An Fear Rua was fearless in predicting earlier this year that Waterford would win an All Ireland championship... This was at a time when - in the words of his old pal in his UCD days, the comic writer, Flann O'Brien - 'it was neither popular nor profitable'.

Now that this has come to pass, I suppose AFR can say 'I told ye so..' in the best tradition of the 'meeja' knowalls, the likes of Drapier or that decent Mayo man, the late John Healy, in 'The Irish Times'. But, in fact, he won't. For 'twas the county's senior hurlers he had in mind when he made that prediction. However, thanks to a magnificent - and in the true sense of that over-worked word in GAA circles 'historic' - victory by the county's Junor (correct! - not a mistake - this is how it's properly pronounced) Gaelic Football team, Waterford have landed an All-Ireland crown this year. Indeed, if the sturdy lassies from Ballmacarbry, the Nire and Brickey Rangers continue their form of recent years, so tellingly confirmed against Monaghan in theWomens' semi-final, the Decies will add a second All Ireland trophy to the county side board.

Indeed, An Fear Rua thinks a Junor Mens' and Senior Womens' 'double' in Gaelic Football will go a long way towards salving the wounded pride left in Waterford after Cork bundled the senior hurlers out of the Munster championship. Even in this too, there may be some hope and consolation. Cork's later performances showed that everyone - not least Waterford's hurlers and mentors - had totally underestimated the Rebels' matchwinning potential. It doesn't take a savant - even of the calibre of An Fear Rua - to assert confidently that the 'Blood-and-Bandages'' All Ireland final clash with Kilkenny will be one of the classics of the decade, as well as a fitting way for the ancient game of hurling to end one Millennium and enter another.

It is all of a hundred years since a Waterford team contested an All Ireland football final. Many people associate the county only with the deft stickwork and fleetness of foot of the hurling game. But, in the Wesht of the county, the big ball game is supreme and there's lads in the Nire Valley wouldn't know end of a camán from another. They might think 'twas for agitating slurry or some such like agricultural activity.

In the all too typical manner of the GAA of the time - and even up to the present time - the 1898 final was played in 1900! Just as well, thinks An Fear Rua, that the GAA is not responsible for solving all those Millennium 'bug' problems or we might never get the country right! I mean, what's a couple years one way or another between friends? Anyway, An Fear Rua recalls his father telling him about the game, played below in Tipperary town, before an attendance of about a thousand hardy stalwarts. Dublin defeated Waterford's Erins Hopes by 2-8 to 0-4.

Again, all too typical of the kind of ructions that have bedevilled the GAA in Waterford over the years, Erins Hopes right to represent the county was disputed because there were two rival county boards in existence! An Fear Rua understands the reason for this was because some of the Catholic clergy in the South East were becoming restive at what they saw as a growing 'political' influence in the GAA. So, in Waterford and Kilkenny (and perhaps elsewhere), clerically-inspired 'non-political' county boards came into existence for a time. Of course, the clerics were not far wrong. As that great patriot Padraig Pearse so aptly put it one time: "We did not join the Gaelic League solely for the sake of 'is' or 'tá'" (Meaning, of course, that the setting up of these cultural revival bodies - not the least the GAA - was a political act, designed to hasten the day of armed revolt against British rule in Ireland.)

Unfortunately, due to a prior commitment to meet the Camogie County Board to discuss their approach to players' suspenders - sorry - suspensions, AFR was unable to attend the official homecoming for the Decies Junor footballers in Dungarvan. However, from what he hears from some who were there, a fair few people around Dungarvan and Abbeyside way are hoping it will be another hundred years before the county wins another football All Ireland. Apparently, a fair deal of drink was shifted from early on the Sunday - most probably in the form of 'lahrge' bottles, this being county Waterford - and by the time the 'offeeshal' reception got going in the Main Square of Dungarvan, there were a fair few lads falling around the place and some choice language being used, even from the platform! There were lads spotted from deep in the Nire Valley that hadn't been seen in Dungarvan since they came down to vote for Dev for President, back in 1959. Luckily - again in the best GAA traditions - the public address system was appalling, so none of this could be heard by the assembly of about fifteen hundred people. Unfortunately, the excellent local radio station, WLR FM, was broadcasting the event 'live', so not a few parents parked nearby in cars were faced with that old question: 'Daddy, did the man on the radio say a naughty word ...?'

Anyway, An Fear Rua, thinks these shenanigans only underline his view that the GAA fans in West Waterford not only have a mighty thirst still for sporting success, but for 'lahrge' bottles as well ...