Brendan O’Connor, RTÉ Radio 1
It was “last out, shut the door” in Armagh for the All-Ireland final… and wasn’t it sweet?
Before the big game last Sunday, former Armagh captain turned BBC commentator Jimmy Smyth and Galway Bay FM commentator Ollie Turner joined Brendan O’Connor on RTÉ radio.
The streets were swarming with crowds in maroon and orange from early on, said Turner.
Smyth said Armagh liked to take a 25-year gap between finals, so there was plenty of time for the excitement to build.
Social media was ablaze with orange and even the moon obliged and appeared orange over Lough Neagh, he pointed out.
And when the county board put out a notice about homecoming tickets for Monday night, 16,000 tickets were gone in just six minutes… and what a party it turned out to be.
Turner, meanwhile, was asked about going viral over his commentary of the Galway’s defeat of Dublin.
We had to hear it again.
“Sweet Mother of Jesus, they have pulled off the thinkable. Forget about Taylor Swift,” he cried.
It was an outpouring.
Now he has to put his head down walking through Galway, where people are going about in t-shirts saying “Sweet Mother of Jesus”.
“It was a guy letting it rip with pure honesty and joy,” he said.
It was a guy letting it rip with pure honesty and joy
— Ollie Turner
Apparently a local prayer group was not so impressed and there was talk of an email to the radio station.
After all that excitement, O’Connor called for calm like a kindly teacher: “We’ll settle down a bit, now,” he said, moving to an interview with a woman who nearly died three times last year.
Olga Barry is director of the Kilkenny Arts Festival.
“This time last year I didn’t think you’d be back here,” Brendan told her.
She had a “blip”, she said, that involved double pneumonia and sepsis and weeks in intensive care.
When she first became very ill overnight, she sent a text to someone saying “I’m dying”. It turned out she was.
“We’re all mad for the kind of wisdom from people who come back from the edge,” said Brendan.
“Less pointless worry… you can’t control everything no matter how hard you try,” said Olga. “That and seeing the riches in my life.”
“Everything tastes and sounds better,” she added.
Armagh is feeling that too.
