As I Roved Out: Straightening the crooked mirror
In a previous ‘existence’ your scribe told the story of the ‘crooked mirror’?! Today we have reason to repeat it as the original telling took place when social media was unheard of and on-line forums, Facebook and Twitter did not exist. Many moons ago a crowd of us were in O’Loughlin’s Bar on Dublin Street watching a mid-week day-time soccer international between Ireland and Scotland - yes us perceived die-hard GAA people do watch other sports! The game ended in a boring nil-all draw - think it was the same campaign that culminated in Scotland’s Gary Mackey putting Jack Charlton’s side through to the European finals - and the crowd in O’Loughlin’s were in sombre mood. That mood wasn’t helped by the fact that a pound-a-man raffle on the time of the first goal, with it’s considerable consolation prize of £90, had been rendered null and void as the organiser had mistakenly omitted the 0 that would have provided a winner!
Some time after the game the lads along the bar were silently brooding into their pints when in walked Tommy Devereux, he of Graiguecullen via Wexford and on his way home from work in the Sugar Factory. “Young Dempsey” he says to the barman (young Dempsey being a brother of Luke of GAA fame) “would you turn that mirror on the wall inside the door crooked?”! Young Dempsey duly did as he was requested, enquiring as to the reason why.
“Watch” says the wily Tommy, “of the next five people that come through the door I bet you that most of them will pass remark on the mirror”!
A few moments later a new customer arrived and called for a pint. “Jaysus Brian you’re there all day doing nothing it’s a wonder you couldn’t have straightened up the mirror”! Not long after a few more lads arrived in and they too had a comment to make regarding the crooked mirror! Suddenly the bar was alive with conversation as the merits of Tommy’s experiment was discussed.
“You see” philosophised Mr. Devereux, who has sadly joined the great philosophers in the sky, “if that mirror was straight no one would have bothered to pass remark or comment and it’s the same in life, people are more inclined to air grievances than to issue praise”!” Fast forward three decades and think of Facebook threads, Twitter {X} threads, the vitriol and negativity that permeates replies to posts that start out with positive intentions. Keyboard warriors feel free to disparage, indeed vilify fellow human beings, amateur GAA players who devote hour upon hour to their club and county castigated for perceived poor performances.
So too it could have been with this column, a platform to air grievances or an opportunity to shine the ‘chip on the shoulder’ concerning certain aspects of the GAA. I’m not saying I won’t be critical but we’re all in the GAA for the love of the games and it is important to praise and encourage each other as much as possible. This column, to date, has been a mix of nostalgia, eulogy and emotional match-day roller-coasters, the trips down memory lane seeming to be particularly popular with readers. However, today the ‘Barrowside Gael’ is going to straighten what he perceives to be a crooked mirror?!
At the Hurling Development Committee Croke Park Press Conference last week GAA President Jarlath Burns {a man who I have great time for, a President with his finger on the grass-roots pulse} stated “This is a very long-term project. I won't see any results at the end of my Presidency. We might start to see the basis of results on the 150th anniversary of the GAA, or we may not. But the long-term objective here has to be that we are going to have more counties participating in the Liam MacCarthy Cup. That has to be the long-term priority.” More counties participating in the Liam MacCarthy Cup? I agree, 100%. But with one stroke of a pen and a willingness on the ‘powers that be’ to think just a little outside the box and that increased Liam MacCarthy Cup participation could begin not in 2034 but next year … 2025.
Welcome dear reader to the 2025 Liam MacCarthy Cup race, a race involving 13 starters. Now let us first address an anomaly with the ‘old system’ when there were 11 Liam MacCarthy Cup counties but 17 counties could, in theory, lift the Liam MacCarthy Cup, this due to the fact that the Joe McDonagh finalist gained entry to the championship proper in preliminary quarter-finals that, in my opinion defied logic, but were reasonably good marketing tools with the MacDonagh winners hosting a ‘big name’. We saw it here in Carlow with the visits of Limerick and Dublin, huge crowds. However the MacDonagh finalists presence in the last eight made little sense, seeds 12 and 13, having seen off seeds 14, 15, 16 and 17 still in the hunt for ‘Liam’ while seeds 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11, some of whom had lost narrowly to the top seeds and only finished below them on score difference were twiddling their thumbs. In our 2025 ‘MacCarthy’ the preliminary quarter-finals have been consigned to the scrapheap, so too the quarter-finals! Read on...
The Southern cauldron would gain added bubble when after it’s ferocious home and away contests, the top team gets to host the final at a venue if their choice while those finishing second and third play a good old-fashioned straight knock-out semi-final, the losers finished for the year.
By not relegating Carlow and by granting Joe McDonagh Cup runners-up Laois promotion, the 2025 Leinster SHC is contested by 8 teams, split into to groups of four. Group 1: Kilkenny (2024 Leinster champions), Wexford, Antrim and Laois (granted a wild card entry); Group 2: Dublin (2024 Leinster finalists) Galway, Offaly, Carlow (granted a wild card entry).
Round One involves seeds 1 and 2 in each group play each other, similarly seeds 3 and 4 cross camáns, thus Group 1, Kilkenny v Wexford, Antrim v Laois, Group 2, Dublin v Galway, Offaly v Carlow. These first round games would be played in two double-bills, one Saturday, one Sunday, both double bills to have a Croke Park setting. This means all eight Leinster contestants get to play in Croke Park. Lovely hurling! But what would make these double-bills even lovelier hurling is with the dates set in stone every club in each of the eight counties could organise an outing to GAA’s field of dreams for their juvenile teams, play a game en route, make this children’s day in Croke Park, have inter-active accuracy competitions in a youth friendly fan-zone area. A mini-festival of hurling. What this would also do is add to the paltry amount of inter-county adult hurling days in Croke Park each year. Here’s one for you .. how many adult inter-county hurling games were played in Croke Park in 2024? The answer: 8. Now frame the question just a little differently, on how many days did inter-county adult hurling take place in Croke Park in 2024 and the answer is reduced to 5! Yes, just five!. Don’t believe me? Ok, (1) the All-Ireland final, (2) and (3) the two All-Ireland semi-finals (4) the Leinster final/Joe McDonagh Cup final double bill and (5) the Christy Ring/Nickey Rackard/Lory Meagher finals treble-bill. Five Flagship hurling days in the flagship stadium. Not exactly showcasing the game is it?
Round 2: Right, having given every county a day out in Croke Park we continue with home and away fixtures, each county getting one home game, one away, round 2 seeing Kilkenny host Laois, Wexford at home to Antrim, Carlow host Dublin and Offaly at home to Galway. Now with the top two teams in each group to advance to the semi-finals, the top team having home advantage in that semi-final, this is a vital round, added to by the fact that the bottom team in each group face into a relegation play-off. No dead rubbers here.
Round 3: Nor no dead rubbers in the final round when Antrim host Kilkenny, Laois are at home to Wexford, Galway host Carlow and Dublin are at home to Offaly. Semi-final places and the relegation trap-door keeps every one honest, everyone on their toes.
Semi-finals: Ok, our crystal ball forecast that Kilkenny on 6 points top group 1, Wexford second on 4, Antrim 2, Laois 0. In the other group Galway top on 6, Dublin 4, Offaly 2, Carlow 0. So Kilkenny play Dublin in a Nowlan Park semi-final. Galway host Wexford in a Pearse Stadium, Salthill semi-final. The dearth of real knock-out games is alleviated by restoring Leinster semi-finals, your championship life on the line. The Carlow v Laois relegation game takes place at a neutral venue, the losers replaced in 2026 by the Joe McDonagh winners, the 2025 Joe Mac contested Down, Kerry, Westmeath, DeKildare, Derry and Meath (the latter two wild cards from the ‘Christy Ring’.
One of the arguments against the two groups of 8 and semi-finals would be the number games involved. Well the current 6 teams play 15 group games and the final which equals 16. Our proposal would involve 12 group games (6 in each group, 2 semi-finals, a final and the relegation final. That amounts to … snap!, 16! We have added one game to the Munster SHC but by removing quarter-finals (and prelim) we have freed up two week-ends.
The 2025 All-Ireland semi-finals see the Munster champions play the Leinster runners-up and the Leinster champions play the Munster runners-up. These semi-finals to be played on consecutive Sunday’s rather than the present Saturday/Sunday scenario which, due to cost, robs many people of the opportunity of attending both.
If September Sunday’s are no longer possible then we suggest a compromise of August though this just might be a mirage (rather than an Oasis!) in the 2025 desert!
