This afternoon’s semi-final was preceded by Shane O’Donnell finally confirming that 2026 will be his swansong for the Clare hurlers.
Most of the 2013 team have already drifted off into retirement. Of the named starting XV, only O’Donnell, Tony Kelly and David McInerney remain from that lightning bolt All-Ireland triumph. John Conlon is still trucking away despite some horrific injuries and could yet be torpedoed into the starting team before the start.
That year marked the last time that Clare faced Limerick in the championship at Croke Park. Limerick had just won their first Munster title in 17 years and got a bad attack of stage fright in the semi-final. A young Declan Hannon had a horror-show on the frees and by the end of the decade had been refashioned as a centre-back.
Davy Fitzgerald gave a comically intense pre-match interview which carried echoes of Ger Loughnane’s sideline interview at half-time in the 1995 All-Ireland final. Asked the question, “Are ye going to win?” a stony-faced Fitzgerald quickly replied “Yes” and walked away, mic drop style. He was as good as his one-word answer and Clare won easily.
A lot has changed in the intervening years. ‘Unlimited Heartbreak’ would no longer work as a title for a book on Limerick hurling. Few counties in the history of hurling have undergone such a startling personality change. On his hurling podcast in the Irish Examiner this week, Anthony Daly took much credit for bringing the warring factions in Limerick city hurling together and compared himself to Boutros Boutros Ghali.
Clare fell into mediocrity and then into civil war at county board level. The rebels ultimately won that battle and got Brian Lohan installed as manager at the turn of the decade. After several years of steady progression, thrilling performances and near-misses, Clare returned to the summit in 2024 – after their five-in-a-row chasing neighbours had been dethroned by Cork in the semi-final.
Brian Lohan watches on during Clare’s heavy loss in Páirc Uí Chaoimh
Their Under-20s have just stormed to a timely All-Ireland victory but the O’Donnell announcement and the advancing age of several of their leading players has given this Clare campaign the feel of a last hurrah.
Clare had been Limerick’s most troublesome adversaries at the height of their dominance around 2022 and 2023, though this feeling has abated in the last couple of years.
Ironically, they probably lost their tag as Limerick’s stiffest challengers in 2024, the same year they ascended the steps of the Hogan. Last summer’s Munster SHC victory in the Gaelic Grounds has been dismissed on the basis that Limerick were already in a provincial final and Clare were already out.
They’ve reached four All-Ireland semi-finals under Lohan’s stewardship and this has been comfortably their least impressive campaign of the four.
Of greatest concern is the frightful beating they suffered against Limerick in Ennis in May.
There had been much confidence beforehand. Limerick entered the game on the back of four successive championship defeats – albeit one of the losses was in a dead-rubber and one of them came after a penalty shootout.
They were without Aaron Gillane, through injury, and Cian Lynch, due to the red card he picked up in Páirc Uí Chaoimh the week before.
Many spied a chance to turn the screw on Limerick and put them under pressure of elimination at the provincial stage for the first time under the current format.
John Kiely’s side slammed the door shut on that idle talk with a vengeful display. Clare were bullied physically and the relatively permissive refereeing style adopted on the day suited their opponents.
O’Donnell was sent to the ground with a shuddering hit from Diarmaid Byrnes in the opening minutes, with no free awarded, a passage which set the tone.
In the absence of Gillane, Shane O’Brien ran riot in the full-forward line. The first goal was especially ugly from a Clare perspective, in which a platoon of tacklers were drawn out towards the ball-carrier Will O’Donoghue in midfield.
Escaping their clutches, the Limerick centre-back managed to toss a handpass into Peter Casey, who suddenly had acres of space into which to run. He sauntered onwards and created the opening goal for Aidan O’Connor which set them on their way.
The Clare defence was particularly exposed.
It’s an irony of the current game that Lohan, one of the great defenders of all-time, has created a team suited to all-out attack. He explained to Dermot Crowe following Clare’s All-Ireland win that this was down to his dislike of sweepers and his belief that they dull the instincts of defenders over the long-term.
The ‘culture of having help’, he called it. The fear is they may require help against Limerick.
While Clare did bounce back well to thrash Tipperary – in one of their post-All-Ireland off-years – they shipped another double digit hammering in their final Munster SHC game away to Cork.
This loss was rationalised afterwards on the grounds that Clare had downed tools once it was apparent they weren’t going to win by the required four points to reach a Munster final.
They did win a drab quarter-final against Dublin by 13 points. This was taken as more evidence of the stark disparity between the provinces but there were moments when that game might have taken off in another direction.
That Eibhear Quilligan picked up Man of the Match was proof enough there was more to the game than the final margin suggested. Niall Ó Ceallacháin’s side missed a welter of goal chances either side of half-time.
Diarmuid Stritch is tackled by Adam English
Clare ultimately picked off their scores easier and cantered away in the final quarter. The match concluded amid an atmosphere of extreme unease after David Reidy was knocked out with a head-high tackle.
Whatever about the defence, Clare will surely need a better conversion rate on goal chances than they managed against Limerick and Cork earlier in the year. They had a spate of goal chances on both days, only finally converting one each time after the result was out of reach.
The bad news for them is that Nickie Quaid’s form is as flawless as ever. Quaid and David Reidy, the only survivors from 2013, took their Munster medal tally to eight, leaving them two off the record held by Jimmy Doyle and Jimmy Barry-Murphy.
There was massive jubilation among the Limerick players and management to regain their Munster crown, 12 months after losing it on penalties, Darragh O’Donovan provocatively planting the Limerick flag on the Páirc Uí Chaoimh turf.
Gearóid Hegarty, in particular, was a central figure, somehow squeezing home their only goal after the Cork crowd had jeered Byrnes’ under-hit free and then executing a magnificent pick-up near the sideline in advance of Peter Casey’s winning point.
Are there any concerns for the Munster champions? Their shooting efficiency was pretty low in the provincial decider. O’Connor, who’s had a fine breakout season as a regular starter, was a touch iffy on the frees. Gillane failed to score at all against Cork, though one suspects that’s unlikely to happen a second time.
Cathal O’Neill had been rumoured to be out with a hamstring injury but he’s been named to start. Adam English wouldn’t represent a major downgrade, regardless.
Clare will look to summon the emotion and intensity that saw them take an even more invincible Limerick side to the brink in 2022 and 2023, beating them in the round robin in the latter campaign. But all form and logic points to a Limerick win.