Twice we fell for the Limerick-Clare trilogy — are we going to fall for a Limerick-Cork pentalogy?
GREEN INFERNO: Cork v Limerick has been the most exciting matchup in hurling for the past handful of years. Pic: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
For three straight seasons, the prospect of a Clare-Limerick trilogy consumed the hurling public.
Their string of provincial duologies gave good reason. A cigarette paper separated them in Munster in 2022. The following season, the parchment separating them was of the rice variety before Limerick won both provincial battles in 2024, but Clare ultimately claimed the highest honours.
“Clare and ourselves, we’ll meet again, I’ve no doubt,” John Kiely said after the 2023 Munster final. But the third championship meeting has never transpired. Clare didn’t live up to their side of the bargain in 2022 and ’23, while it was Limerick’s turn in ’24.
Forgive us if we’re not biting just yet but Limerick are this week being linked to another would-be saga, a pentalogy I beg your pardon.
“Could this Limerick-Cork match at the weekend be the first of five big meetings in the year?” asked Anthony Daly on this week’s “Irish Examiner” hurling podcast.
“It would look like it will be the league final. The Munster round robin will be the third one, the Munster final the fourth one and the All-Ireland final the fifth one.” The question was understandable. Both counties appear to be eyeing up a Division 1A final and could qualify for it this weekend. Cork are one win shy of making it for the second year in a row, while this appears to be one of those seasons when Limerick are fully tuned into the secondary competition.
After the thrills they delivered in last year’s Munster final, five Cork-Limerick meetings in 19 weeks is a heady notion. To be fair, Cork and Tipperary went one further than a trilogy in providing a tetralogy (yes, look it up) last season, meeting twice in the league and twice in championship.
Indeed, in a decade where four of the six All-Ireland finals have been all-Munster affairs, it is certainly a possibility Cork and Limerick will make acquaintances twice in TUS Gaelic Grounds (this Saturday and April 5 – Limerick are owed a league final by Cork), twice in SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh (April 26 and June 7 – Cork are owed a Munster final by Limerick) and Croke Park on July 19.
However, it’s not just recent history that would demonstrate it’s not easily done. Since it first became possible in 1997, the Munster final pairing has only been repeated twice in the All-Ireland decider (1997 Clare v Tipperary; 2020 Limerick v Waterford).
The fact there have been more all-Munster All-Ireland finals involving only one of the finalists would underline that fact (four – 2013 Clare v Cork; ’21 Limerick v Waterford; ’24 Clare v Cork; ’25 Cork v Tipperary).
The theory that Leinster teams have easier paths to the All-Ireland final because of the viper’s nest that is the Munster SHC round-robin is a strong one. Yet before that iteration Leinster finalists were the last two standing in the All-Ireland on twice as many occasions as Munster’s (1998 and 2000 Kilkenny v Offaly; 2012 and ’15 Galway v Kilkenny).
Speaking of 2012, no two teams have met three times in the Liam MacCarthy Cup since then when replays were a thing and Galway and Kilkenny locked horns once at the Leinster and twice at the All-Ireland final stages. Before that, it was 1998 when the Daly-captained Clare eventually lost out to Offaly in their infamous All-Ireland semi-final chronicle.
And there’s the dearth of Division 1 and All-Ireland final repeats. In the 100-year history of the league, there have only been eight, although half of them have come in the last 17 seasons and four of the last six NHL deciders have been all-Munster.
Is this rivalry one where demand outstrips supply? Where the yearning for a sustained rivalry simply can’t be sated? No fixture in Gaelic games commands as much interest now as Cork v Limerick. The 23,402 crowd that visited Páirc Uí Chaoimh for the league game last year could be rivalled on the Ennis Road this weekend.
Between their two Munster meetings last year, they attracted over 86,000 to the Gaelic Grounds. In 2024, their Munster Round 3 and All-Ireland semi-final drew combined crowds of almost 124,000.
It’s a derby that beguiles. It’s a derby that excites. But it might just be another derby that rivals abbreviate.
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