Joe Brolly is one of the twenty most famous men in Ireland and a decent shout to be president of this country some day. Fame comes with its price though, as Brolly and his Sunday Independent colleague Paul Kimmage discovered last Sunday after the All-Ireland final, when the pair set out into the night to enjoy a pint after the scintillating draw at HQ.
It was not to be, sadly, as Brolly was inundated with selfie requests, both on Jones's Road and on Poolbeg St. As Brolly tells it in Gaelic Life this week, he has basically become the Justin Bieber of gael culture. He can't walk down the street without being showered with roses and F bombs. Finally someone knows how Christ felt when he arrived in Jerusalem 2016 years ago.
At some stage, an exasperated Kimmage simply says 'no mas'.
Here's Brolly's account of his quixotic quest for a pint Sunday night - which features a spin in a Garda car and one declaration of what's wrong with modern Ireland. We recommend buying the new Gaelic Life for Brolly's analysis of last Sunday's big match but this anecdote provides a strange insight into the level of Brolly's fame - and just how comfortable he is with it.
