When the aliens come, show them Dingle's epic with St Brigid’s in the All-Ireland club final

From a distance, the outsider might understand the All-Ireland club finals even better than we do; that this is not about sport at all, but about people gathering to remind themselves who they are

Mark O'Connor of Dingle is congratulated by Geelong teammates Mark Blicavs and Jack Henry. Pic: Ray McManus/Sportsfile

When astronauts see Earth from space, they often experience a profound cognitive shift. This unexpected emotion is the result of looking at something they are intimately familiar with but couldn’t fully appreciate until they took a step back from it. They call it the overview effect.

We know the environment and its makeup. Sure, isn’t it all around us, all of the time. That familiarity can lead to an underappreciation of its beauty, of what it gives and does. Sometimes, the best placed to make an assessment are those close enough to recognise it and distant enough to see it whole.