To win one All-Ireland may seem like good fortune but to win two is no fluke, to paraphrase Oscar Wilde.
The Cork senior and intermediate camogie teams proved themselves no slouches on the stage that is Croke Park by capturing both titles on Sunday in dramatic style.
The Cork intermediates set the tone by beating Kilkenny with an injury time point by Fiona Nelligan to win the Jack McGrath Cup by 1-11 to 1-10. A late flourish by the Cork seniors saw them beat Galway by 1-16 to 0-16 to win the Sean O’Duffy Cup for the second year in a row.
[ Cork notch up consecutive All-Ireland triumphs with victory over GalwayOpens in new window ]
On Monday evening more than 1,000 fans made their way to Cork Camogie board headquarters on Castle Road in Blackrock to see intermediate captain, Lauren Homan of Brian Dillons, join with senior captain Molly Lynch of Sars and raise the two trophies to thunderous applause.
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“We are the champions, and we’ll keep on fighting to the end,” the Queen song belted out from huge speakers as both teams and their managers, Donie Daly of the intermediates and Ger Manley of the seniors were introduced to the deliriously happy crowd.
Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr Dan Boyle had set the tone, congratulating both sets of players and their mentors as well as the clubs and their families for all the support before he predicted that Cork would be back next year with even more camogie silverware to celebrate.
MC Finbarr McCarthy of Cork 96FM added to the atmosphere when he asked the crowd to give a big shout out to Ireland’s Olympic winning medallists, in particular Cork’s own duo of Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy who had completed a double of their own with gold in Paris.
[ Cork camogie captain Molly Lynch aiming for two All-Ireland titles in one weekOpens in new window ]
Senior captain Molly Lynch, who earlier this month won the Camogie Poc Fada in Louth, said the standard of camogie in the All-Irelands seems to be rising year on year, and Galway had given Cork a real test and it took an incredible effort by Cork team and subs to see off their challenge.
Manager Ger Manley, a brilliantly skilful hurler with Cork in the 1990s, was equally keen to emphasise that it was a team effort by the entire squad, which he inherited from last year’s All-Ireland winning manager, Matthew Twomey, that earned the Leesiders their 30th title.
“They are a super group of players, and we have a great back room team led by coach Liam Cronin – we’ve set standards for them, but the girls have raised standards themselves and that’s why we are here tonight with the O’Duffy Cup,” he declared to great cheering and delight.
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