*Kathyrn Fahy, David Reidy and Robin Mounsey celebrate. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
TEN YEARS on from joining the Clare senior hurling panel, David Reidy’s wait for a coveted All-Ireland medal came to an end.
An unsung hero within the Clare side, Reidy contributed two points on the scoreboard and got through a mountain of work as the Banner County held off Cork by a single point to be crowned All-Ireland champions for the fifth time.
Scenes during and after the match will not be experienced again, the Ennis native maintained. “I joined the panel in 2014, the winter after the last one, looking back at it the team that won the 2013 All-Ireland was a young team, you might have thought there was going to be a lot of success but we soon found that wasn’t the case, there was a lot of barren years, a lot of ups and downs but to win is unbelievable.
“A lot of people say you can’t put it into words or put emotions on it, the word unbelievable comes out but it is probably true, there was a lot of emotions, some good and some not so good, the heart was pumping at times but overall it is just magical”.
Both counties formed part of a battle for the ages in Sunday’s showdown. “It is madness, it is credit to both teams and the preparation that the teams put in, you could see lads going down with cramp but that is after running ten or eleven kilometres, that is not just going down with cramp, it is an intense battle, the bodies are sore but we won’t mind”.
Cork dominated proceedings early on but Reidy admitted he was unaware that seven points was the margin between the sides in the opening fifteen minutes prior to Aidan McCarthy’s goal. “You could hear everything, I probably didn’t realise that we were eight points down in the first half, we got the goal from Aido (Aidan McCarthy), that brought us back into it”.
Back in 2013, Reidy was part of the U21 county panel that had overcome Antrim in the period between the drawn game and replay. He has fond memories of watching his clubmates Shane O’Donnell and Davy O’Halloran bring the Liam MacCarthy back to the county town. “Magical is the only way to describe it, the last time was in 2013 when Shane O’Donnell and Davy O’Halloran were lifting the Cup coming into the Fair Green, the emotions that ran through me as a supporter that time were disbelief more than anything”. He continued, “There was separate emotions running through me watching the lads present the cup to the town of Ennis and beyond”.
He had the honour alongside O’Donnell and Shane Meehan as the three Ennis members of the panel to bring Liam back this time round. “It was amazing going into Wolfe Tones earlier and someone said it was the main town in Clare, but by God the crowd here this is the town and this is the home,” he said. “I’m still on a high and I’ll be on a high for a couple of days so we’ll enjoy it and soak it in”.
