Friends come up with capital plot

Tom Humphries on a group who have came together to try to put the Dublin hurlers back on the map

Every county that comes from nowhere to win an All-Ireland tells a story about the day when the tide turned and new attitudes took hold. Dublin hurling decided some way back that enough was enough. There is probably no such time as the right time to launch the rebirth of Dublin hurling, so the county had to settle for the right people gathering in the right place last night as a new era was ushered in. Sunday's 31-point defeat to Limerick in Kilmallock got but passing mention. In years to come though that singular pasting might be hallowed as a turning point.

Blue bloods from the aristocracy of hurling will note that it seems to be a lonely business sitting on the upper deck of the Dublin hurling bandwagon but the company is good and the view ahead is just fine.

Last night in the Gresham Hotel, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern presided over the launch of Friends of Dublin Hurling, a supporters-driven initiative to provide additional funding and support to hurling in the county.

The occasion was also an opportunity for the county's new director of hurling, Diarmuid Healy, to introduce himself. Healy, the Kilkenny man who invented Offaly.

His task is a huge one.

He has backing, though. The names of the patrons of the new hurling body set out the stall for the seriousness with which Dublin is approaching the task. An Taoiseach was virtually overshadowed by Lar Foley, Niall Quinn and Seán Óg Ó Ceallacháin. Only Quinn couldn't be in attendance yesterday evening, scandalising the company with his proffered excuse that he was playing junior football in Kildare.

Former Dublin manager Michael O'Grady in his opening remarks noted that things were already beginning to change in Dublin hurling but time, GAA time, was a difficult thing to measure.

"Two years ago six people sat down as the Dublin hurling review body and began work on a blueprint for the future of Dublin hurling. That was delivered on November 19th, 2001. We are only beginning to get the push now," he said.

The momentum is palpable, though. From the bottom up. O'Grady noted he had received a call yesterday from the principal of an inner-city Dublin school who was pleased to announce he was putting three pupils in a taxi out to Ballyboden to be trained by Nicky English as part of a new scheme to bring on young secondary school hurlers.

An Taoiseach Bertie Ahern pointed out that such steps marked progress. "As a child I went to St Pat's National School in Drumcondra and we had 500 teachers there in the training college and the school had no hurling team. This is as good a time as any to begin changing Dublin hurling because frankly there have been many lousy times."

While the Friends of Dublin Hurling begin active life with a golf classic in Portmarnock on May 12th (places still available) full implementation of the Blueprint for Dublin Hurling was promised by county chairman John Bailey. The blueprint seeks new structures, a new coaching pool, new facilities and dedicated hurling clubs.

"You can make Dublin not just the capital city but the capital of hurling," said GAA president Seán Kelly, who also spoke.

Many remembered the outsize contribution of Foley to Dublin hurling. As a player he was a colossus and as a manager he was a force of nature. He brought Dublin to the brink in the early '90s, training the team on a pitch he mowed and marked himself, beefing them up in a barn he made a gym out of and stirring them with a rare passion.

Last night there seemed no doubting Dublin's day would come. And with a politician's delicacy, the Taoiseach remarked it was always more fun to get organised when you were coming from a little bit behind.

Marty Morris smiled. Thirty-one points? The only way is up.