Despite what Niall Tóibín’s old radio advertisement used to say, An Fear Rua is certain the town of Navan is far more than ‘only an hour from Dublin’ when you’re a victorious team trying to bring home the Sam Maguire trophy….

An Fear Rua’s contacts in County Meath tell him the citizens of that Royal County gave a rapturous reception to their conquering heroes as they made their way home across the county. Indeed, AFR is certain the populace of many another county will silently thank the Meath lads for preventing a Cork double in the Senior All Irelands. If that had happened, the rest of us would never have heard the end of it…. For example, endless renditions of ‘Dear Old City by the Lee’ or ‘De Banks’ being poured out by the Cork mafia on RTÉ - Donnchadh, Fionn, John and the rest of them. And the familiar whiney, twang of the Cork City Northsider: ‘Yerra bhoy, ‘twas grand, didn’t we win the double …. Up the Rebels bhoy !’ And so on. Man dear, ‘twould be more than a person could bear. I mean, we all know dear old Ireland would not be as free as she is today, were it not for the Boys of Kilmichael.

An Fear Rua is not at all impressed by the arguments advanced by some that had Cork converted even half their wides into scores they would have beaten this Meath team. As they say on the banks of the Lee: ‘Norratall bhoy !’. Whatever Cork would have scored, the Meath lads would always have scored more than them. Meath always had that bit more talent, grit and commitment in reserve and – as they have done all year – they economically used just enough of each factor to win, but no more. As An Bráthair S G Moggerley used to say in the Maths class in the old Cashel CBS: ‘If x equals the total amount Cork could score, then Meath equals Â(x + 3) points ….’

It may be a harsh saying, but ‘tis true: Meath were only toying with Cork for most of the game. It reminded An Fear Rua of the sneering remark he overheard many years ago from a victorious Cork supporter as the crowd poured out of the Ennis Road ground after yet another defeat of a Limerick team that had led for all but the final minute of the game…. ‘We gave ye a shniff of it !’. Well, when Cork got that early second half goal and went ahead briefly, it was no more than the Meath lads giving them a ‘shniff’ of the Sam Maguire. One old Cork pal of An Fear Rua, now a very senior figure in An Garda Síochána, when asked for his summing-up of the game replied enigmatically: ‘Did ya ever hear tell of a woman called Joan Denise Moriarty.. ?’ An Fear Rua – who knows a thing or two about culture - promptly responded; ‘Wasn’t she the lassie ran the ballet school down in Cork many years ago … ?’ ‘Yes’, replies the Chief Super, ‘She is, and a dozen of her lassies in pink tutus would have done better than the ballet dancing antics of that Cork team…’ The same Super was born not too far from Ballyvourney and knows a thing or two about the game.

On the controversial topic of the after-match ceremonies, the presentation of cups and medals has never really been a strong point with the GAA. Not so long ago, a bunch of oul timers from Clones in County Monaghan received their medals for winning the 1952 County Minor championship – a mere forty seven years after the event ! Some of them, God be good to them, had gone to their eternal reward. An Fear Rua remembers a time in many a county when runners-up in championships did not receive medals, nor even subs on a winning panel, and that still may be the case in some backward areas even to this day. No surprise, then, that the presentation of the Sam Maguire after the game left a lot to be desired. AFR is not entirely convinced that the mid-field presentation is the right way forward. Either way, however, the lads up in Ceannáras must devise a better way of involving the runners-up in the presentation ceremony. It’s just not fair to have them lying around mid-field while witnessing the exultation of the victors. Why not begin the presentation with medals for the runners-up and allow them to be seated on the podium, then follow that with the presentation of the cup to the winning captain and a shake hands with each of the winning team in turn ?

Well, go maire siad a ngradam in County Meath, declares An Fear Rua. A decent man like Seán Boylan deserves every bit of the success he has brought to the county, and the panel at his disposal – the likes of Geraghty, Giles, McDermott and Dowd – are among the finest lads ever to grace an All Ireland winning team from any county. Their Royal progress across the county – stopping first at the border beside their generous sponsors Kepak, on through Dunboyne, Dunshaughlin, Ross Cross, Garlow Cross, Kentstown and the Fair Green in Navan – was good humoured and not at all triumphalist.

But on a little side road heading for Ratoath, not far from Dunshaughlin, An Fear Rua is told there is a simple white cross marking the spot where a young man was killed a couple of years ago in a tragic road accident. Late on Sunday evening, someone – a parent, a brother or sister or maybe even a grieving girlfriend – slipped out and draped a green and gold flag across the roadside cross. That silent, private gesture – more than anything else that could be said – symbolises the place Gaelic football commands in the hearts of these Meath people.

May the sod rest lightly on whoever he is …