The one that got away: Limeick's generation that never tasted All-Ireland success

Limerick’s startling Munster hurling title win in 1955 proved the county’s solitary provincial victory in a 32-year stretch. They should have backed it up with an All-Ireland crown the following year, as Cappamore’s Paddy O’Malley recalls it. He spoke to PM O’Sullivan

Paddy O’Malley with his Munster championship medal and a photograph of the 1955 Limerick team who beat Clare. The trainer is the great Mick Mackey. Picture: Brendan Gleeson

HERBERT Park in Ballsbridge, early May of 1955.

Casual walkers spying a young man with a hurl. There he is, tossing a ball skywards, running on hard, catching it, killing it dead on his hurl, tossing up, running on. He is 19 going on 20, a native of Cappamore, studying pharmacy in Dublin. He is about to captain Limerick against Waterford in a Munster semi-final.