Limerick's All-Ireland win wasn’t written in stone, it was on silage bales!

ACROSS County Limerick farmers got creative before and after the All-Ireland final.

Roger Mulqueen in Bruff, as featured last week, is known as the ‘Leonardo da Vinci of Limerick hurling’.

But he has a rival in suckler farmer Brenda Lundon who has been called the 'Banksy of East Limerick' thanks to her bold white on black creations.

While graffiti artist Banksy uses buildings as his canvas, Brenda prefers silage bales for her expressionism as do many farmers. The lady from Pallasbeg, Cappamore, has been getting rave reviews for her daily creations in support of the Limerick hurlers.

Brenda started writing the messages a week before the All-Ireland and posted photos daily on her Facebook page.

“I usually do something at Christmas around Elf on the Shelf but I do Elf on the Shed! So I said I'll do something for the All-Ireland. People are getting great craic out of it. It's all good fun and light humoured and wishing Limerick the very best of luck,” smiled Brenda, whose brother James came up with the ‘Banksy of East Limerick’ phrase.

She was up early on Monday morning to paint her congratulations – ‘Back to Back’.

There is another fantastic display in Ballylanders with Bruree’s Liz Leonard giving it the thumbs up (pictured above).

Meanwhile, Limerick’s dairy herd didn’t know what was up on Sunday. Twice a day milking times were all mixed up with some milking early to go to Croker, cows milked before the match to allow for celebrations, milked late in the evening after getting home or just once a day. There might have been a few sore heads on Monday morning too!

FRS Farm Relief Services manager, Liam O'Rourke told the Leader last week that the All-Ireland final would be the busiest day of the year for relief milkers. To add to the mix this year is the fact that Liam and his staff look after Limerick and North Cork.

“Not only do our farmers want to go to the match but also our workers want to go to the match so that puts a squeeze on things as well. Sunday will be tight but we’ll get there - it is looking almost sorted at this stage. We will be doing our level best to accommodate everyone,” said Liam, who was speaking last Thursday.

But at the heart of it all is the love of Limerick hurling. In the run-up, Dairygold Co-op CEO Jim Woulfe said it's fair to say that the build-up atmosphere has been set against a background of other unprecedented events that have impacted us all.

“For example, take Dairygold as a business – we have had to plot a course through Brexit and Covid-19 and all the while preparing to manage the emerging challenges of global climate change. The same is true for our customers, milk suppliers and employees across Munster. While the pandemic occupied our daily working lives thankfully, we have had sport as a much-needed diversion. Recently, we enjoyed fantastic sporting events but for all Limerick and Cork folk the real gift that keeps on giving is hurling – the wonderful game.

“GAA touches every part of Irish society. It is as much a community association as it is a sporting one and Covid-19 has highlighted this. It's just lovely to see people happy, enjoying themselves again and enjoying the sport,” said Mr Woulfe.

After the Ardagh’s man beloved Limerick won on Sunday, dairy farmers can expect a 2 cpl rise very soon!