The Clare Echo has teamed up with Ennis native & podcast host Fergal O’Keeffe to bring you his new series, Travel Tales with Fergal. The podcast aims to share soul-lifting travel memoirs about day-dream worthy destinations.
The All Ireland Senior Hurling final in Croke Park this Sunday should be hosting the delayed traditional half time 25th anniversary celebration of the Clare winning team from 1995. But due to lockdown restriction that will not be able to take place on Sunday.
Anthony Daly told the Travel Tales with Fergal Podcast this week that he had been looking forward to the honour of joining his teammates on the pitch for the traditional wave at halftime even if it had been to an empty stadium.
“We had great plans made. All through February and March this year we had planning meetings and some of those meetings turned into great nights. We are a dangerous bunch when we assemble”, Anthony joked. “We had gotten new shirts and jackets and when it was delayed from August, we even got new coats too”.
“The beauty of the 25th anniversary celebration is that management and players are all still around and if you go through a lot of counties a lot are not able to say that”, Anthony told the Podcast.
Anthony reminisced on the podcast about the glory days of Clare hurling during the revolution years of the 1990s and told great stories of Clare team holidays and All Star trips to South African, American and Thailand.
The trips away after All Ireland successes were a reward and a real release after a year of hard work but could be boisterous affairs with Anthony telling a story of a near miss in Thailand.
“We were staying in Pataya in Thailand and I had a dangerous enough miss. We were on a Jetski and I fell off the back of mine. Fergal Hegarty and Brian Lohan were on the other Jetski. Lohan told Hego to go over and frighten me in the water. But Fergal lost control and missed my head by about 4 inches. If he had hit me, it was game over”.
“Some of the stuff that went on. We were lucky enough. You just think back and go ‘how did we all come back in one piece. There were a few broken bones with lads doing dives and stuff like that. But we had such a ball”.
Anthony has a lifelong love for coursing and he speaks fondly of Clonmel where he travels to the National Coursing Meeting every February.
To hear the full podcast, click play now.
If you have any queries about the travels mentioned every week Fergal O’Keeffe can be contacted directly on Facebook and Instagram @traveltaleswithfergal.
