Absent friends from ’89 remembered

TOO OFTEN, the Cork team which won the 1989 All-Ireland has had to gather together in sorrow rather than joy.

Two of the side, goalkeeper John Kerins and corner-forward Mick McCarthy, have departed this life too soon, while masseur John ‘Kid’ Cronin and Denis Conroy, the county board chairman at the time, have also passed on.

Last Friday week at the Rochestown Park Hotel, the Sam Maguire winners of a quarter-century ago convened to remember those gone and also to reminisce. Included in the attendance was a sizeable contingent from Meath. Even though they didn’t play them in ’89 their battles in 1987, ’88 (twice) and ’90 gained nationwide notoriety.