When the President of Ireland sweeps along the red carpet on All-Ireland final day shaking hands with the combatants, she or he rarely succeeds in getting much chatter out of them.
The captain ushers the Pres along and does all the talking. His lockjawed teammates just shake hands and try not to look too nervous.
Stephen Lucey, full back on the Limerick team which surprised everyone by reaching the All-Ireland final in 2007, stands out as a glorious exception. As far as we're aware, he is the only player to invite the President to a house party while standing on the red carpet.
The 2007 All-Ireland final has not been well remembered by posterity. There are several reasons for this. It fell slap bang in the middle of Kilkenny's imperial era and many of those finals blend into one another. Because KK grabbed two goals so early in the game, most remember it as being over as a contest relatively early on.
Crucially, however, it wasn't the sort of hammering that Waterford would endure 12 months later and thus didn't stand out as a blowout of epic proportions. Limerick worked hard to keep the scoreboard respectable without ever threatening a victory. Then, after the game, Brian Cody referred to Ger Loughnane as a "lunatic from Clare." That is the story of September 2007.
In the pre-match pomp and ceremony, Lucey started gabbing relentlessly with President McAleese, beginning before she had even finished shaking hands with the goalkeeper and was still going when she had moved onto the corner back.
You're going to have to shout for us today now. I'll be very upset. You're very welcome to Limerick now during the week. House party (on) Monday night, Tuesday night.
Had she hung around any longer, he'd have asked her if she wanted to go drink buckfast down in Castletroy.
Limerick's Stephen Lucey invites the President to a house party before the All Ireland final #GAA#ThugLife@ballsdotie#Funnypic.twitter.com/6wBq6JRJgD
— Paul Jenkins (@Paul_Jenkins1) November 16, 2016
This video was sent to us by Paul Jenkins of Nemeton Sport, the producers of TG4's brilliant club championship coverage.
