Proud Ciaran Carey hails nephew Cian Lynch and Limerick's history ...
Shortly before Cian Lynch lifted the Liam MacCarthy cup aloft in front of the jubilant Limerick supporters, his uncle Ciaran Carey spoke emotionally in the BBC studio.
It’s now five All Ireland Senior Hurling titles in six years for the Treaty County – four of those in succession – and Lynch has played a significant role in them all.
Carey won two Munster titles and three all stars during his own playing career with Limerick, but he never landed the biggest prize in Irish hurling.
But he is in no way jealous of his nephew’s accomplishments, instead he was just bursting with pride and believes there could be even more to come yet.
“Sure, listen he will be walking up the steps shortly picking up the cup. It’s something I tried to do myself and failed,” began Carey.
“It’s an emotional moment when you are watching your own down there. For 16 years I had the green and white jersey and a lot of teams before me would have tried to do that and these guys, it’s their fifth time.
“I always felt whoever was going to beat them they would want to be an outstanding team because Limerick are an outstanding team.
“After today – four in a row – they’ve created history now and there will be talk but they’re not finished.
“They’re all in their prime and they are acutely aware that this run is going to come to an end, but they’ll set hay while the sun shines so congratulations to the whole lot - John Kiely and the squad – a massive achievement.
“I predicted in 2018 that they would probably equal what Dublin did in the football. They have a lot of quality players and unique players and brilliant players, but their biggest asset is their composure.
“John Kiely is on the road to what Brian Cody did. The question is will he equal what he did?”
A disappointed Paul Murphy was tasked with providing the immediate reaction from a Kilkenny point of view, and while the former Cats defender felt for his county, he insisted that they were simply beaten by the better team.
“We touched on it briefly at half time that we knew something was going to come from Limerick and how well could Kilkenny sustain that,” added Murphy.
“I’m disappointed for the lads and they will be disappointed, and it will hurt a lot more for those lads on the pitch, but you can make your peace when you see how go of a team you’re facing against.
“Those lads didn’t make too many mistakes, the mistakes if they were there was forced on them by this incredible Limerick team.
“You could feel in the second half Limerick were upping it and upping it. It was an incredible performance from Limerick in the second half.
“There’s not much science or anything to it, it was just brilliant hurling from Limerick. At the end of the day, it just comes down to it that the better team won.”
