We're usually guaranteed a couple of life-enriching days at Thurles in the Munster championship, but we didn't expect to get one this time last year when Cork came from nowhere to stun the All-Ireland champions Tipperary. On Sunday, Tipp will be ready for what is to come and Cork will be favourites. Not so last May. Yet the result was somehow very Cork. Over the course of even the most fallow few years, Cork will prove themselves irresistible at least once.
And so it proved once again last May, as a Cork side infused with youth ambushed Michael Ryan's champions. The reaction among breathless fans online was a mingling of exuberance and great, gasping-for-air disbelief, which you can comb through here.
By far the greatest reaction, however, came from John Mullane. The Waterford legend was on co-commentary duty with RTE Radio One, and although Waterford weren't playing, his visceral passion for all things Munster hurling shone through...and how.
Pity poor Pauric Lodge: he barely got a word in edgeways as Mullane roared into the microphone.
Darren Frehill edited the best bits together for Morning Ireland listeners the following day.. You can listen to it below.
Fantastic.
