By John Harrington
The canon of truly iconic All-Ireland Hurling Finals is a small one, as so it should be.
There's been no shortage of very exciting Finals, but it takes a certain confluence of factors for a match to transcend generations and still have a power and vibrancy all of its own decades later.
Galway’s victory over Limerick in the 1980 All-Ireland Final is one such match for many reasons.
It was a fine game of hurling, but the sense of history being made combined with Joe Connolly’s captain’s speech and Joe McDonagh’s spine-tingling rendition of ‘The West’s Awake’ gave the 1980 All-Ireland Final a shimmering patina all of its own.
The outpouring of emotion that was so vivid on the day was only natural when you consider the backstory of Galway hurling coming into the game.
Superstitions and piseogs have always had a hold on the Irish psyche which is probably why curses have long been a part of the Gaelic Games vernacular.
Perhaps its sometimes easier to blame supernatural forces for failure rather than dwell to much on human weakness, but there’s always been a tradition of believing certain teams are cursed if they have a long track record of coming up short.
The Mayo football curse is probably the most famous nowadays, but back in 1980 Galway hurling’s curse would have had just as much currency.
They hadn’t won an All-Ireland title since 1923, and in the interim had lost nine finals, most recently the previous year in 1979.
For decades they had looked in from the outside with their faces pressed against the sweet-shop window while counties like Kilkenny, Cork, Tipperary, Limerick and Wexford had gorged themselves on the goodies inside.
Galway captain Joe Connolly lifts the Liam MacCarthy Cup after victory over Limerick. All Ireland Hurling Final, Galway v Limerick, Croke Park, Dublin.
Convincing themselves they were good enough to join the party was always a mental hurdle for Galway teams, and they finally gained that self-confidence in 1980.
Cyril Farrell’s single-minded approach as manager was key in that respect, and, according to Joe Connolly, it also helped that his own club Castlegar won the All-Ireland Club Final on St. Patrick’s Day in 1980.
“I think that it resonated an awful lot around the county that we could win a club All-Ireland for the first time ever,” Connolly told GAA.ie.
“We beat an all-star Blackrock team in the All-Ireland semi-final. They had seven or eight of the Cork team at the time that had won the league only a few weeks before that, so the fact that a Galway club team could beat them kind of reinforced it around the county that these could be different times.
“We also won the Railway Cup that year for the first time in 33 years, so that was a great thing to have going into the summer. Castlegar had won the club All-Ireland, beaten all-comers you could say, and then we had won the Railway Cup as well so that was another sign.
“Having been in all four finals in 1979, the Railway Cup, the National League, the All-Ireland and the Oireachtas, and having lost the four of them, it was a great start the following year to win the two we did, because the Railway Cup was played on St. Patrick's Day and the club All-Ireland was on June 1, so it set us up.”
Right from the start of the 1980 All-Ireland Final, Galway played like a team determined to finally cast off the yoke of previous failures.
Two early goals by Bernie Forde and Joe Connolly gave them an impetus they never really lost until an Eamon Cregan penalty left just two points between the teams late in the game.
Galway refused to buckle under the pressure, though, and held on for a victory that meant so much to the long-suffering Tribesmen of hurling.
“It makes it even more special to be part of a county or team that has only occasional success,” says Connolly.
“When you're in a minority in anything, which is what Galway hurling and hurlers would be like, it makes anybody who's a part of it extraordinarily determined within the set-up.
“What we didn't have was the structures, not as much as other counties had. But it just made it very, very special to be part of it. And then extraordinarily special to be part of a team that won an All-Ireland within that.”
Galway goalkeeper Michael Connelly, along with full-back Niall McInerney block the ball out to keep Eamonn Cregan and the Limerick attack out during the All Ireland Hurling Final match between Galway and Limerick at Croke Park in Dublin.
There was a strong bond between that Galway team and its supporters because they had gone through so much together over the years.
And Connolly captured that bond brilliantly when his finished his captain’s speech after the match by paraphrasing Pope John Paul when saying, “People of Galway, we love you.”
“There was a bit of the risen people about it,” says Connolly. “I always think of Galway in relation to that. The way that a people, who had been defeated decade after decade with extraordinary hard luck stories through a lot of the 1940s and 1950s especially, that finally our day had come.
“It was completely about winning an All-Ireland and finishing the famine. The fact that it was the first year of a new decade as well probably stayed in peoples' memories as well, longer than if it was mid decade or something.
“For us it was completely about the long wait for that win and the extraordinary emotions that kind of brought in Galway people worldwide.
“I don't think we have a diaspora anywhere in the country like we have in Galway. So what it did for the Galway people overseas was wonderful.
“It was just a dream come true ten times over. We didn't grow up in a world where winning All-Ireland seniors was going to be on the agenda so to attain that was just amazing and wonderful.”
Noel Lane, left, and Steve Mahon of Galway makes his way up the steps of the Hogan Stand after the All Ireland Hurling Final, Galway v Limerick, Croke Park, Dublin.
Joe McDonagh took up where Connolly left off by judging the moment and his audience perfectly when he got his hands on the microphone and belted out ‘The West’s Awake’.
The outsiders were finally in the sweet shop after years of looking in, and the moment couldn’t have tasted any better.
“It still resonates, absolutely, being of the west,” says Connolly.
“Basically and utterly in what we're about. Being the men of the west, I think we are unique that we are the only county in Connacht that can take on the others and I think it's a huge thing.
“For us, our culture, our language and our geographical location and everything, for me, makes up the package of what it is to be a Galway hurler or footballer.
“But certainly with hurling it's really unique because we're the only ones playing it. But it's a huge part of what I'm about. It still probably has no bearing on results, but for us, as carriers of something, of being the men of the west, it is a huge thing.”
