Which isn’t true. I believed. I had believed. I still do believe! Eamon O’Brien took a small, under-rated team of nobodies, to the All-Ireland Semi-final. Not the summer I had imagined! And, with grim statistical precision, we lost. Kerry 2-8 Meath 1-7

The thing is, not that we lost, as predictably we did, but that I had entertained the completely irrational hope – “it is a small chance, but it’s a good chance “- that we would win. It’s the naïveté, the gullibility of it all that’s so … shocking? embarrassing? stupid? … and yet somehow so quaintly beautiful. As Feist puts it

“The saddest part of a broken heart
Isn’t the ending so much as the start
The tragedy starts from the very first spark
Losing your mind for the sake of your heart“

Oh yes – soft baroque jazz as a sentimental healing metaphor for a broken hearted football fan – that’s how I, ahem, roll. Indeed, it could work the other way around too, All-Ireland campaigns and football matches as parallels to romance and relationships … but that’s another day’s post.

With the greatest respect and much thanks to the team for the memories, not to mention sincere hope for the future: Meath for Sam 2010!