Some of my happiest childhood memories are of accompanying my Dad to Croke Park on Sunday afternoons with a rake of hang (ham) sandwiches and milky coffee in a flask to watch the behemots of Offaly hurling (and sometimes football) battle it out with other great counties on the field of play.
I was there in '94 when Johnny Dooley struck that fateful goal from the 45 yard line with three minutes to spare, that was followed up by another 3 points from play, and I screamed and screamed until I thought I would pass out and the end result was that we won the All Ireland, when it looked certain that Limerick had it in the bag. And I was there last year when Kilkenny whipped the lard out of us by 31 points in the all time worst game of hurling I have ever witnessed.
Tomorrow I am heading off to watch Offaly v Meath in the Minor Leinster Football Final and Offaly v Dublin in the Senior Leinster Football Final. It's my first ever time to see Offaly play a football Leinster final and despite my exhaustion, and the general anxiety I've been carrying for months now, I am really looking forward to the game. It takes effort to enjoy stuff sometimes and I'm going to make a big effort to enjoy tomorrow.
I hear from lil sis that hang sanwiches from the boot of the car have been replaced by subs from Subway, and milky coffee from a thermos in also no longer dé rigeur, but I'll bet you that Pops will still be full of excitement and usually unconcealed aggression towards our opponents and I will as per usual be left struggling between trying to restrain his enthusiasm for fear he'll get into trouble or actually getting myself into trouble by opening my big mouth! I also think the days are now long gone where I can get away with dressing in green white and orange from top to toe, and thinking I look cool!
C'mon Offaly lets beat those Dubs!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment