Christy O'Connor: It has never been in Clare’s nature to accept Limerick superiority 

Tony Kelly of Clare after the Munster GAA Hurling Senior Championship Round 4 match between Clare and Limerick at Cusack Park in Ennis, Clare. Photo by Ray McManus/Sportsfile

For Limerick, the thought was unbearable, inconceivable, especially when the potential outcome was loaded with so many apocalyptic implications. Limerick were All-Ireland champions but defeat to Clare in Round 3 of the 2019 Munster round robin would have meant elimination from the championship with one game to spare. At home. And at the hands of Clare. Absolutely inconceivable.

Limerick refused to countenance the notion for a second; they delivered a performance of rage and fury to obliterate their neighbours. Clare were on their knees by half-time. The final margin of victory was 18 points. Clare managed just four points from play. Their season was already effectively over after their worst result in over a decade.

When the Clare squad went across the road to LIT afterwards for their post-match meal, the feeling was so staggeringly concussive that everyone felt numb. “Lads were just stunned,” says Donal Tuohy, the Clare goalkeeper that day. “Nobody was talking. We were just speechless.

“It was totally demoralising. Limerick were just on a different level to us, both tactically and in terms of S&C. They walked all over us. For Limerick to have won the All-Ireland and for us then to have taken that kind of a beating from them, it was the worst day ever.” 

Clare-Limerick has always been one of hurling’s most ferocious rivalries but the background to that match exacerbated the pain for Clare. Watching Limerick go on and win the 2018 All-Ireland was all the harder again for Clare after they had beaten Limerick in that year’s round robin by 11 points. Clare had also comprehensively defeated Limerick in their two previous championship games in 2016 and 2017.

That hurt of missing out in 2018, after losing an All-Ireland semi-final replay to Galway, and believing that Limerick had what could have been theirs, was an absolute driving force for Clare throughout the winter of 2018-‘19. But that defeat the following summer was like having to swallow an ocean of cod liver oil.

The rivalry has always been so intense that oscillating tendencies are inevitable but the 2019 match felt like a turning point in the modern relationship. When the sides met again in the 2020 championship that October, Limerick won by ten points. “That defeat really hurt us too because we had seen again how much they had kicked on,” says Tuohy. “Apart from Tony (Kelly) and a few other lads, we didn’t lay a glove on them again.” 

The sides didn’t meet in league or championship last year but their two league and championship clashes already this year firmly underlined how the dynamic of the relationship has absolutely flipped again.

The round robin game three weeks ago was a complete throwback afternoon, a day of days that rekindled memories of the old Clare-Limerick battles. The tone, texture and mood of the whole occasion was faithful to the history of the fixture because neither side would back down or be moved to one side in the maelstrom of absolute ferocity.

When Limerick first arrived in Ennis at the outset of this year for the Munster league final in January, Limerick supporters outnumbered Clare. And they weren’t slow in reminding Clare of their status in the relationship.

It was a tough watch – and listen - for Clare supporters considering the make-up of both sides. Limerick were missing 13 players from the side which won last year’s All-Ireland final. Clare used 11 seasoned players during the 70 plus minutes. Limerick won pulling up.

Clare looked set to endure continued pain at the hands of the Limerick machine. Yet it has never been in Clare’s nature, or their psyche, to accept any level of superiority from their neighbours.

And Limerick know that too. “This Limerick team pride themselves on treating everyone with grey faces but Clare are the only exception,” says former Limerick player Paul Browne. “Limerick are always trying to remove the emotion but the only time emotion ever really comes into it for them is when they’re playing Clare.

“The one team you definitely didn’t want to lose to was Clare. People used to talk to me about the Limerick-Tipperary rivalry but I never felt going in to those matches that I wanted to win more against Tipp than I did against Clare.” 

The primary reason the recent match was so memorable was because it evoked so many memories of what Clare-Limerick games used to be like, of what the relationship was really all about; spikiness, edginess, unbearable tension, epic individual contests.

Hurling was vastly different two decades ago but back in the 1990s, Clare-Limerick was more than just a match; it was a byword for chaos and mayhem, an occasion of coiled intensity, driven by some of hurling's strongest characters at that time.

The players on both sides were always conscious of that history. Last week, Tuohy found himself asking members of his family to describe the whole 1995 Munster final occasion; the mood, the build-up, the feeling of elation after Clare finally made the breakthrough.

“That history was always so important to us,” he says. “It means so much more. Even any of the league games I played against Limerick, there was always verbals. There was always something going on. It never took much for those games to kick off.

“It’s completely different to games against Cork, Tipp and Waterford because there is such an edge to Clare-Limerick matches. I think there is even more of an intensity to the whole thing again now with (Brian) Lohan involved. He was such a huge figure in past Clare-Limerick games.” 

That era framed so much of how the relationship is still shaped. “The Clare-Limerick history is etched into folklore,” says Browne. “It all stems from the 1990s when Clare got their two All-Irelands and we got none.

"When you talk about the anger and bitterness Clare have towards Limerick now, that was us back in the 1990s. Limerick people didn’t like Clare because of pure jealousy. That rivalry was always in your head. It means that bit more.” 

So many of those epic contests between 1996-’99 were fuelled by Limerick’s resentment of Clare having what they so desperately craved. And now, the mood is broadly similar in Clare.

It goes deeper again amongst the Clare panel, especially those from the 2013 All-Ireland winning team, because Limerick have now done what many around the country expected Clare to do after winning that All-Ireland with such a young and talented team.

“It is a real sore point for Clare that Limerick kicked on after 2018 and we didn’t after 2013,” says Tuohy. “There were a host of different factors why we didn’t – injuries, playing with a sweeper for so long. But it still doesn’t make it any easier to accept when you look at how well Limerick have managed what we couldn’t.” 

That tension has always been at the heart of the relationship. It reached fever pitch during the 1990s but as the key characters on both sides drifted away, the cut-throat tone of the relationship inevitably cooled. After Eamon Cregan gutted the Limerick panel in the winter of 2000, most of their key warriors departed and Clare had no truck with the new generation.

The relationship was never the same over the following decade. During the 2000s, the counties met on 10 occasions in league and championship and the 2006 league semi-final was the only time the occasion was faithful to old trends.

Not meeting in the championship between 1996 and 2006 diluted much of the strain. Yet the rivalry began to reignite when the sides met in the 2011 Division 2 final, the 2012 Division 1B final and that year’s championship.

“That 2011 Division 2 league final is one of the standout memories of my career,” says Browne. “Ennis was electric that night. It was an absolutely brilliant occasion.” 

A redrafting of the league meant Limerick ended up in Division 1B the following year and Clare beat them in the final to secure promotion to Division 1. Limerick exacted revenge that summer in the qualifiers but the edge went to a whole new level again when the sides clashed in the 2013 All-Ireland semi-final. Limerick were Munster champions but Clare turned them over. “That defeat really rankled with us,” says Browne. “It hurt us so badly.” 

The year is still young but Browne can already see shades of 2013 in how Clare are progressing and developing, especially in how they are building momentum. And Limerick will be desperate now to halt it.

“You never want to let Clare ahead of you,” says Browne. “Above all counties, they really do ride the crest of a wave when it’s going. There is already a whole different narrative around how Clare talk about themselves now. Earlier in the year, it was all, ‘Things are bad’. Now all of a sudden, it’s the complete opposite.

“Clare are on the crest of a wave again and the big thing for Limerick now is to stop it. I think if Clare win at the weekend, they’ll be very, very dangerous. They’ll be very hard to stop.” 

Their five successive championship meetings between 2016-2020 were anomalous in the wider context of the relationship because one side was superior to the other on each occasion. Their last three league meetings between 2018-2022 were a more accurate gauge because all three were draws. It took a freetaking competition after two periods of extra-time to separate the sides in the 2018 league quarter-final. Their clash three weeks ago was of a similar vein, where both had each other by the lapels, and refused to let go. 

The rivalry was never laced with the naked hostility that defines other close-border rivalries, but bad blood is bubbling again. The fire will always rage continuously between both counties anyway because it is constantly stoked by the high number of people crossing the border for work on either side.

Because of its proximity to the city, south-east Clare has always been intrinsically linked with Limerick. The border is only a mile from the Gaelic Grounds. Kids from south east Clare are increasingly being drawn to school in Limerick, especially to Árdscoil Ris, who have become the dominant force in Munster Colleges hurling over the last decade.

In this year’s Harty Cup final, St Joseph’s Tulla beat an Árdscoil team loaded with Clare players. When St Flannan’s Ennis defeated Árdscoil in the Dean Ryan final in November, eight Clare players started on the Árdscoil team. That dynamic has fostered an even greater awareness of the rivalry.

“It would nearly kill you to say it as a Limerick man but we’re nearly the same people,” says Browne. “If you went through the whole country and did a comparative crossover in terms of work, industry, economy, marriage and school, Clare and Limerick would be right up there at the top. So when you’re kinda the same person, you clash more.” 

Sunday will be the ultimate battle. Limerick are looking to cement their absolute grip on the province with a fourth successive title, while Clare are chasing a first Munster success for 24 years. Clare are also after something unique and rare; the 1995 Munster final win was the only time Clare ever beat Limerick in a Munster final.

Given Limerick’s current status in the game, and Clare’s voracious intent to knock them back, Clare will hunt Limerick down with everything they have.

“Limerick have been unbelievable but, of all teams, we would have always felt we had their number when we were right,” says Tuohy. “Clare are flying at the moment and that’s going to be a huge motivating factor again on Sunday.

“The one thing Clare really wanted was to have a crack at Limerick in a Munster or All-Ireland final. That’s the big one for us because Clare really want to see what they’re made off. Then if they’re good enough to beat us, fair play to them.” 

On Sunday, the madness starts all over again. Semple Stadium will be packed to capacity. The place will crackle with electricity and excitement and incredible nervousness. It will be a day for strong minds and strong men. Because that’s what Clare-Limerick always demands.