Emmet Moloney writes for the 'The Irish Farmers Journal' and is a former sports columnist with 'The Kerryman'.

It was an All-Ireland Sunday unlike those of recent memory for Emmet Moloney but the absence of a television to watch left him in the hands of Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh – GAA’s finest custodian...

Pat Kenny wasn’t mentioned in Darren O’Sullivan’s speech from the steps of the Hogan Stand but he should have been. Do ye not remember that famous Late Late Show special on the 125th anniversary back in January? Pat visits the audience and shows Darragh Ó Sé a picture of Brian Dooher lifting Sam Maguire the previous September. “How does that make you feel Darragh?” he asked. Check it out on YouTube

Maybe Darragh was thinking of retiring, maybe he wasn’t. But driving home that night his mind was made up for him. The rest is history.

It must be hard for Cork. Beating Kerry in Munster obviously means nothing to them now. A Munster football title means nothing to anyone now bar Limerick; they have come so close in recent years and it is their Holy Grail. For Cork it is a curse that ends in Croke Park defeat to the Kingdom.

Enough bad thoughts though. What about the day. All-Ireland Sundays continue to hold us enthralled, thank God. I didn’t see Sunday’s match live, but was lucky enough to listen to Micheál. It was a much better match on the radio – as it usually is. We had history lessons, we had greetings sent all the way around the world, we had the match itself and we had atmosphere as only Micheál can provide.

A funeral had kept myself and Packie Tuohy from watching the game live. But we had the wireless to pass the journey home and, naturally, the journey passed in an instant. Paddy McDermott was laid to rest, a proud Galway man who attended his fair share of All-Irelands. If you received a primary degree from any university in Ireland from the1960s till about the ’90s, chances are Paddy handed you the scroll.

His brother, Bosco, a Galway three-in-a-row footballer, spoke at the grave and reminded us that Paddy wanted to see the match as well.

We were back in the car for the throw-in. Within seconds Micheál had told us about a gang from Maynooth who followed the canal all the way into Croke Park for Sunday’s game. They were retracing the steps of a previous bunch who had traversed the same route the night before the 1916 Rising, we were told. But typical Micheál, he added the gem “but the gang in 1916 slept the night in Glasnevin Cemetery”. “By God they were tough men,” said Packie. “Easter wouldn’t have been that warm!” From Cork and Kerry in Croke Park, we were transported briefly back to Easter Sunday in 1916 and the plight of a few men sleeping outdoors the night before their big day.

Packie, like Micheál, won’t see 70 again. Neither men are too concerned about who knows that fact. Both are exceptionally young at heart. Michael is in his 80th year. Do the GAA know how lucky they are to have this custodian of the games at the microphone? Do RTÉ? If so, they should take a leaf from TG4’s All-Ireland Gold book and maybe Sunday nights during the long winter they could re-run commentaries of the All-Irelands Micheál has done. Can you imagine the number of tape recorders put up to the radio in Donegal if the 1992 All-Ireland was replayed in its entirety? Try it, lads – and see the response.

Of course Michael O’Hehir was the original of the species. Those of us old enough to remember his voice still lift our heads during old footage when he is describing a goal. Childhood memories of eating ice cream along the sea front in Lahinch with the car door open and the radio blaring are still with me. Every passer-by would ask the score. Michael O’Hehir brought more people to the GAA than anyone. Including, as Packie told me on Sunday, rural electrification to some of our townlands and farmhouses.

At half-time, Packie waxed lyrical about the quality of the first half and Mr Ó Muircheartaigh’s passion. That brought us to Michael O’Hehir and electricity reaching the country. According to Packie, the onset of electricity in the 1940s and ’50s wasn’t altogether popular with farming families like his around Ballyea. Change wasn’t exactly embraced. If one neighbour decided he didn’t want it, then his neighbours across the fields weren’t going for it either. This presented a problem for the fledgling ESB. Men were dispatched to convince the locals of its merits. No matter what benefits they described, most weren’t for turning. Until the ESB got a brainwave. Michael O’Hehir.

Back then you had the “wet battery” for the wireless and you minded it all week if you were having the neighbours over on Sunday to listen to Michael O’Hehir. You were a big man in the community if your house was the location for Michael O’Hehir every Sunday. But electricity would do away with the wet battery and you could listen to Michael O’Hehir to your heart’s content. That’s what the ESB man said. Word spread and pretty soon all of Ballyea was lit up.
The second half was back on. Cork were coming back. The crowd noise told us that the Rebels were there in greater number than Kerry. Micheál told us about everyone who couldn’t make it, including many listening in from hospital beds and all of these mentions were seamless, when a ball was out of play or a player being attended to. We were missing nothing. And neither were they. Before we knew it we were back in Clare. As we pulled up at the back of Packie’s, there were still 15 minutes to go. We were both hungry and Philomena had dinner waiting for us in front of a TV. We looked at each other. The fodder could wait.

We sat in the car and heard the match out. There was no score for the last 13 minutes but that didn’t matter. This was an All-Ireland final and this was Micheál.

We had the dinner, watched the presentation and Fergie Tuohy arrived into his parents’ house after seeing the match on television. “Poor enough game,” he said to us. “Not from where we were sitting,” said Packie. I could only nod.

So how about it, RTÉ? Any chance of the 1995 and ’97 hurling finals gracing our screens this winter? This Clareman needs a reminder.

To catch Emmet's latest column, get 'The Irish Farmers' Journal' every Thursday...