Tomorrow the Munster Hurling Final returns to its spiritual home and already the first supporters will be assembling in Thurles, writes John G O'Dwyer.
Throughout the weekend Limerick and Waterford fans will mix good-humouredly in the pubs around Liberty Square and the few gardaí on duty are likely to do little but direct traffic.
Nowadays, when success in the Munster Championship is no longer a prerequisite for All-Ireland glory, the result of tomorrow's game is of little long-term significance. In victory or defeat, both teams will be around when the Championship proper begins on July 22nd with the All-Ireland quarter-finals. Provincial success matters little these days, if not followed by the ultimate accolade in Croke Park next September.
Nevertheless, the passion that permeates Munster hurling ensures that the players are unswervingly committed to victory and that supporters will travel in their tens of thousands as they did in times past when success was vital to the season's outcome. Fans may arrive these days in smart new cars, and sober Sunday suits may have been replaced by colourful team strips, but one constant remains - the supporters will head towards Semple Stadium with the unassuming gait of country folk, for hurling remains predominantly a rural pastime.
It is rooted in the traditional dairy farming heartlands of the south, the birthplace of the Irish co-operative movement where communities have traditionally been strong. This is a landscape where people still know their neighbours and make eye contact in their daily lives. There remains a sense of belonging to a locality and an acceptance of the rights and responsibilities that this entails.
But these communities are now threatened by the remorseless march of globalisation. With agriculture rapidly contracting, the vast majority of GAA supporters travelling to tomorrow's game will no longer earn a crust from the land. Gone are the days when people could expect to live and work in the same locality. Instead, commuting is the new order. A recent survey by NUI Maynooth showed that the average travel-to-work distance in rural Ireland is now 40 kilometres. Many of the fans will also come from areas where shops, pubs and post offices are closing. Slowly they are finding themselves being distanced from neighbours and forced into the disconnected suburban lifestyle of travelling elsewhere to shop and socialise.
Ever-increasing rural suburbanisation also means that volunteerism, community involvement, the Catholic Church and rural employment opportunities are all in steep decline, and many areas are rapidly losing the unifying forces that once shaped their identities.
Despite such profound change, the heartbeat of Irish rural life remains vibrant, but these days it beats strongest through Gaelic games, where it remains solidly anchored to a bedrock of local loyalties. If we happen to live in North London, borders are blurred and we may support Arsenal or Tottenham, or more likely neither. If we live in rural Limerick or Waterford, borders are distinct and have the utmost importance. Our GAA club chooses us by reference to parish boundaries and we are automatically inducted as supporters of the team that represents this locality.
As other rural institutions decline, the GAA has stepped into the vacuum and is now the strongest bond maintaining the distinctive sense of belonging. And so tomorrow's Munster final is in many ways a celebration of the continued centrality of hurling within local communities, for this glamorous spectacle is only made possible by previous years of unglamorous and unpaid endeavour.
Many of tomorrow's spectators in Thurles will also be the volunteers who years ago drove the competing players to under-12 matches. Others will be teachers who stayed late at school to coach the future stars, or the farmers who cut the local hurling field, or the club officials and referees who undertook the thankless and unrewarded task of officiating at juvenile games. This commitment will be repaid tomorrow by the sense that these individuals are not merely onlookers but have earned a right to belong, and indeed feel some ownership, at a great occasion.
Manchester United may attract fans in unbelievable numbers worldwide, but essentially the club is a profit-driven, privately-owned company and its supporters are excluded from its inner workings. In contrast, the GAA remains at heart a community-empowered structure and what it does best is participation.
So if you intend settling down tomorrow to enjoy the breathtaking spectacle of the world's fastest field game, remember that the players showcasing their skills before a packed stadium will - unlike professional sportsmen - be expected to give no less effort for their parishes in run-of-the-mill county league matches before maybe 50 spectators. And tomorrow's "man of the match" will - just like the supporters present - be back at work on Monday morning collecting milk, directing traffic or building houses.
It is this unique connection to localities that has elevated the GAA above other sporting organisations and makes hurling, not just an amateur sport, but an umbilical cord anchoring people to communities.