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GAA

21st May 2017

The scenes in Carlow at full time were just something special

What a win

Conan Doherty

Satuday 3 June, 7pm, Portlaoise. Be there.

Carlow v Dublin. Read it and weep.

Carlow recorded their first win in the Leinster Senior Football Championship since 2011 with a stunning four-point victory over Wexford.

Goals from Brendan Murphy and Danny Moran set the hosts on their way at Cullen Park with Paul Broderick kicking a total of 10 points as Carlow ran out 2-17 to 2-13 winners over Seamus McEnaney’s men.

Some people have been using the Twitter hashtag #CarlowRising to describe the ecstasy of what happened on Sunday evening and this is a county that deserves serious admiration but respect now. This is a county rising off its knees.

This is what the GAA really is all about. This is what the idea ‘any given Sunday’ is about.

Wexford might now be a Division Three team, they might have had form and odds in their favour but all that went out the window when the ball was thrown-in in Carlow on May 21.

A group of men gave everything they had for their county, they emptied it and left it all on their own battlefield and they emerged victorious. It doesn’t matter that they won’t win the championship, it doesn’t matter how this season ends. Memories of Sunday will not disappear whatever will be and a group of younger men will have been inspired by what transpired in their town.

Now, they get a lash at the All-Ireland champions and look what it means to them.

And the fans bloody loved it too.

Championship Sundays are back. The magic of the GAA is back.

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