That Banner reunion - how many Clare hurling greats can you identify?

"A great sign of a friend is someone you don’t meet much and if you met them in a pub or at a match, you can take up naturally."

Sun, 29 Aug, 2021 - 16:59

Larry Ryan

Clare’s All-Ireland winning hurlers of 1995 missed out on the customary jubilee celebrations last year — due to Covid restrictions there was no chance for the traditional wave to the crowd ahead of the 2020 senior final.

At least they should have another chance next year, to mark the 1997 win. But they weren’t waiting around. Most of that legendary team — including current Clare manager Brian Lohan — gathered this weekend at Anthony Daly’s pub Murty Browne's in Tullycrine, and captain Dalo and Stephen McNamara, corner-forward on that team, have been posting some of the evidence on social media.

McNamara tweeted: "Superb night out with a few aul pals in @murtybrownes @DaloAnto to catch up after missing Jubilee celebrations".

Anthony Daly, Mike McNamara, Jamesie O'Connor and Brian Lohan Picture via @daloanto on Twitter

Dalo did get to represent the team in Croke Park last year, as part of RTÉ's matchday team, and speaking on the Irish Examiner GAA podcast he revealed that, pre-Covid, many of the team did convene every year for a golf outing, and the bond remains tight as ever.

"A great sign of a friend is someone you don’t meet much and if you met them in a pub or at a match, you can take up naturally.

“We have a golf game every year before Christmas, usually around November, We’ve nearly every town in Ireland done, great craic.

“We take up as if we’d beaten Cork or Tipp or Waterford on the Sunday and we’re meeting on the Monday.

“We had a bit of a 10-year holiday to the Canaries. It was a roaring success, 14 of us managed to go.

Clare players from the 1995 All-Ireland winning team. Picture via @stephenmc13

“You look at a lot of other teams and tragically they would have lost somebody. And 25 years is a long time, even though it only seems like yesterday to me. And we’re lucky we're all still here at the moment.”