The lads and lassies in the Iarnród Éireann head office above in Dublin must have been on their bended knees this past week offering up novenas of thanksgiving for Tipperary's victory over Waterford in their Munster senior hurling clash, speculates An Fear Rua...

No doubt they reached the conclusion that the kind of vicious havoc wrought on one of their special 'match' trains on the way home from Cork by victorious Tipp fans was as nothing compared to what would have happened if the denizens of the Premier County had lost! After all, Iarnród Éireann's Chief Executive, that droll Dubs' football supporter, Michael McDonnell, is wrestling with an annual deficit of around IR£100 million every year and the company needs an investment of IR£500 million if its systems are to be made safe and efficient for the weary - and wary - traveller. Mr McDonnell can ill afford to see trains wrecked and costly carriages put out of commission in the style of the Tipp fans. At this rate of destruction, if Tipp continue all the way to an All Ireland final in September, the fans might have put Iarnród Éireann out of business completely! Unfortunately for the Chief Executive, the Athlone Attila the Hen, Mary O'Rourke TD, does not seem too willing to loosen her purse strings - or any other strings - for that matter, for him.

The details of the activities of the Tipp fans have been recounted elsewhere in gory detail, especially in the 'Oirish' editions of British tabloids like 'The Mirror' and 'The Star', so AFR will not go into further detail here. According to one report, the warring factions threw bottles and fire extinguishers at each other, thus giving a new definition to the game of 'hurling'. It also prompts a new variation on one of the old nicknames for Tipperary people, 'the Stone Throwers'. Some how or other, An Fear Rua can't see 'The Tipperary Fire Extinguisher Throwers' catching on in quite the same way.

The whole episode reminded AFR of the old World War II movie, 'Von Ryan's Express', in which a character played by the late Frank Sinatra leads a gang of escaped Prisoners of War across Italy in a hijacked train, while single-handedly routing the Nazi hordes northwards towards the Reich. Ryan, of course, is commonly held surname among the citizenry of the North Riding and the South Riding county, so there may be some distant connection. The other similarity with the film was that the train in question seemed to be going on some kind of roundabout, guided tour of the county - north to Thurles first, then back South again to Tipperary Town, Cahir, Clonmel and Carrick on Suir. Sure a journey like that, after a hard day's drinking in Cork and in the train buffet, in some of Iarnród Éireann's infamous cattle wagons, would drive anyone to fightin' and arguin' with their fellow passengers. It sounded like those old 'Mystery Trains' of many years ago, where they always seemed to wind up either in Courtown Harbour or Killarney, thus removing much of the 'mystery'.

The more serious questions arising out of last Sunday's game at Páirc Uí Cheacescu - and from Cork's merciless hammering of Kerry the evening before - are the future of hurling in Waterford and, indeed, in Munster more widely. Kerry are now threatening to follow the misfortunate example set by Roscommon in Connacht recently and pull out of the senior provincial championship in hurling. An Fear Rua can't believe that the proud people of the Kingdom will let that happen.

Apparently, the Kerry management found it difficult to get players to respond to their invitation to join the panel. They invited more than forty, but only around twenty agreed to participate. Thus, Kerry hurlers had already shot themselves in the foot, by not helping management put the best possible panel forward. This 'a la carte' approach of players of deciding not to join a panel after the championship draw has been made, must be stamped out. If it is allowed continue, the game of hurling will shrivel back to about six or seven counties. If Roscommon go, followed by Kerry, two important bridgeheads of the game at senior inter-county level will have been lost.

The more AFR thinks of it, the more merit he sees in his previous suggestion of a minimum, compulsory 'package' of inter-county participation by ALL counties, covering both hurling and football and possibly grades from minor to senior. The GAA should have a rule that ALL thirty-two counties must field senior teams in hurling and football in both League and Championship. Any county not fielding the full 'quota' agreed for them would be automatically debarred from all competitions, including the ones where they consider themselves to be traditionally strong. This is the first real step to strengthening the game everywhere and it should be implemented immediately. It would mean that counties like Roscommon and Kerry would not be allowed slide back from senior championship hurling and Kilkenny's cynical ploy of fielding a senior football team in the League, but not in the championship, would have to be discontinued. In other words, if Kerry want to pursue Championship glory on the football fields of Munster and Kilkenny wish to seek their umpteenth Leinster championship in hurling, the price must include a proper effort in fielding a senior team in the 'weaker' code. After the GAA takes that basic step, we can have all the discussion we want about adding on 'back doors', 'front doors', 'round robins' and the divil knows what else to help boost the games.

In response to Waterford's predicament, the ever-generous Nicky English and the Munster Council Chairman, that decent Kerryman, Seán Kelly - backed by people like Seán Moran writing for 'The Old Lady of D'Olier Street' - have suggested a home-and-away system for Munster championship hurling. This proposal completely misses the point about the essence of Munster hurling. What Waterford - and counties like them need - is not to play more games, but simply to win more! To do that, they need what the beleaguered political lobbyist Frank Dunlop once termed 'balls of iron and a backbone of steel'. For example, An Fear Rua was astonished at the reported post-match comment of Dan Shanahan - a hurler he greatly admires - that he got out of bed on the morning of the match with 'a dose of the jitters'. If an accomplished Decies hurler like Shanahan began the day with a lack of self-belief like that, sure the team was beaten before they even crossed the border into the county of Cork, just beyond the lovely village of Villierstown, the home of Olympics silver medal-winner, John Treacy. Now, there's a Waterfordian who could teach them a thing or two about 'attitude' and 'never-say-die'.

As Waterford gingerly pick up the pieces, the first task of the County Board at its meeting on 12 June will be to find a replacement for Gerald McCarthy. They have his written resignation, but it is not entirely beyond the bounds of possibility that he might be persuaded to remain on. An Fear Rua has already commented extensively on this on his 'Speak Out!' Discussion Board, so there is no need to go into again in detail: See 'Who will succeed Gerald McCarthy'

How about this for ‘An Fear Rua’s Runners and Riders to succeed Gerald McCarthy’...

Colm Bonnar

Evens

‘We talk just like lions, but we sacrifice like lambs…’. Whatever Happened to…. Anyone you know in your club? Bin Tags Don't Make a County ‘Some a’ Dem’ Lads are only Dow-en for the Showers….’ Heavenly Hurling: How the Gods pass their time... GAA Time and Real Time Saint Patrick and the camogie princesses Keats and Chapman at the Munster Final Mass, the Mater, ‘The Dergvale’ and Mullingar… More "Content Zone" Topics >> More "Speak Out!" Topics >>