Bunches of green and gold balloons dangle alongside blue and navy ones outside the bar on Gardiner Street Middle but, inside, bartender Diane Reilly isn’t neutral about Dublin’s “drive for five”.Wayne Corcoran, who lives “around the corner”, beside Diane, pauses from putting up blue and navy bunting in the bar to declare: “We’ll definitely do it.”
Peter Wall, a lifelong Dublin fan in his 60s who lives in nearby Summerhill, is wearing his Dublin jersey. He will be on Hill 16 for the replay and for the women’s final on Sunday – “Sineád Aherne is a great player” – and is hoping for a “double celebration” on Monday. A follower of Dublin “since I was a kid”, Peter remembers all the greats, including Anton O’Toole, the “Blue Panther”, who won four All-Ireland medals, and who died earlier this year.
“If you had said in 2011, when we won our first All-Ireland since 1995, that we would be going for five in a row just a few years later, you would have been locked up.”