Magic moment: Dry your eyes, Dad – we’ve won! Photo sums up passion of Limerick win

THIS is what it means.

There is no need for a story because as the cliché goes – a picture paints a thousand words. Darragh Moloney, Knockaderry, has his boys hugged tight to his chest. The programme in his fist is squeezed so tight it will never be flat again. And the expression on his face says it all – raw, unbridled emotion.

“’Tis a holy show. The state of me!” laughed Darragh. The photo has gone viral with thousands of likes and retweets on Twitter.

Darragh was sitting in section 722 of the upper Davin Stand with his sons Cillian, aged 10, and Rían, 8. Wife, Michelle was a few blocks away. 

“Where we were sitting, the big screen was in front of us. We could only see the back of it and it blocked the other big screen so we had no scoreboard for the whole match. As a result, I got chatting with a Galway girl who was two seats on from me. Her name is Léan Breathnach. She is a daughter of the famous Seán Bán.

My daughter @leanbanB took this amazing photo of a @LimerickCLG fan at full time. Of course as Galway people we are disappointed with the result, but look how much it means to this family. Comhghairdeas libh Luimneach & bainigí sult as. #gaa #hurling @officialgaa #LuimneachAbú pic.twitter.com/ytA6OCmVtF

— Seán Bán Breathnach (@SBBinashui) August 20, 2018

“She was keeping score with a biro and pen. I went downstairs to buy a radio so I could hear the score. That’s how we got talking,” said Darragh, who didn’t know his picture was being taken by Léan. 

“It was right at the final whistle. After the whole thing was over she said to me, ‘I am after getting a lovely few pictures – would you mind if I sent them on to you?’ For a losing supporter to do that was incredible – it just sums up the GAA. Léan said it reminded her of her own family last year. It was the same for them,” said Darragh.

The Knockaderry man – who hurled with a 17-year-old Tom Condon in the club’s west junior title win in 2004 – said the final whistle was an “incredible moment”.

“It was a horrible last 10 minutes. We all thought it was 1994 all over again. As one fellow said to me, ‘If we had won by seven or eight points the emotion probably wouldn’t have come out at all’. We came so close to losing it. We are so long looking for it,” said Darragh.

He says he was “crying like a baby” which made it three generations who shed tears. His father Sean – who was in another part of Croke Park with wife Mary – captained Knockaderry in 1967 when they won a west junior title.

“He cried his eyes out. I dont think he saw the last few minutes at all. The smaller fellow was balling. Cillian told his mother afterwards, ‘It was the first time I saw daddy cry’,” said Darragh. The family is steeped in hurling and go to all the games. Darragh jokes that they were given a hurley before a bottle!

The final seconds were made extra special by seeing clubman Tom coming out with the sliothar.

“We were delighted for Tom - he has given his life to it. It was a fabulous day,” said Darragh.