How Clare discovered the magic

Around 7pm last Saturday night, Darach Honan was on the flat of his back on a field in Dublin, looking up at the sky, or what he could see of it above the Croke Park floodlights.

“Everyone knew it was over. That we’d won the All-Ireland. There were all sorts of emotions — relief, pure joy, the sense of coming off the bench. I had something to prove. It was a mash-up of a lot of emotions.”

He’d just danced down the end line to score the clinching goal in the All-Ireland final replay. Cue the celebration. The emotional trip home.