What A Weekend To Be From Cork

28th Mar 2022

If the census had been last Sunday night and not this weekend coming, Cork sports fans wouldn’t have been short of something to write in that new ‘time capsule’ box that allows you to send a message that will be revealed in 100 years time.

Social media is full of wistful suggestions about writing short notes with advice for future generations on topics such as peace and prosperity – mainly borrowed quotes from musicians, poets and philosophers.  

The form is a snapshot of your particular household that the Census crowd are actually after so being totally honest, feen, if it was us, we would have written all the great sports results that came Cork’s way last weekend into that box on the census form.

And c’mere, don’t look down your nose at us if you’ve spent the last few weeks composing a sonnet based on a dreamy metaphor about how the River Lee making its way from Gouganbarra to Roches Point is like the journey of life.

You know the I’ve-just-done-a-creative-writing-course-after-four-decades-as-an-acountant types, they’ll all be putting in something like this (give or take a few words here and there):

She winds her way east,
Like the the tail of a beast,
The Lee’s trickle soon turns to a splash,
Then under twelve bridges,
Through hard work and ridges,
Her long journey, seems done in a flash.

Don’t bother. There’ll be a hundred thousand of those for the AI bots to wade through and discard in a hundred years time. And they’ll probably need to be translated into Russian anyway.

Last weekend’s sports results were unreal in fairness though. To the point that you’d definitely want to share the buzz with future generations.  

The headline Cork result was our senior hurlers beating Kilkenny down the Páirc and that sensational Darragh Fitzgibbon goal, five minutes from the end, sending the Rebels into the league final against Waterford this Saturday.

Bhain Corcaigh áit amach i gcluiche ceannais na #AllianzLeagues leis an gcúl seo.@OfficialCorkGAA advance to decider with the help of this goal from Darragh Fitzgibbon.#GAApic.twitter.com/vQXj0eAIr3

— Spórt TG4 (@SportTG4) March 28, 2022

The Cats were their usual selves, thriving on a “liberal” referee whose whistle must have broken midway through the second half such was the violence meted out to ‘our own darling boys’. The Rebels stood up impressively giving it back in spades – most vividly when Walter Walsh went to shove Tim O’Mahony with his hurley which duly broke off the Corkman who seemed completely unphased by the assault!

A few hours earlier, the mighty Belgium, ranked number one in the world, arrived in Dublin to play the Republic of Ireland with four Corkmen on the match day squad.

Blackrock’s Caoimhín Kelleher gave a brilliant performance between the sticks, while Frankfield’s Chiedozie Ogbene’s magical bicycle kick and former Ringmahon Ranger Alan Browne’s sensational late header secured a draw for Cork (or Ireland depending on the tint of your glasses).

Based on that data, you can safely assume had Bandon’s Conor Hourihane come off the bench, he would have got a goal too.

The previous night, Cork City FC beat Athlone 4-1 at the Cross solidifying their position at the top of the league. Cork won the minor All-Ireland Camogie title beating Galway by four points in Thurles while the intermediate camogie team gave their own Galwegian equivalents a fine hiding in Moneygall.

At the same time, Ogbene and Browne were bossing the Belgians, Cork’s U20 hurling squad played a “friendly” against Kilkenny before the senior game and beat the kittens on a score line of 3-21 to 2-23.
 
A glorious weekend of sport and sunshine had one potential stumbling block: our senior footballers needed to draw or beat lowly Offaly on Sunday to avoid the humiliating drop to Division 3 and the new Tailteann Cup.

With more injuries than a small hospital, Cork’s young squad has been decimated and so despite taking a comfortable early lead, it felt inevitable Offaly would be allowed to come back into the game and take the lead late into the second half.

For tormented Cork football fans with withered coronary arteries from years of watching teams malfunction at critical moments, this looked like “yet another low” to add to the long list of woes.

Thankfully, the boot of Stephen Sherlock from The Barr’s saved us from another round of blushes, sighs and shaking heads. These days any victory for Cork football is to be savoured no matter how small, but the timing of this win, combined with all the positive results of last weekend gives us all a warm feeling inside that we’d love to bottle and put in a time capsule for future generations!