Limerick and Kilkenny set to renew vintage All-Ireland rivalry

It may be 15 years since the counties last met in an All-Ireland final but for Limerick, Kilkenny are the most familiar of opponents on the last day of the championship.

Of the 20 finals contested by the county, nearly half have been against next Sunday’s opposition. Of the nine matches previously played, Kilkenny hold the narrowest of advantages having won five All-Irelands after finals against Limerick although the one in 1911 was awarded rather than won on the field.

Ironically that was the year that the GAA had decided they needed to do something about promoting their biggest matches and embarked on a marketing campaign. This was decided by Central Council in advance of the 1911 All-Ireland hurling final between Limerick and Kilkenny.

“The Council, recognising the importance of the contest, spared no expense in perfecting arrangements for the match advertising being carried out on a very extensive scale all over the country,” according to one contemporary report.

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Unfortunately, the match had to be postponed because of heavy rain at the venue in Cork and Limerick withdrew in a dispute over the venue for the rematch, selected as Thurles. In the event, Tipperary, Munster runners-up, fulfilled the final fixture although the All-Ireland was not at stake, having been awarded to Kilkenny, and were beaten.

That was just the second final between the counties. The first took place in the delayed 1897 championship and resulted in Limerick’s very first title.

Thriving club side

Staged in Tipperary town, the match was played on November 20th, 1898, and resulted in a 3-4 to 2-4 win for Limerick. At that stage, counties were still represented by county champions, in this case Kilfinane and Tullaroan. The latter is still thriving and provided Tommy Walsh, Pádraig Walsh and Martin Keoghan to the current team for the recent semi-final.

Kilfinane has been amalgamated with Ardpatrick into the Blackrock club, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.

By 1897 Kilkenny had already lost All-Ireland finals to Cork and Tipperary and wouldn’t win their first until 1906 — the delayed 1904 championship — before going on to top the roll of honour, which they now lead with 36 titles.

The most sustained period of competition for the rivalry was in the 1930s up until 1940, during which phase they contested four All-Ireland finals in eight years, dividing the spoils equally with two wins apiece. This was the Mick Mackey era in Limerick and he captained the county to three All-Irelands in 1934, ‘36 and ‘40.

“We had a great run,” he told RTÉ in 1966. We had good luck and bad luck but I mean, on the whole, we had fairly good innings.”

That last victory remained there for generations, unsupplemented until 1973 and not added to for another 45 years. The formulation of “one All-Ireland in however many years away we are from 1940″ rolled on apparently endlessly.

Eamonn Cregan, a leading player with the 1973 All-Ireland winners, reflected on this point in The Irish Times before the 2014 semi-final between the counties.

“With Limerick and Kilkenny it really goes back to the 1930s, when Limerick came first, under Mick Mackey,” he said. “Limerick dropped off again after that, and Kilkenny really started dominating, along with Cork and Tipp, while Limerick disappeared really, in the ‘40s and ‘50s.

“When we came again in 1973, we’d already beaten Kilkenny once or twice in league matches. But still, Kilkenny were well fancied, and even though they were short a number of players, everyone in the papers were saying Kilkenny were going to win. No question or doubt about that.

“We had come through a very tough Munster championship, had contested four or five national league finals in succession, and had been gaining good experience. We came into the final, no one gave us a chance, but we were really up for the day, and won well, actually, by seven points.”

Cody’s first senior final

That reference to Kilkenny being short a number of players was a sore point for them. Jim Treacy, Eddie Keher, Kieran Purcell and Eamonn Morrissey were all injured.

Historical footnote: Morrissey’s place in the 1973 final went to the 19-year-old who had captained Kilkenny to minor All-Ireland success the year before. It was Brian Cody’s first senior final.

A year later, Kilkenny were restored but Cregan has always felt that Limerick let their concentration slip as holders, as he reiterated eight years ago.

“It was a bit of a disaster for us, because after winning in 1973, the celebrations kept going for months and months, really. Our attention to training just wasn’t the same, and I remember about six weeks before the championship, we realised we just weren’t going to be at the races. We tried to rectify it, got so far, but it just didn’t happen.

“That second year after an All-Ireland is always very difficult to replicate. We just came a cropper, really, and Kilkenny won well. But no team likes to lose an All-Ireland. And I certainly didn’t like that one, in 1974, losing the way we should. And we’re still waiting for our first win over them since then. So that says how much Kilkenny have dominated, really.”

The rivalry abides. Even in the Kiely era, Kilkenny command the balance of meetings, winning a qualifier in 2017 and the 2019 semi-final, which remains Limerick’s last championship defeat and losing the 2018 quarter-final.

But this is the first meeting of the counties in a final in Limerick’s new era.