As history arrowed down on Croke Park in a green and gold thunderbolt, Pat Spillane, Jack O’Connor and David Clifford were as one as rivers in emotional flood works.
he deluge that burst the banks of each of these three towering Kerry hearts was prompted by the GAA’s most powerful and enduring weather front family.
Amidst a barrage of tears, Spillane’s final Sunday Game appearance was heightened by lavish, intense eloquence in which he spoke about his late father.
Opening the cover of herself to reveal thoughts etched on her soul in the calligraphy of undying love, Pat delivers some authentically beautiful and mesmerizing TV moments works.
He removed his glasses and shed tears as his entire existence was beset by an enduring pain his late father had not been around to see his three sons
– Tom, Mick and of course, eight-time All-Ireland champ Pat
– Announce yourself as the kings of September.
Spillane’s words were like a beginner’s guide to the sense of identity and place that sets GAA apart.
As with any instruction manual, it is advisable to read each line carefully.
“From a personal point of view, in 1964, my father was a selector for Carey against Galway and the night before a game, he had a chest pain.
“He didn’t go to the doctor, went in for the game the next day as a selector and died on Tuesday.
“Kerry-Galway matches always bring back this memory for me and my father never saw us play all three sons. And today, all three sons have 19 All-Ireland medals and their two grandchildren, Killian and Adrian, today have two more and would have been proud to have 21 senior All-Ireland football medals in their home works.
“It’s just a special, special day.”
While he struggled for sobriety, there was a classic moment when his fellow panelist, Ciaran Whelan, comforted Spillane with a back massage.
Without speaking, Whelan was clarifying the message to the thousands of people watching the broadcast: We’re here for you.
Jack O’Connor also had the spirit of a fallen parent as he ventured into untouched territory.
On his way to becoming the first man to win a championship/league double in each of the three positions in his first year as manager of his home venue, O’Connor was in communication with his late mother.
All those years ago, for fear of being noticed with the overwhelming pressure and position, she advised her son against comfortably accepting the most high-profile job in Kerry.
So as Sunday’s final neared its finale, he turned, as Sons always will, back to the woman who made him live.
“Look, I was very close to my mother, the youngest of nine children, and she would have been very sensitive to criticism from any of us, but especially, I think, since I was a kid.
“She knew I was in line for the job, but she also knew what Kerry was like when you didn’t win. So I guess she realized I’d be better off if I didn’t take it.”
“And it was amazing, the night I was ratified for the job, she was being taken home for the funeral, so yeah…she got some calls when it was summer yesterday.”
The thread connecting life and death and family and GAA, so many stories, so many lives.
Thrilled to see how the most talked-about footballer of his generation reacted to his moment of salvation, my eyes fixed on David Clifford during the final minutes of the game.
On the final whistle, freed from an expectation since his teens, Clifford enthusiastically trampoline between Galway 45 and the halfway line, fisting at full mast, punching in the air.
Sean O’Shea was a first for him and he kind of embraced only men who could walk long, hard caminos together.
After a while, the pre-naturally gifted fossa sprang from body to body in a kind of euphoric trance.
When, perhaps 90 seconds later, he found his brother and teammate Powdy at the bottom of the Hogan stand, he surrounded his older brother. The two became one, some private words passing between the couple.
Stunning photos later captured Clifford with his family, his back to the camera, arms around the shoulders of his parents, Ellen and Dermot.
There were cute snapshots of him carrying his newborn son, Oggy, across the Croke Park turf.
If you’re smart enough to distill the GAA’s gist to a series of words and images, they were provided by three Kerry veterans that were trending on social media as Croke Park and another championship season rolled into the evening. Went.
In Spillane’s poignant-touching stories, Clifford and O’Connor were to find the fundamental truth of GAA, why it works and thrives, engages communities and makes life feel a little less normal.
Family, place, home. More love.
