‘I’m so excited, I can’t wait’: Kilkenny awash in black and amber ahead of All-Ireland

“We haven’t been in an All-Ireland for three years, and this is why we said we’d go all out, and we’d just really go mad,” says Kilkenny man Myles ‘Elvis’ Kavanagh.

Since moving into their home in the Butts area of the city in 1994, Mr Kavanagh (64) and his family have decked it out in black and amber each year Kilkenny have been hopefuls in the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Final.

"Ah sure, you know, it's a bit of fun and it adds to the atmosphere. You can have your Rugby World Cup, you can have your soccer – but Kilkenny in an All-Ireland, it's like winning the lotto. It's the holy grail," he says.

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Gary Brickell outside his shop The Hurley Depot in Kilkenny. Photograph: Sarah Mooney

The unexpected news Kilkenny would play in the final this Sunday got the family to work. “The wife said, look you get the ladder, I’ll go up in the attic, we’ll start straight away.”

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Gesturing to a throne made of black and amber hurls, Mr Kavanagh reveals "we put a curse on it, that if anyone sits on it – it has to be a Tipperary person – they'll lose the All-Ireland".

The family’s efforts have become a local attraction, with companies sponsoring both paint and bunting for their decorating.

"Last night we had a load of cars up, the wife woke up, 'Oh God,' she said, 'What's happening?' They're all outside the door taking pictures and singing The Rose of Mooncoin, " he laughs.

“On Monday night now we’ll have a barbecue out here, and we’ll have music and the whole place lit up. All the neighbours come down, we’ll sing a few songs . . . go over to the home-coming,” he says.

In the blood

A few streets away, Pauline Clowry (55) is dressed in her Kilkenny jersey, ready to leave for Dublin to collect tickets she has won for the final on Sunday.

Kilkenny-themed bunting lines her street in anticipation of the big game. “We’re a very close community – if there’s anything going on everyone gets together, puts in money from house to house, and we all do it up to support them,” she says.

The streets of the city centre are also decked out, with shopfronts holding everything from displays of clothes to children’s toys in shades of black and amber.

Inside Deirdre O’Reilly’s barber shop, a player from the famed senior team that won four All-Ireland championships in a row from 2006 to 2009 is having his hair cut.

On the walls are a collection of Kilkenny hurling team photos dating from 1904 to 1993. “They’re all the years they were in the senior final,” says Ms O’Reilly, who has lived in the county all her life.

“A customer of mine, he was moving house and didn’t know where to put it so I said, there’s a wall there,” she said. “A lot of people come in and, you know, find their grandfather.”

With the opposite wall featured signed photos of the All-Ireland winning teams managed by Brian Cody, Ms O'Reilly hopes to soon add another photo to her collection.

Hurling is in the blood of many in Kilkenny. "Everyone's big into hurling here – it's like the home of hurling," says Aoife Goode (16), who has a family history in the sport.

“My mam, in her family has 27 All-Ireland medals, like her uncles and that, they all used to play for Kilkenny,” she says. “Hopefully they win.”

‘So excited’

Many young fans are enjoying the build-up. "I'm so excited, I can't wait," says Ryan Malone (17). "I think they will win, like to beat Limerick was pretty good . . . With your friends, that'd be the first thing you'd talk about, hurling."

“It’s going to be some match,” says Seán Maher (55). “And if Tipperary win, they will drive back through here, down where I live, with their flags. They do it every time,” he says of Kilkenny’s rivalry with their opponents.

Gary and Martina Brickell have made hurling their business. "We're Kilkenny people all our life," says Mr Brickell, who owns The Hurley Depot with his wife. "Hurling is part of Kilkenny people."

Having just finalised their tickets for the game on Sunday, they’re feeling the excitement.

“A few years in a row we kind of got used to being there, but now, because we haven’t been there, the excitement is there again now this time,” says Ms Brickell. “Everybody’s getting their colours out.”