It's 29 May in the year of 1994. Most people are getting ready for what will be an unforgettable summer in the USA for the World Cup, a tournament that some Irish went to and just never came home, for the best of reasons now.
In the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick, Clare were about to end the Premier county’s summer of hurling before it had even got a chance to begin. Jamesie O'Connor would be the top scorer with seven points for the Banner and Michael 'Skippy' Cleary would knock over nine points on the opposing side, two geniuses of their trade; stylish, skillful and classy.
To this day my mother says that Jamesie is a man who could perform miracles on and off the hurling field as I managed to get a B grade in honours Economics for the Leaving Cert with Jamesie as my teacher. She was right – he was a serious hurler and a brilliant teacher.
Such was the nature of the beast in the mid-90s, and it would all change in 1997 when this rivalry would start to catch the interest of the whole country and not just these two neighbours with the introduction of the back door system.
I still get shivers down my spine, and not the good kind, when I think of walking out of Croke Park, heartbroken. Tipp had lost and we were greeted with the booming sounds of Tony Considine singing "My Lovely Rose of Clare".
To add salt into the wounds, my father had made a dart to try and get out of the car park, but it was to no avail, as the travelling party accompanying him found it harder to find the car than Tipp did to find the net that day. A journey home full of rage, sadness and traffic - lots of traffic - but still memories to last a lifetime.
Over the next few years, the rivalry would become intense, maybe a bit nasty at times but the craic we had travelling to those games in Páirc Uí Chaoimh for the Tipp v Clare classics is something I hope my kids get to experience for themselves. Maybe not all the craic we had, but they were the best of times.
Squashed together like sardines on the Blackrock End as we awaited the appearance of a brush, yes, a sweeping brush, and then the announcement of the Tipp team by the local town crier, all the while your hand is frozen off you from blowing an air horn even before the senior game had begun.
I took it all in, saying to myself "this is brilliant up here", but I would give anything to be down there on that grass pitch being the one they are cheering for.
In 2008 I got to experience that feeling as a player in the old Páirc, not against Clare, but the Rebels and it is up there as one of the best atmospheres I have been lucky enough to play in.
The rivalry is nowhere near what it was back in the late 90s and early noughties, but there will always be the banter and slagging between the two counties. Still, don’t see it returning to the days of people throwing missiles across the bridge between Ballina and Killaloe anytime soon.
What is on the line is the same as it was back in 1994, winners will stay in it, for another week at least, the losers are done for this year, and for some maybe forever in terms of inter-county hurling.
The loser of this game will merely have a fixture to fulfil the following week, nothing else will be on the line.
In suggesting that some will be done forever, I am speaking about players that know in their heart of hearts, that the end of the road is very close, and this will not be the way that any of them will want to go out.
We all can’t get the fairytale ending, but as a Clare player this would be nightmare scenario stuff, to play your last game in Cusack Park and get beaten by Tipp and get knocked out of the championship for 2025.
The round-robin has seen Clare amass 14 wins, compared to Tipp's five since the format was introduced in 2018. Two of these have been in Ennis against Clare, so that’s something for the Premier hopeful to cling on to heading into this weekend.
The rumour mill is on overdrive as to who will or will not be lining out for the Banner men.
If they are without Conor Cleary, Tony Kelly and Shane O’Donnell and more of their senior figures are a doubt, then it really is and should be in Tipp’s hands to win this battle.
We all saw how poor Clare were against Waterford last week without these key figures, and then to see how Limerick dismantled Waterford six days later maybe proves just where many of us are in the chasing pack trying to catch the Limericks and Corks of this championship.
There is a lot on the line for both groups. I think Tipp are coming into this in a frame of mind that they need to prove to themselves more than anything that the Limerick performance was not a one-off and that they have that and more in the locker this week.
They will miss the scoring prowess of Darragh McCarthy, but this will offer an opportunity for someone else to step into the fray, and maybe Tipp need to consider Noel McGrath as a starter rather than a finisher this week, such is the influence he has on games.
First and foremost, Tipp need keep 15 on the field because we have seen the damage that an extra player has these days. They need to bring that intensity from the Limerick game, but on the right side of the line and not stupidity in terms of their reactions or actions.
For the Banner no motivation is needed. In front of their own supporters, their year on the line. Their All-Ireland title, their pride as a group, whatever is in the Clare dressing room will come out through those walls on Saturday.
By 8pm in the new dressing rooms, one will be euphoric and one will be dejected. It is the Atlantic Ocean between winning and losing.
My good buds from Sweden summed it up best, "The winner takes it all, the loser has to fall, it’s simple and it’s plain, why should I complain". No excuses just success. I think Tipp are going to do it.
Watch Galway v Wexford in the Leinster Hurling Championship on Saturday from 2.45pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to Saturday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1.
