Mullingar’s McKenna on the ball
It's not often you get name-checked on national television, but that's precisely what happened to Mullingar man, Conor McKenna on The Sunday Game. Sunday was a memorable day of hurling, with Limerick denying Clare in the Minster decider and Kilkenny prevailing at Croke Park in a dramatic finish against Galway, courtesy of a late, late goal.
Following the results, McKenna compiled a tweet outlining how, in a unique occurrence, all provincial champions in football and hurling remain unchanged from last year.
Assiduous research helped the well-known GAA fan to verify that it was the first time this ever happened and he was able to call on fellow Mullingar man, Tom Hunt, himself an author and historian, to get further clarity. It led to Sunday Game presenter, Jacqui Hurley acknowledging Conor's intriguing detail.
His tweet read: "2023 is the first time in the 139 year history of the GAA, that the football and hurling provincial champions have been identical to the previous year. Kerry, Dublin, Galway, Derry, Limerick and Kilkenny all retained their title.
What a way for Kilkenny to make history."
Conor was taken aback at how big an impression this made.
"I was away in Derry for the weekend and I was watching the Leinster final in the city centre. I had known from research that 2023 was the first year since 1942 that all of the provincial football champions retained their title," Conor explained.
"When Kilkenny developed a healthy lead in the second half, I found myself wondering had it ever happened, where all of the provincial football and hurling champions did back to back. I stopped watching the match briefly and did frantic research, going back every year since 1887 to see if this had ever happened before. I discovered it was a first time and history was about to be made, though Galway came back into the game superbly and looked like they were going to win.
"When Cillian Buckley found the net in the last minute, I took to Twitter to share the new fact. I know Tye Adamson who works with the GAA, and he rang me and asked could we verify the statistic and potentially use it on the Sunday Game. Tom Hunt is a superb person for historical research and after ringing him and checking a few facts, I decided that this was true beyond any reasonable doubt.
"My phone was charging in Derry, so I didn't have access to it, and I could not believe when I went to retrieve it, that the Sunday Game had used my statistic and mentioned me on the show."
McKenna, a well-travelled sports fans, has close ties with both Mullingar Shamrocks and St Oliver Plunkett's, having played football and hurling with the sister clubs. He takes a keen interest in GAA stats and occasionally delves into punditry with Radio Kerry. He is also well-known for his work as a freelance GAA reporter in former times.