Brian Fox: There was nobody alive in Tipp with a Munster medal before historic win

Brian Fox at the Glen of Aherlow for the launch of the All-Ireland SFC. ‘You’d notice the atmosphere around the county, the mood has changed from one of depression shadowed by Covid to one of real sunlight,” he says. Picture: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Last Sunday week, Conor Sweeney would have forgiven had he chosen to imitate Richard Stakelum and declare, “The famine is over”. After all, 85 years waiting for a senior provincial football title trumps the 16 the county’s senior hurlers bridged in Killarney in 1987.

Looking up at Stakelum 33 years ago were his team-mates, Pat Fox and John Kennedy. Looking up at Sweeney in Páirc Uí Chaoimh were Fox’s nephew Brian and Kennedy’s sons Colman and Conal with Jack unable to attend due to injury.