I've lived abroad but I never really got the Irish abroad thing.
But. It’s weird being abroad for an All-Ireland hurling final.
Actually that’s not true. I’ve been abroad for plenty.
September used to be a good time to get away when you didn’t have kids.
August is always a good time to get away.
July is a good time to get away.
But it’s weird being abroad for the All-Ireland hurling final when your own county is playing and you can’t go home, and you haven’t missed a winning one since 1978, and the winning ones have dried up in recent decades, and it’s 2024, and if there’s ever a year that it’s your county’s year it’s this year, and you’re confident that this IS the year and yet you’re still terrified that fate will find one more way to deprive you.
It never crossed your mind when the work assignment came up that the greatest show on earth might be a cruel way of depriving you of witnessing 31; witnessing the end of the famine, witnessing Hoggie and Harnedy reaching the promised land…of the promised land reaching Cork and realising it was home.
Where did it all go wrong, Mr Best?
I don’t know.
The International Broadcasting Centre (the IBC) at the Olympics is massive. Almost beyond comprehension.
An exhibition centre at the edge of Le Bourget Aerodrome on the outskirts of Paris, five massive halls and airport hangars house the media infrastructure of the biggest broadcasters of every country in the world. Miles and miles of cabling and ducting hang above indoor prefabs home to the edit suites and studios and control centres that from next week will be the sporting hub of the world.
Not today. Not for this correspondent at least.
A dark, soundproofed booth (above) with a return feed from RTÉ and Whatsapp connectivity to the family, friends and relatives arriving from far and near to my home in Dublin for the greatest day since ’05; ’04; ’99; 90; ’86; ’84……and the list doesn’t go on. Not, at least for me. But it would surely go on from here, from ’24 in the other direction.
But no.
How to make sense of it all? That will take some time.
There’s the blame the ref camp. That’s hurling. There’s always calls go against you. I don’t believe it was the ref.
There was that glorious period in the first half… the Rob Downey goal, seven points up. Could it be a cruise?
Neutrals dreamed of a great game. No partisan supporter ever wants a great game. Not if they’re honest. Not unless they know the winner at the end of it.
Nothing against Clare – we wanted it over at half-time. Put to bed. Emotionally paying the toll at Fermoy by 4pm on the way home to celebrate.
But no. Not to be.
And back to the distance and the sense of unreality and the office far away and back to work and then walking through Paris in your O2, O2 be, O2 be a... jersey and no one even notices and then a work meeting with colleagues just arriving and their whole focus is on the huge job looming and just now you can’t even think about that but you can’t think about the match either.
So – the Olympics.
The Olympic creed – "the most important thing is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well."
Too soon.
Tell that to Hoggie.
Roll on the gymnastics.
Watch the 2024 Olympic Games with 14 hours of televised action on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player each day. Listen to extensive radio coverage on RTÉ Radio 1 and 2fm's Game On and follow each moment from Paris on RTÉ.ie, the RTÉ News app and all RTÉ digital platforms. Listen to the daily RTÉ Sport Olympics podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
