We Done It!!!!!! We Won!!!!!! Can You Believe It!!!!!

County Armagh are the

2002 Gaelic Football All-Ireland Champions

See photographs of the historic occasion at the links below. Send me an email at hugh.daly@tesco.net if you like them.

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Account of the Match
Bank of Ireland Football Final: (Courtesy of the BBC)
Armagh 1-12 0-14 Kerry

Armagh created history on Sunday when they claimed their first All-Ireland title following a dramatic fightback at Croke Park. Down by four points at the break and looking a beaten side, they clawed their way back to sensationally lift the Sam Maguire. They are the first Ulster side to win the trophy since Down in 1994, and it comes after their third attempt in a decider. It was sweet revenge too for Armagh boss Joe Kernan who scored two goals when the Orchard County lost in their last final appearance to Dublin 25 years ago.

Many had thought that Oisin McConville's failure to convert a penalty in the 33rd minute would have been Armagh's downfall. They were struggling to contain Kerry at that stage when McConville was brought down as he bore down on goal. But he saw Kerry keeper Declan O'Keeffe rush forward to dive to his left and palm away the spot-kick. But even though Kerry's confident style of play looked to have broken Armagh's resistance, Joe Kernan's boys stormed back in the second period. It took the Kingdom midway through the opening period to move into the rhythm that destroyed teams on the way to the final. But it did not last, as Armagh dug deep into their reservoir of commitment and fitness.

The Orchard County had come out of the traps knowing that they had to stop Kerry putting together their well-known flowing game, and keep them occupied at the back. They did achieve their goal with the high ball causing grief, and a tenacious defence closing down the space. However, just after the 19th minute following the second of Dara O'Cinneide opening double, Kerry ran the show for the remainder of the half. But at the start a Steve McDonnell double and another from Ronan Clarke enabled Armagh to take a 0-3 0-1 lead. But two mistakes and two counters allowed Kerry to nip ahead for the first time in the 12th minute with Colm Cooper, Eoin Brosnan and Russell's second doing the needful.

But Armagh rushed back into the lead with a long-range effort following a super McDonnell take. Armagh's best point of the opening half came when an excellent tackle by Enda McNulty set up an attack with John McEntee finishing off with a cracking left-footed point. But then Kerry started to find that vital space in midfield with Donal Daly snaring possession at will in midfield and the forwards running at pace into vacant areas. The points came thick and fast for Kerry with Eamon Fitzmaurice charging through from deep to claim his first of the campaign. Liam Hassett, Russell, O'Cinneide and Cooper all contributed as Kerry Stormed five points clear.

Then came that penalty miss by McConville with Diarmuid Marsden knocking off a couple of points to keep Armagh in the game at the half-way stage. On the resumption, Kerry started off with three wides as Marsden pulled back Armagh within three points. O'Cinneide twice, and Hassett always kept Kerry in front, but they were not as confident. Marsden had a chance of a goal in the 50th minute, but as he charged forward he could not get a shot away as he was engulfed by the Kerry defence. But that goal finally did come in the 54th minute when McConville buried the ball home after a move started by Andy McCann. Then Armagh clawed back to level four minutes later when Clarke zipped over a cracking point from the left and McDonnell gave them the lead with another. Armagh kept that one-point lead as Kerry crumbled in the face of a determined outfit that denied a score in the last 20 minutes.

Armagh: B Tierney, E McNulty, J McNulty, F Bellew, A O'Rourke, K McGeeney, A McCann, J Toal, P McGrane, P McKeever, J McEntee (0-1), O McConville (1-2), S McDonnell (0-3), R Clarke (0-3), D Marsden (0-3) .
Subs: P Hearty, K Hughes, C O'Rourke, P Loughran, B O'Hagan, J Donaldson, B Duffy, G Reid, P McCormack, T McEntee, S Maxwell, P Duffy, C O'Neill, K McElvanna, S Smyth.
Kerry: D O'Keeffe, M O Se, S Moynihan, M McCarthy, T O Se, E Fitzmaurice (0-1), J Sheehan, D O Se, D Daly, S O'Sullivan, E Brosnan (0-1), L Hassett (0-1), MF Russell (0-3), D O'Cinneide (0-5), C Cooper (0-2).
Subs: D Murphy, A MacGearailt, J Crowley, T O'Sullivan, B O'Shea, S Scanlon, D O'Sullivan, M Lyons, I Twiss, F Kelliher, D Quill, R O'Connor, M Finn, E Galvin, MD Cahill.

Score by Score Account of the Match
(Courtesy of the BBC)

Why We Love Gaelic Football:

• The way Micheal o muircheartaigh pronounces 'Colm O Rourke'

• Flags outside houses near championship time.

• The noise in Croke Park when the teams come out.

• The few pints in the Gresham before the game (and an extra one in Quinns)

• The anticipation in the days coming up to a big game

• The banter between supporters.

• The stories about players from a bygone age

• Every player, no matter how good, always has a younger brother that would have been better but for the booze/women/emigration/job/incarceration etc. (Delete as appropriate)

• On any one summer sunday more people would attend club and county fixtures across the country than would attend soccer and rugby combined all year long.

• Old blokes with transistor radios who are always more interested in the radio telling you about U21 hurling down in Limerick than the game they're watching in Irvinestown.

• Ringing up people you haven't spoke to in 12 months telling them to keep you in mind for a ticket, then getting a complete shock when they come up with the goods. Then telling everyone that asks you for a ticket to 'feck off do you not know how hard it is to get tickets'.

• The craic in the pub after a big win and not caring that you're going to miss the bus, because you know someone will give you a lift.

• The ooooooh of the crowd when there is a bone crunching shoulder.

• Those days when your playing out of your skin and you can do no wrong, you just know before the keeper kicks the ball out, your going to catch it clean. (oh aye, I know that one very well)

• Championship football on a warm summers evening, the hard sod, quick ball and the roar of the crowd.

• Pints in the town after winning a club championship game.

• John 3:16

• Beaches in July when all the fathers are inside their cars listening to the news from Clones or Thurles.

• Interviews with the players and you hear the real accents of the places they come from.

• Bringing the cup around to schools in the months after the all-Ireland

• Pubs with Allstar posters on the walls

• Raymond's car or van filled to the roof with under 12's on the way to a match. Then, on the way home he stops at a shop and buys them all ice-cream, all from his own pocket.

• The one line comment from some wit in the crowd that gets both sets of supporters laughing and cheering.

• The last bars of amhran na bhFiann lost in the mighty roar

• Cars parked in every gap in the hedge and every farmyard at local championship matches.

• Not caring about the splatters of cowshite caked on the ankle of your trousers because of the day thats in it.

• Young wans playing their own championship behind the goals at the county final

• "Anyone buyin or sellin a ticket ?"

• The anticipation of the first club challenge match of the year

• Wee Mickey on the School team being the first player from the club to get a provincial medal - boys but he's going to be some footballer.

• The same wee Mickey getting caught by his da taking a pint after he scores 1-6 on his championship debut at 15
  Bought to him by the club captain

• Who's da caught him in a similar situation 15 years earlier

• You shake hands with the guy you're marking before the match, then proceed to kick seven sorts of s**t out of him and abuse his mother for 60 minutes, and shake hands with him again after.

• Being lifted over the turnstiles by your Da when you were a kid.

• The pure Heart and love for the game that makes a lad want to die going for the ball as opposed to the pros in soccer that show no emotion.

• The local newspaper supplements in the week of a big match

• Straw hats (why are they confined almost exclusively to Galway and Mayo supporters?)

• The conveyor line of stout, so they just top one off when you order

• The combination of professionalism and naivety. Larry Tompkins, one of the best prepared and most professional footballers ever, missed a Munster final because he got sunburned on his feet! The most professional sports organisation in the country runs one of the few truly amateur sports left

• And sends out Danny Lynch to deal with the world's media!

• The consolation that no matter how bad things go ..there's always next year

• Wearing your county jersey because you love it, not because it is a fashion item

• Hearing people in the crowd going on about will so-and-so start? I heard he's on the beer, I heard he's too busy chasing skirt to be bothered his arse training etc. giving out about him for the whole game and then he ends up being the hero by scoring the last minute winner and they turn around and say

• When you're a young lad after coming home from croker, you and cousins and neighbours play out the match again until the sunday game(your mick lyons and your cousins colm orourke)

• Having something to talk to your Da about

• Gives you sense of identity were you come from, something you will have till the day you die

Boys From The County Armagh

There's one fair County in Ireland,
With memories so glorious and grand.
Where nature has lavished its beauty,
In the orchards of Erin's green land.

I love it Cathedral city,
Once founded by Patrick so true,
And it bears in the heart of its bosom,
The ashes of Brian Boru.

It's my own Irish home,
Far across the foam,
Although I've oft times left it,
In foreign lands to roam.

No matter where I wander,
Through cities near or far,
My heart is at home in old Ireland,
In the County of Armagh.

Chorus:
I've travelled that part of the County,
Through Newtown, Forkhill, Crossmaglen.
Around by the Gap of Mount Norris,
And home by Blackwater again.

Where girls are do gay and so hearty,
None fairer you'll find near or far,
But where are the boys that can court them,
Like the boys from County Armagh.

End of Chorus

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