The brouhaha about Waterford forfeiting their home NHL game against Kilkenny, and the championship ties with Limerick and Clare (now fixed for Thurles) had me thinking about how people managed many moons ago when transport was either bicycle, “shanks’ mare”, or pony and car.

The priceless photograph below shows an attentive group of men, women and children — including some visitors from South Kilkenny, after crossing the River Suir by boat — gathered at Martin Kennedy’s farm in Stonehouse, Kilmeaden, to listen to a match on the wireless in the early 1930s. Martin’s son Joe (himself the father of Martin of Kill football fame) was an avid radio enthusiast and built his own sets, including this one, complete with a massive speaker.

The first live commentary on a field sport anywhere in Ireland or Britain was broadcast in August 1926, namely the All-Ireland hurling semi-final between Kilkenny and Galway from Croke Park. Transmitted on the fledgling 2RN, the Irish state radio service, that game is credited with breaking new ground, mainly because the BBC was prevented from airing live sporting events before 7pm so as to protect British newspaper sales and event attendances.

Behind the mic for that maiden programme was Paddy Mehigan, a chatterbox newspaper man from Cork. Known as “Carbery” to readers of d’Examiner and “PatO” in the Irish Times, Paddy forged a pioneering and stellar journalistic career, having been a county dual player and a political ally of Michael Collins. His brothers Denis and Mick played football for Cork, the latter captaining the Rebels to an All-Ireland in 1911.

Reckoning there had to be a connection, I got in touch with Waterford man and big Blues fan Paul Mehigan (now domiciled in Kildare), who penned some excellent pieces for the Munster Express during my time as sports editor. Denis was his grandfather and Paddy his granduncle. There’s ink in the blood, alright. Red and blue.