Border dispute lends a bit of spice as Deisego all out to end half-century of inferiority
Saturday September 06 2008
Waterford Corporation are proposing to annex 21 townlands in Kilkenny.
As if we hadn't enough to contend with in Georgia.
Waterford make out the city needs to expand and the only way this can be done is to take over such hurling strongholds as Slieverue, home of the former GAA president Paddy Buggy.
Another townland on the invasion list is known as Mount Misery.
People of Effin you are not alone. Maybe Waterford will rename it Mount Deise or Omaha Beach after the invasion.
The school gates of the Abbey Community College are in Waterford and the rest of the school is in Kilkenny. Two-thirds of the kids are from Waterford. Principal Tommy Lanigan is from Kilkenny city.
Then there's the story of the man who was snoring loudly and was removed by his missus to the spare room.
He told his pals, "I went to bed in Kilkenny and I woke up in Waterford."
There's none of the bitterness though you will find in other bordering counties. Waterford and Kilkenny just haven't met often enough.
For the most part the slagging is good-humoured, but like all good comedy it has an edge.
There's a car parked just inside the Kilkenny border on the main road to the ferry with a Waterford reg. The sign reads: FOR SALE. UNUSED SINCE 1959.
It was in 1959, of course, when Waterford last won the All-Ireland hurling championship.
Waterford pucked the hop-ball back out into the Cats half.
My Deise friend Eamonn Griffin told me this one. It seems many Kilkenny people cross the Suir to work in Waterford. One cool Cat remarked, not in a shy way, Kilkenny had 30 All-Irelands to Waterford's two.
"That's right," countered his Waterford workmate, "but we have 30 factories."
The cities of Kilkenny and Waterford are miles apart, but they have much in common.
James Stephens or The Village is in the heart of Kilkenny City.
The Village won three All-Ireland Clubs and it is of course Brian Cody's home patch.
You would have to feel sorry for Waterford man Liam 'Chuck' O'Connor, who is a selector with The Village. He played for the Deise the day Kerry beat them in the championship and he's reminded of it every day.
Many is the creamy pint I had with the Cats in the Village Inn and it was here I discovered what makes Kilkenny Kilkenny.
Most people assume the winning of the All-Ireland will mean more to Waterford. It will not.
Every Kilkenny hurling All-Ireland is as treasured as the previous ones. And they always find some reason to make the current one special. This time, it's revenge for '59.
Waterford went on to hammer the Cats in the replay. And sure it's only 49 years ago.
If you are sitting next to Waterford supporters tomorrow you will most likely hear the cry 'Up the Roads for the ciste' every time a Mount Sion man performs a great deed.
Ciste is the Irish for cake and it is here you get the icing too. Up the Roads baked four on tomorrow's team; the two McGraths, Tony Browne and Eoin Kelly, who is now with Passage.
I often marvel at how urban areas like The Village and Up the Roads can produce so many stars.
There mustn't be a window that hasn't been broken in the twin cities.Most hope the Deise will be celebrating with champagne tomorrow night. No county deserves it more.
Kilkenny haven't been beaten for three years. Kilkenny haven't even been tested for three years, yet Waterford are not without hope.
Last year Limerick managed to get a fair share of ball into the full-forward line, but Kilkenny were secure.
The Waterford forwards can cause serious damage on their day.
John Mullane, in flying form this year, will hunt until his tongue hits his knee.
Big Dan, if he's back to form, could make silk out of our wet hay.
Remember Waterford beat Kilkenny after a replay in 1959 and they scored six goals against the Cats in the '63 final.
My spies tell me the Kilkenny training sessions are even more ferocious this year and so they must be favourites, but I did my own research.
There's this woman near here who is a weather vane.
She was wandering around town today with a hitched skirt and three buttons opened at the bosom while her neighbours were shrouded up to the chin in that survival tinfoil.
It's a sure sign good weather is on the way. I double-checked with Met Eireann. Tomorrow will be fine with a light breeze.
The game should be a classic.
Never have we seen such a build-up and never have we so looked forward to a final. There won't be glass blown if Waterford win.
The whole country will cheer on the Deise, but that trio of open buttons might well be a portent for a Kilkenny three-in-a-row.
- Billy Keane
