Ode to Limerick hurlers of past with history publication
WE TRULY are living in the golden era of Limerick hurling but pre-2018 the most fondly remembered year in the county’s GAA history was no doubt 1973.
Author James Lundon announced his upcoming book titled ‘1973 Keeping The Dream Alive: The Story of Limerick's Historic All-Ireland Success 50 Years On’ will be published to celebrate half a century since the momentous All-Ireland win.
When speaking to anyone who travelled to Croke Park for the 1973 final where Limerick toppled the team of the time, Kilkenny, the first thing people often mention is how torrential the rain was.
Rain fell from the heavens throughout the All-Ireland final. Last year, prior to Limerick’s three in-a-row victory in the All-Ireland championship, the Limerick Leader spoke to a number of locals who were at the 73 game.
“I remember the hats the supporters wore at the time were made out of crepe paper, white and green, and when they got wet the green dye used to run down across people’s foreheads,” said James Collins who was seven when he made the trip to Dublin with his father.
James Lundon's book focuses on statistics from Limerick senior intercounty hurling from the 1973 All-Ireland campaign.
“Liam O’Brien of the Cuimhnígí ar Luimneach Facebook group got in touch after Christmas and said I should write a book on the 1973 All-Ireland campaign,” James said.
“I thought about it for around an hour and I said ‘okay, we’ll do it’.
“Myself, Liam O’Brien and Niall Deegan have been working on this book pretty much for the last six months,” he added.
James described the book as a “whistle-stop tour” of the famous Limerick hurling year.
The book goes into detail from the league matches at the beginning of 1973 and the four famous summer matches between Clare, Tipperary, London and then finally Kilkenny in the All-Ireland final.
“We go through each of the games in turn. We have pictures, we have match reports from the newspapers and much more,” James said.
The whole 1973 campaign was an exhilarating one for Limerick hurling. The senior team reached the league final but lost it to Wexford 4-13 to 3-7 so there is a lot to unpack in James' new book.
Speaking about the modern-day golden era of hurling, James believes that hurling is in many ways the same sport but in other ways completely different.
“It has changed beyond recognition at one level, but, at another level, it is the same,” he mentioned.
“Ground hurling is more or less gone from the sport as the game nowadays is a possession based game and if you play the ball along the ground you are statistically less than 50% likely to retain possession.
“The men nowadays are also much bigger, they’re much better fed, they’re taller and they’re incredibly well conditioned compared to the men of 50 years ago and that goes for all sports. Obviously, the men of yesterday would be every bit as good if they lived in this era” he added.
James, Liam and Niall are still in the draft stage of the book which is set to be published around the time of the 50th anniversary of the All-Ireland final in September.
They are still looking for public comments and submissions or are looking to speak with anyone who wants to get in contact. The email to get in touch with the team is [email protected]