Offaly will play Cork in St. Brendan's Park this Sunday afternoon.
St. Brendan's Park in Birr is firmly embedded in the history of Offaly GAA.
It was opened in 1928 and it has staged no fewer than ten All-Ireland finals, the last of which came in 1974. The town Birr was also the stage for a final played in 1887 between Tipperary and Galway that ended in a victory for near neighbours Tipp.
More recently it has been a traditional home for hurling in a county that's heartbeat was defined by the performance of their senior hurlers for such a long time.
The club has contributed an endless plethora of talent to the county side through the years and they're keeping up that end of the bargain to date. Eoghan Cahill has been an integral part of the set-up with his placed balls. Rory Carty took his place on the bench for the league opener against Galway last weekend, while Morgan Watkins is floating around the panel too.
What a huge day this will be for those three men especially.
Cork will be the opposition for Michael Fennelly's charges, just as they were sixteen years ago, when they entered South Offaly as All-Ireland Champions. The Rebels came out on the right side of a 2-17 to 1-17 victory that day, fans of both sides will be hopeful of seeing a game that lives up to that predecessor this weekend.
It's magnificent to see a pitch such as St. Brendan's Park get a moment in the sun with the TV cameras in-situ. It has provided the stage for countless successes down through the years for Offaly and has staged both pre-season and league games in recent years, proving a happy hunting ground.
Grounds like Birr, Ballinasloe, Athenry, Tuam and many more have played an incredible roll in the formation of the GAA and it'd be a shame to see them fall by the wayside as we develop more modern stadia and improve the current grounds into the future.
Every legend of the game you can think of has graced the turf, including the great Christy Ring, who's trophy will keep its home in the faithful county for the next few months at least.
Birr's PRO Michael Verney told us just how excited the parish is to have this quality of hurling back in town:
Players like Alan Cadogan, Patrick Horgan and Seamus Harnady coming to Birr is a great challenge for Offaly, but it's also a great occasion for the town, club and businesses here who've had hard times during the pandemic.
Hopefully there'll be plenty of spin-off business, loads of Corkonians and people from different clubs around the county knocking around the town on Sunday.
It should be a great occasion and we're expecting a great atmosphere. I think there'll be a massive turnout from all over Offaly, and as always has been the case traditionally with Birr, people attending from nearby places in North Tipperary, Lorrha and further afield.
We want a fairly vocal support to get behind the lads after maybe a few lean years for Offaly.
You can definitely see a lot of positive signs under Michael Fennelly, Johnny Kelly and the lads that things are turning around and this weekend will be another step in this process.
Verney also acknowledged that staging the game is a hat-tip to the work he and all the volunteers in Birr are doing behind the scenes:
Any club games we play in St. Brendan's Park, you'd often be on the pitch after chatting to fellas afterwards and they'd say to you "do you train here as well, this is your home ground?!".
They can't get over that the place is of a county ground standard. It's great to be rewarded for all the work of countless people down through the years and I just hope that it pays off for all the local businesses on Sunday as well.
Great work has been put in here in the last decade or so.
A packed ground filled the stands just weeks ago for a fantastic tussle with Dublin and there's no doubt another giant crowd will flock through the turnstiles this weekend.
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