15,000 fans turn out for Banner boys

Clare captain Anthony Daly was shouldered through his native Clarecastle last night, and on an evening when all approach roads to Ennis were jammed, shoulder was about the quickest way to travel.

After many delays, the team finally reached the county town just after midnight, where about 15,000 gathered to greet them in the car-park of Dunnes Stores. It was an appropriate venue for a speech from manager Ger Loughnane, who has been giving better value than most of late. But perhaps tired of controversy, or just plain tired, he left the job to others last night.

Team trainer Mike McNamara didn't disappoint, continuing the feud begun on Sunday with RTE panellist Eamon Cregan. "I always thought it was Michael Cusack who founded the GAA, but there's a Limerick man who thinks he did," quipped McNamara.

Earlier, and appropriately enough, Ger "Sparrow" O'Loughlin and the rest of his Clare teammates had flown home from Dublin. But, as with Clare's performance on Sunday, the journey took awhile to get off the ground.

The plane was due at 7 p.m. and the thousands of Clare supporters gathered in the airport arrivals area were reaching fever pitch by 7.45 p.m. Their reaction suggested that, at the very least, Jamesie O'Connor had been spotted on the tarmac.

But inquiries to airport staff as to whether the players had touched down were greeted with the news:

"They haven't left Dublin yet."

The crowd needed an outlet for this premature excitement, so soon everybody who passed through the arrivals gate was getting a hero's welcome.

Customs officers and Aeroflot flight staff smiled shyly, unused to the recognition.

The late arrival of the team mirrored the experience of Clare supporters travelling home by road. Anyone who ever doubted the line "It's a long, long way from Clare to here" should have tried driving there last night, in rain and traffic jams that made the idea of travelling through the Clare defence in a Tipperary jersey look like an attractive alternative.

When the Clare team finally arrived, they had their own traffic problems to contend with.

A crowd which airport officials estimated as bigger than that of 1995 was whipped up to renewed frenzy at 8.36 p.m. when the arrivals board signalled that the plane had at last landed.

Ten minutes later, a huge cheer erupted in the hall, but such was the crush it was impossible to tell whether the supporters were reacting to the sight of a team member or the arrival of a suitcase on the conveyor belt.

Not even the Sparrow could have found a flight path through the throng, but with the help of airport police, Sunday's heroes were finally ushered out of the airport shortly before 9 p.m. where a ceili band awaited.

Among the guests at Shannon to greet the team was the US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright.

In fact, her US Air Force plane just happened to be landing for fuel at 9.20 p.m. en route from Cyprus to Washington.