Limerick fans in enemy territory still fly their flags on the Leeside

BATTLE-lines are set to be drawn for two neighbouring families living in Cork this weekend.

That's because in each case, the husband supports Limerick, and the wife is supporting the ‘Rebels’

The Hartigan and O'Connor families live opposite each other in Mount Oval at Rochestown in Cork city, but come Sunday, there will be a strong Limerick presence in Rebel territory.

Dr Rob Hartigan, who works in compliance, met his Cork wife Amy on a blind date in 2012 - and she ultimately persuaded him to make the move south.

“As you know Cork is the centre of the universe. I didn't know that until I met a Cork woman! So Limerick was never going to do. We moved here in 2016,” says Rob, who hails from Westbury, but still considers himself a Limerick man.

WATCH: First citizens of Limerick and Cork come face-to-face at border as All-Ireland excitement builds

Meanwhile, just across the other side of the green, you'd be left in no doubt where Kevin O'Connor's loyalties lie when championship comes around.

The Granagh man always decorates his home in the green-and-white buntings of Limerick, perhaps to the chagrin of his Cork wife Karen.

“That's how I met Rob. He used to walk his dog and I had my flags flying high in 2018, and that's when we realised we had the common Limerick connection,” said Kevin, who has two boys, Tommy, 3 and Liam, 1.

Like Rob, Kevin's wife is the main reason he is living on Leeside.

But you can't talk about Limerick versus Cork games without going back to the seismic semi-final of 2018 when the Treatymen came from six points down to defeat the Rebels en-route to All-Ireland glory.

Rob travelled to and from Croke Park on the train with Cork fans that year.

“It was a bit of craic going up, but coming back down - I wanted to be on the Limerick train! In fairness, Cork had been in four or five semi-finals prior to that one, and they'd lost them. They were saying they could take most defeats. But the one against Limerick, there was just disbelief. They thought they had it in the bag. I almost felt sorry for them, but they've given Limerick enough of it for years!”

These are good times for the Shannonsiders, and Kevin loved the banter when the counties play now.

“It has not been that competitive for a while. It's been quite enjoyable being the Limerick fan,” he laughed.

WATCH: ‘Goalies now like quarterbacks in the NFL’ says former Limerick star

Another Limerick exile living in Cork is Prospect man Steven Davern, who now lives in Midleton.

His wife Sharon is gunning for Limerick, however, despite being a Meath woman.

“She would work with a lot of Cork GAA people and finds them very opinionated, shall we say!”

As for their daughter, Hanna, who is five, she plays for her local club in Cork, and Steven says she is ‘half-and-half’ in terms of who to back on Sunday.

“I really can't wait for Sunday. My little girl was born in 2015 so she was three when we won the first won. It was a big deal for her, to see Daddy going up. She was all excited about watching it on the television,” he smiled.

Like others, he has fond memories of 2018

“It was fairly significant. We drew with them in the round robin. There were no bragging rights then. Before that, it was very few and far between when we got the upper hands. They are very vociferous when they do beat you so it's nice to give it back a bit,” he said,

“It was one of those ones which took a couple of days to sink in. They were hurting that much, you didn't even bother slagging them really.”