Limerick hurling fan Pa Buckley: 'All GAA supporters are great - the craic is mighty'

OVER 40,000 supporting Limerick packed into Croke Park on All-Ireland final day in 2018 but all is very different this time round.

On Sunday, the most coveted seat for the All-Ireland final will be the household couch!

Among the familiar faces missing is Pa Buckley of Ballinacurra Weston.

“I just love it - it’s the people that go to the matches. You could take in a new born baby in a pram and you can be guaranteed nothing would happen to it. All GAA supporters are great - the craic is mighty and the slagging and banter,” explained Buckley.

“I just love the hurling. It’s all great fun and I’ve never seen any trouble.”

For the Limerick hurling fanatic all started back in the early 1970s.

“In 1973 I was lucky enough to go to my first match so I’ve been following them for 47 years - I don’t know how many times I’ve travelled all over the country since ‘73,” he recalled.

As time passed by, Buckley adopted his now familiar painted face and trusty green cowboy hat.

“At the time of all the trouble around Weston, Limerick was getting a bad name. I came up with the idea to show people that there was something other than that happening with Limerick. Someone said to me one time that I looked like a Maori Warrior with my face paint so I became known as the Weston Warrior,” he explained.

“Ah sur I’m always asked to pose for photos - Limerick supporters and everywhere; with supporters from Tipperary, Kilkenny, Galway, everywhere. It’s great craic.”

Like thousands more, 2018 fulfilled a lifetime of dreams for Buckley.

“We always thought we had no luck in Limerick for years but this is not about luck - they are fit and they have the skills and they have proved it. The day they won it - just wow,” he gasps.

“It’s great now and I never saw this when I was growing up - to see all the children at games and they have hurleys and balls with them and out afterwards to get them all signed.”

“I was in the Canal End, as I still call it,” he recalled.

On Sunday it will be his green and white decked house in Ballinacurra Weston – a shrine to Limerick hurling

”I’ve a tonne of stuff - I’m always picking up stuff. Any memorabilia from the 2018 All-Ireland I think I have it all,” he laughed.

“It’s not the same - you think of when Limerick would get a score and whole crowd rise up as one and the whole place green and white. It’s very very hard - I talk on the phone to the lads and I’m on Facebook and sur we try to have the craic.”

But Buckley offers a very important perspective on behind closed doors fixtures.

“The saddest moment this year, was not so much missing the matches, but poor old Shane Dowling having to retire because of injury. You could always bank on him for the scores. I still think of that goal from the penalty against Cork in 2018 - I thought the net and all was going to come in on top of me because I was down at that end,” said Buckley.

And, an important perspective on life.

“If I go back to November 2 in 2017 and I was sitting here in the house and all of a sudden I felt so unwell. I ended up with four strokes. I ended up out in the Stroke Unit in the hospital and Dr Catherine Peters and everyone out there saved my life. I reckon I am blessed because when I was lying inside in the hospital, I made my peace with God and I remember saying ‘well father you can take me whenever you want to and I’m not fighting but I would love to see another Limerick All-Ireland.”

Buckley got his wish and thinks he might see a third Limerick All-Ireland on Sunday.

“I think it will be close. As Limerick has proved themselves all year winning every game. I think it will be a cracker of a match but Limerick will shade it,” declared the Weston Warrior.