By Brendan McTaggart
The roller coaster of emotions that was Tullamore has come and gone. A relative calm had been restored until the news broke we all had hoped for. Thoughts of a venue soon began to do the rounds with a fantasy trip to Nolan Park as part of a double header muted while those being more realistic thought potentially Parnell Park.
Some joked about Croke Park and how good it would be for the game in both Antrim and Kerry to play the league final there, the notion was soundly laughed off as a dream. That dream is now a reality.
Trips to Headquarters are few and far between these days as an Antrim fan and not the annual pilgrimage there used to be for an All-Ireland semi-final in August. Our last journey to the Jones Road for the small ball was for the Christy Ring Cup final against Carlow, that’s three years coming in June.
The last victory at GAA’s answer to Mecca came 10 years ago and that memorable victory over the Dubs under Dinny Cahill. Neil McManus the only survivor from that side but everyone has a story to tell about that day. The occasion, the dream of mixing it with the big guns in the Liam McCarthy Cup, who they sat beside and maybe the odd quip thrown across the bows during the game.
The last time we met the Kingdom in the league final was 2003, in Croke Park again and the same year Antrim pushed Wexford close in the All-Ireland quarter-final. Goals from Liam Watson, Michael Heron and Colm McGuckian not enough on the day but any time Antrim play in Croke Park is an occasion.
For some those days will have been their first time at Croke Park. For some the love of Croke Park will have started there. Sunday could be that day for a whole new generation of Antrim supporters. The numbers following the fortunes of the hurlers have increased this season with a good support last Sunday in Offaly while I was surprised at the number who made the long journey to Tralee the week before.
How good would it be if there was a sea of saffron and white bedecked around Croke Park? A roar full of Antrim accents when Conor McCann leads his side out onto the pristine carpet like surface with the City and the Glens uniting as one. The hairs stand on the back of my neck when I begin that dream. It’s one I’ve had since I was the height of two turf and one I cling onto since my first trip to Croke Park many moons ago.
In the journey to Tullamore on Sunday, Curly McIlwaine had stories by the dozen of his bus journey’s around Ireland in supporters buses in the 80’s and early 90’s. As an Antrim fan, that would be the dream scenario. It’s time to make our own memories and have our own stories to tell.
In recent years, clubs up and down the county have run buses for their underage teams to All-Ireland semi-finals. That in itself is fantastic but how good would it be to run a bus for tomorrow’s generation to watch their own club mates? The men they see down at their local shop or sit beside at Mass. The men they idolise in their club colours gracing the greatest stage of them all.
Get the word out, get the buses booked. If you have any affiliation to Antrim the time is now. If no-one has approached you about going down, take the bull by the horns yourself. It’s time to get your ‘saff’ on.
