After 26 years those in Limerick still don’t like to talk about Offaly’s comeback – the five-minute champagne supernova
They call it the five-minute final, a game none of the 54,458 in Croke Park will forget. One of the most audacious smash-and-grabs in the history of Irish sport, they don’t like to talk about it in Limerick. Nearly 26 years later some of them down there still refuse to talk about it. For months afterward in the pubs of my hometown of Birr in County Offaly, we talked of little else.
Five points clear in the 1994 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship final with as many minutes to go, the players of Limerick looked certainties to end a 21-year drought and return home with the Liam McCarthy Cup. By the final whistle, they were broken men, unable even to collapse in despair on the turf for fear of being trampled underfoot by thousands of ecstatic Offaly fans swarming the pitch to celebrate an extraordinary turnaround.
Written by Barry Glendenning
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/apr/13/my-favourite-game-offaly-v-limerick-1994-all-ireland-hurling-final under the title “My favourite game: Offaly v Limerick, 1994 All-Ireland Hurling final | Barry Glendenning”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
