PARISH JUMPING

The glamour of the intercounty scene may be missing but club game is GAA in its purest form

- BY GARRY DOYLE

YOU will not see this game on RTÉ prime-time.

The GAA club Championships, glorious and enduring, do not get the exposure they deserve. Not compared with the National League.

And yet, ask anyone supporting Torreen from Mayo or Galway's Meelick Eircourt who are going to Hyde Park today to watch the Connacht IHC final and they will tell you that this is where the heartbeat of the GAA is loudest.

It is easy to support your county. It is harder to live and breathe the club. And that is why the club Championship is, in so many ways, the second-best competition on the GAA calendar — and perhaps the truer one.

Consider last weekend.

The celebrations when St Brigid's defeated Ballina Stephenites.

The joy when Portarlington edged into the Leinster semifinal.

The raw elation that could not be contained when Tullamore won a local derby in Mullingar.

Club players, some inter-county stars, walking down the streets towards our county grounds, fans cheering until voices cracked.

There is a rhythm to it, a kind of tribal heartbeat. It is not polished. It is not television-friendly. But it is real.

Brutally, unashamedly real.

And it is the reason stars return to their roots, even when their inter-county careers are busy or bruising.

Take David Clifford, football's finest. He missed a handful of early rounds in this year's National League understandable, given the physical demands that have been placed on him, the recovery, the scheduling.

Then there was Shane O'Donnell who missed the entirety of Clare's 2024 League before ending up that season as hurler of the year.

Yet neither man would dream of skipping a game for Fossa or Eire Og.