Reliving Galway’s historic All-Ireland hurling triumph – 40 years on
FOR many it’s only like yesterday . . . for many others they weren’t even born when it happened . . . but 40 years ago on this very weekend a wave of mass hysteria spread across the county of Galway.
On the Sunday afternoon of September 7, 1980, Galway hurlers bridged a 57-year gap when winning only their second ever All-Ireland senior title by beating Limerick in an epic final on a 2-15 to 3-9 scoreline.
Grown men wept for joy that day in Croke Park and flung their caps in the air after witnessing a victory that many thought would never happen. The near misses of the 1950s and the gloom of the 1960s had at last been laid to rest.
For manager, trainer and coach, Cyril Farrell, who led Galway from the wilderness along with his selectors – Bernie O’Connor and the late M. J. ‘Inky’ Flaherty – this was the day that diehard supporters in the county had waited a lifetime to see.
“I suppose up until then, we’ always seemed to be the bridesmaid but never the bride. I’m not sure whether we achieved it or not, but we set out in 1980 to be fittest team in the country.
“We knew we had the hurlers and if we could add that extra little edge to our game, then there was a belief there that it could be our year. I think that I had them believing – rightly or wrongly – that they were the fittest team in Ireland,” Cyril Farrell recalled to the Connacht Tribune this week.
Relive that unforgettable day in words and pictures in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now – or you can buy a digital copy. See details here on www/connachttribune.ie