Top 10 Cork Moments of 2013

10th Dec 2013

1. Nash’s Penalties
In his first full season in the number one jersey, Cork hurling goalkeeper Anthony Nash shot to national attention with both his up-close and long distance free taking. Nasher perfected generating power so well that even 12 Clare players gathered on the goal line couldn’t stop his 21 yard free in the All-Ireland final replay which began Cork’s comeback. Apparently Airtricity are looking to connect cables to him during the off-season – they think he can power every household Kanturk just by taking a few penalties every morning.  
 

2. De Heat Wave
We’ll probably still be talking about it in ten years time but for three long weeks Corkonians basked in baking temperatures, wore short sleeves day and night…and didn’t get the flu. The blue skies, golden sunshine, beaches, ice-cream, general lack of fear of going out without an umbrella and high unemployment made us feel like a genuine Mediterranean country. 

3. Beating Kilkenny
After losing the Munster final to Limerick we went to Thurles in hope more than expectation to take on Brian Cody’s 2012 champions. The first half signs looked good – especially when Henry Shefflin’s dirty tackles finally saw him see red – but Kilkenny are like vampires: you need to drive a stake through their heart to know they’re really dead and buried. And we did.

After years of watching The Cats win, that final whistle heralded, not just Kilkenny’s defeat, but a new era of Cork hurling.

4. Gold For The Heffmeister
Rob Heffernan claimed gold at the World Championships in Moscow walking 50 kms in 3:37:56 – something most of us couldn’t do within three days not to mind three and a half hours. Aside from his stunning achievement The Heffmeister’s glowing personality and Cork humour won him the hearts of every athletics fan and his victory also helps win minds in Leeside’s battle against obesity.  

5. Appointment of The Real Manager
The Boy is back in town and took up a post as the manager of the Republic of Ireland. Well, ok, Roy Keane is officially the “assistant” coach to some Nordie feen but we all know who’s wearing the boots in that relationship.

Roy’s appearances in the stand at Turners Cross showed Keane hasn’t forgotten his roots either as he witnessed Cork City FC’s miraculous mid-season recovery after Dubliner boss Tommy Dunne finally got the boot.

6. Hoggies Point
We had some stunning Cork goals in this year’s hurling championship but Hoggie’s exquisite point against Clare at the very end of the drawn All-Ireland final made Cork fans’ eyes pop. We looked like the second best team for most of the game and would have gladly taken a draw at half time but then suddenly, Hoggie grabbed the sliotar, somehow managed to get a shot away and in injury time put Cork ahead by a point. A red flare on Hill 16 glowed and Rebels everywhere went wild: We. Could. Not. Believe. It.

Ultimately Clare pulled off a wonder score of their own but the longest minute of the Cork year reminded Rebels that they should never, ever write off any Cork team.
 

7. Ladies Win Again
It’s almost a given these days that this amazing bunch of Cork girls are going to come out on top – we’ve won it eight times in nine seasons. We all watched them whip Monaghan in this year’s All-Ireland Final and had our biased beliefs confirmed yet again that Cork women are simply the best. This year it was Anne Marie Walsh’s turn to ascend the Hogan Stand to collect the Brendan Martin Cup with Valerie Mulcahy, as usual, the sharp-shooter-in-chief scoring 1-4.

8. Stand Up and Fight – By Opening a Business
The national media loves to highlight empty buildings on Cork’s streets but despite the lack of assistance from the Dublin government, Leeside’s entrepreneurs have been confronting the recession head on. Last week we highlighted 12 new pubs opened in 2013 and another one, Deep South on Grand Parade, opened last weekend. Add to that a ton of new restaurants, cafés and shops and it is obvious Cork is fighting back and, most importantly, winning.

9. Cork Awarded Another Award
We usually win an award or tourism accolade every year for the daycintness of the city and by now the mantelpiece is getting crowded. This time it was the more academic ‘Academy of Urbanism’ who bestowed the award for ‘Great Town’ upon us.  

Around the same time Sunday Times columnist India Knight was tripping over herself to promote Cork to her 1 million British readers after her first visit calling Cork “a food mecca”. Wait ‘til we bring her to the hurling.

10. European Young Scientists
This one won’t jump out at you like some of the others but Ciara Judge, Sophie Healy-Thow and Emer Hickey’s win at the European Young Scientist Awards (having claimed the national title too) rubber stamps Cork’s position as Ireland’s science capital – essential if we are to continue being the economy’s power house. The Kinsale girls’ victory warms our nerdy hearts:  ‘mol and óige agus tiocfaidh siad’ as they say. The data is in: and it confirms that we’re great.