of statistics. There’ll be 4,200 children in action in Cork over the next three days in the 2011 instalment of Féile na nÓg, lining out for 181 teams and going into action in 40 venues.

There’s 101 local sides from Cork competing, along with 80 visiting clubs, with all of the 32 counties represented and nine travelling from overseas.

For Sheehan, chairman of the organising committee, there have been plenty logistical hurdles to surmount in bringing all of this together: “It’s a significant undertaking. Preparations really started in January 2010 but they were at a very preliminary stage then. Since last autumn, it’s been flat out really.