Cork Men Rise Above The Rest

6th Mar 2012

Corkhurling has had a few spikes of positivity of late. There was the trouncing of Waterford in Pairc Úi Rinn in the national league and on Saturday afternoon two Cork colleges battled it out in the Fitzgibbon Cup final – the All-Ireland hurling showdown for colleges, at the Mardyke.

As the teams were about to go into battle those of us facing west could see the thunderous rolling black clouds lining up on the horizon behind the fancy lights illuminating the UCC V Dungannon rugby clash at the other end of the Mardyke. The posh lads having a run about, like.

And this was no light shower.

Shaky Bridge: good way to avoid paying a tenner. Bad way to be shown on a TG4 close-up

Huddling under dripping umbrellas while the students fought it out, the game was often awkward to watch - the slippery on-field action often only visible through letterbox sized gaps in umbrellas and hooded men.

The meercat-like neck movements required to follow the action and the odd vocalisation to trumpet a ball-hop was the only warmth on offer (unless you fancied some soggy county board sustenance offered from a cardboard tray by a soaking and disappointed looking youth) until about the sixtieth minute when the clouds decided we were wet enough and squelched their soggy way down town.

As if tied at the hip, the hurling and the weather suddenly became sunnier at the same time. Goals and global warming make unusual bedfellows but no half-drowned rat with a penchant for sunshine and camánability was complaining. It was as if the sun had triggered a hurling volcano with the scoreboard now steaming up scores faster than the evaporating rain.

Bang: Brosnan nets for UCC.

Bang: Coughlan goals for CIT.

Bang bang: Extra time.

Wooohoo! Game on.

Now excited and visibly drying off the crowd at the eastern end of the ground (in other words those of us without sufficient official credentials to enter the bone dry marquee stand on the other side) began to look around the grounds without the fear of a free face wash from Mother Nature while the teams took a quick break.

The consent was that this was indeed now a great game and we were glad to be there.

And then the pointing began.

Look at the two feens there lah. Seriously. Look behind you. No, go on they’re not looking.

What?

Lamp the two feens up on the wall. 

Corkonians have achieved greatness in many fields – scientific, linguistic, cultural and of course in actual fields with grass on them but this miraculous sight appeared to suggest that two of our dear Cork brothers had actually achieved some form of levitation.

What next? The Higgs Bosun particle turning up in the head of someone’s pint of Murphy’s? 

Somebody even suggested ringing the Parish priest in Ballinspittle – they’d know what to do when one encounters a miracle.

So anyway, sure enough, here are two gentleman, a little beyond, let’s say, “playing age” who appeared to be more or less levitating about half way up the twenty foot high wall behind us – the boundary between Ferry Walk and the UCC grounds.

The genius of it though.

There we were at pitchside all the time struggling to keep an eye on the sporting proceedings bemoaning the lack of a terrace or elevated perch from which to observe the future of Cork hurling. Plus the wall of enormous umbrellas obscuring the view – some so big you could have held a post-match dinner dance for both teams under them.

And here were the two lads with, as we might say on Leeside ‘not-a-bodder-on-em’, on their own personal terraces about six feet above everyone else with a perfect uninterrupted view of the match.

Nobody seemed to know how they got up there or how they got down especially given that the new terrace’s “lower tier” slopes sharply downwards and is covered in a slithery green moss. Maybe they had to wait for a lift home from a cherry picker or were expert rock climbers.

TV gardener Demot Gavin is charging City Council thousands for his hanging garden but maybe these two boys could teach him a thing or two about elevating things above grassy fields on the cheap.

So, how could anyone stand on a perch so precariously small for almost two hours? Put on a good hurling match and a Corkman will do anything to get a good view! Dowtchye boys!

Brian Murray, Seamus Harnedy and James Barry celebrate

ps: UCC’s narrow win maintains Cork’s position at the top of the Fitzgibbon Cup’s roll of honour. The university now have 11 more wins than second place University College DUBLIN.