September is a month to sort out a lot of ‘little’ arguments

Country Living with Frances Farragher

September is the month that brings us our traditional harvest moon but it’s not always the case either, depending on the full moon that’s closest to the autumnal equinox that this year falls around September 23 in our neck of the woods, when we get an even split between day and night.

The full moon of the Tuesday night of September 9 last week took on the harvest title this year but if our full moon arrived in the early days of October, then it would officially be the harvest moon.

The last time in this column we talked about a harvest moon was after Galway had drawn the All-Ireland final against Kilkenny, before the replay that took place on the Sunday of September 30, 2012, the date for our harvest full moon of that year.

We had our hopes that the full moon of that evening would light up the sky as the Liam McCarthy Cup made its way across the Shannon but as the late Jack Mahon wryly observed to be me back on a September Sunday in 2000, after we had drawn with Kerry in the football final: “There’s two teams you don’t ‘give’ draws to – Kerry in football and Kilkenny in hurling.”

September though does give us the All-Ireland finals and although that 2012 draw with Kilkenny was a thunderous and drama laden affair, it was exceeded in some measure by this year’s drawn final between Tipperary and Kilkenny.

The sight of bare fingers navigating their way through thickets of flailing ash to claim ownership of the sliotar, was a wondrous and repetitive sight throughout the match, and really came into its own with the slow motion replays.

We’ve all had our run-ins with referees but it never ceases to amaze me how one man can handle a game of hurling where the location of the sliotar can result in a 100 yard change of play over the course of a couple of seconds. A lot of the time, a referee – at best – can only do his job between the two 45s but Barry Kelly let the game run and how well the combatants responded to that freedom.

Played in front of over 82,000 people in the giant horseshoe cauldron of Croke Park this really was sporting entertainment of incomparable tension, skill, drama and pace. For that alone, September is a month worth waiting for.

After that it really was hard going watching an Irish soccer team taking on Georgia in their first game of the European Championships. Very few goalmouth incidents spread out over the best part of two hours, just doesn’t stand up against an All-Ireland hurling final of such stunning drama, but the soccer will come into its own during the longer winter nights.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.