Flapping black and red flags caught my eye driving past a grey bungalow perched on elevated ground at Knockboy in Waterford.
"I have to do it," I repeated in my mind. Curiosity had got the better of me.
"I need to turn this car around ... go back and find out who lives there? Who decorated that house? Is that the abode of a Ballygunner superfan?" I said to myself.
You see, a curious mind comes at a cost. Another planned interview would have to wait a little longer. This stop at Knockboy felt unavoidable.
I turned the car round, drove back past the church on the left, climbed a small incline in third gear, and pulled in outside the house drenched in Ballygunner's colours on the right.
I parked slowly outside a gate where the inhabitants had hung a 'no parking' sign. As I walked towards the front door, another warning caught my eye, 'beware of dog'.
What way could this go? It could end in tears or reveal maybe a superfan. The latter most likely, as I glanced to the right another sign read: "BEST OF LUCK to THE GUNNERS … DRIVE ON LADS!"
Some dyed in the wool Ballygunner fan definitely lived here.
Here I was, randomly knocking on a stranger’s door, in search of someone who could explain what reaching an All-Ireland club final actually means.
The knock.
A brief silence.
The door opens - slowly.
The fan reveals himself with a smile.
A small, low-set man, dressed in grey, with a friendly, excitable Waterford voice says hello. He pauses, looks at my RTÉ microphone and waits for my response.
I explain, who I am: I’m Cian McCormack from Morning Ireland on RTÉ Radio 1; and I that I’m hoping to interview the person who has decorated the house.
And then the bearded man introduces himself.
"Michael 'Cubby' O'Keefe is my name," he says.
A short time later, he stands in front of my microphone. The red light is on, indicating its recording. The words come easily and he doesn’t need prompting.
"You're in the heart of Ballygunner when you're in Knockboy," he says as he points towards the church down the road and the land stretching between it and his house.
What about all the "black and red flags, the black and red bunting, black and red signs," I ask.
"Oh look, we love it. It's in our blood," he replies enthusiastically, with the vigour and passion only felt in hurling counties, and he’s compelled to underline that the sport is written deep in his DNA.
"We absolutely love the hurling out here. It's everything to us, you know what I mean? It would really just top everything to have two All-Irelands for this team," Cubby says.
He is referring to to Ballygunner’s 2022 All-Ireland senior club title.
I ask the obvious question: "Are people locally excited? I can see you are".
His answer sums it all up. Excited? It’s more than that. It’s what he simply calls "the buzz".
"There's some buzz around the place now ... a real, real buzz now ... and it's getting closer to Sunday ... as you see all the decorations and bunting all over the crossroads - the club done that themselves ... there’s just great buzz in the place and, please God, we get the right result," he says with nervous excitement coloured by the confidence of past victories.
That excitement is echoed further up the road at St Mary’s National School. They’ve rewritten Kingfishr’s hit 'Killeagh' with new words.
"From the heart of Ballygunner to the banks of the suir. From the dreams we had as children to a future so pure. With our hurls in our hands training until the dark ... in the home of the gunners known as James McGinn Park," the rewritten words go.
Inside, Miss Tallon’s fifth class are roaring it out. In fact, they’re belting it out with passion!
"They go raring and tearing and fighting for love. We are the GUNNERS with the strength from above … Ba lee E E E, GEE, ... U … NN … E … R … For the black and the red I adore … For the parish to last evermore."
The words bounce off the classroom’s walls. The tune is infectious and the lyrics tell of local hurling lore.
"1960 and 90, three in a row made us sing … county and Munster titles … what a beautiful thing. The All-Ireland last minute, we will never forget … Oh, Ruddle buried it in the back of the net."
Other parts of the school are as excited and live the closing line of the song.
"When our times at an ending and our days are no more ... bury me and my hurley near the banks of the suir."
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Elsewhere in the school, the same energy hums. It's a sea of black and red. Outside, cutouts of players line the grounds. Inside, bunting stretches wall to wall. Put simply, the excitement, is at fever pitch.
Eleven-year-old Christopher Grant says he is: "Excited because we made it and I'm a bit nervous like because I really want them to win". He is predicting a win.
Second-class teacher Neil Kirwan says the excitement is heightened by the fact that so many past pupils are part of the team destined for Croke Park this weekend.
"You'd be very proud to see past pupils from the school. Togging out and running out of Croke Park on Sunday now, so it's a huge a proud day for the school and the club," says Mr Kirwan.
Neasa O'Sullivan, from sixth class, has a brother and eight cousins on the team. Her uncles are also part of the backroom panel. With that level of hurling pedigree in her family, she says she is very proud and is hopeful for a win.
Ballygunner GAA President Gerry Cullinan shares that pride. He says a big part of what has been done is down to the national school and how it feeds players to the club.
"It's fantastic to be in the second All-Ireland final in four years, having won it four years ago. It's very unusual for Waterford teams to be up at the top," he says.
"The club was really founded on the basis of what went on in the school and that tradition has been maintained right up to this day.
"Thirteen of the 15 players that will start on next Sunday were in St Mary's School, which is fantastic," he says.
Asked for a prediction, Gerry says he’s "reasonably confident".
"We know we're up against a very good team. We can win."
Asked to put a score on it, and pressed for the margin, he says: "I'd say we'll win by ... I'm hoping … we'll win by one point".
Former player Stephen Frampton agrees, saying: "My prediction is that Ballygunner will win by a point".
Wisely he adds: "I'm not going to go any further than that".
"I’ll either be roaring and screaming or I’ll say absolutely nothing for the whole match".
