The day after Kilkenny won the All-Ireland title last year, Eoin Larkin spoke to Marty Morrissey from the Kilkenny team hotel about his upcoming assignment.
He was being deployed to Syria along as part of the Irish army peacekeeping forces in the region.
It certainly will be different to most other years but it's something that I have to do. It's part of my job and we'll go out and do it this year and see how it goes.
I'm apprehensive and very nervous. All my family are nervous seeing things on the news but hopefully things will go okay and I'll come back in one piece.
Thankfully, Larkin did come back in one piece and played in the All-Ireland hurling final this year.
However, another All-Ireland champion is Syria-bound for the next six months.
Patrick Bonner Maher, Tipperary's industrious centre-forward, the hard-working foil to the swagger of Callanan and Bubbles, and a man beloved of the Tipp support, is being deployed to the Golan Heights on 5 October.
He told Marty the day after the All-Ireland final that it was his first trip overseas and that he was looking forward to it.
This week, he was training for the assignment in the Wicklow mountains with the rest of the Irish army. He had earlier received a dispensation from the army allowing him to head back to Tipp to celebrate with the rest of the county.
Today, he spoke to Sinead Hussey of RTE News about his upcoming assignment.
130 Irish troops to set off for the Golan Heights next month https://t.co/BuoeHGFHWj
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) September 12, 2016
