There is a furious righteousness and belief on both sides of the Cork hurling saga. The question is whether this seemingly impossible row is worth the likely fallout over the next 10 years. writes Keith Duggan

‘ALL CORKMEN, you find it out sooner or later, have a hard streak in them.” – Vive Moi!, Seán O’Faolain.

Sometimes two rights can make a wrong. The more we hear about the endless Cork hurling crisis, the more it seems that both parties are convinced of the absolute moral authority of their arguments and that both sides might well convince St Peter (who can probably claim relatives in Bantry or Gurranebraher) as to their merits when it comes to getting through the Pearly Gates. I am sure there are many people across Ireland who are hopelessly confused now about the finer details of the dispute.

Following it has become rather like keeping abreast of plot twists in the old David (no relation, as far as we know, to Danny) Lynch television classic, Twin Peaks: there comes an episode when you have to admit that you are never going to make full sense of it.

This is essentially a local row that has a national resonance. Nothing illuminated quite how small Ireland is as last Saturday’s conversation on the Marian Finucane Show when Gerald McCarthy aired his grievances only for Donal Óg Cusack, having been alerted to the broadcast while attending a meeting of the Hurlers Formerly Known as the Cork Team, to ring up and give their side of the story.

This may have been a highly popular weekend national radio show, but listening to it made you feel as if you were ducking outside the neighbours’ kitchen listening to an unholy barney. It was a fierce and hopeless family squabble and lacked only the frustrated intervention of a patriarchal voice shouting from the livingroom: “Would youse two ever shut the blazes up?”

It is hard to believe that it could happen in any county other than Cork. Once they get an idea in their heads in that part of the world, it is no easy thing to persuade them to give it up. In his book Anatomy and Essence, Prof John A Murphy expressed the opinion that “it would be difficult to exaggerate the importance of sport in general and of the GAA in particular as expressions of Cork pride, even hubris”.

Cork can make fairly unbeatable claims to being the most successful sporting county in Ireland. In terms of Gaelic games, Cork hurling and football teams could generally and traditionally be characterised as skilful, clean, ambitious and breathtakingly confident. If a team suffers one of those bad days, when nothing is going right and it becomes clear they are in for a pasting, the last team they would want to face is a Cork team. Because Cork teams, in any sport, don’t really know how to let up. It is not in their DNA. They will just keep on scoring, keep on coming. They have a rich tradition in Gaelic games, rugby, athletics, soccer, basketball, boxing – and those are just the mainstream examples.

They have a stunning array of iconic figures: in hurling alone Jim “Tough” Barry, Jack Lynch, Christy Ring, Jimmy Barry-Murphy, Justin McCarthy and Charlie McCarthy are among the lineage of players whose influence has guided Cork hurling through to the modern era. For all the rhetoric and sense of principle informing this current dispute, for all the emphasis on what will happen in the future, there is a nagging sense that the superb reputation that Cork hurlers acquired through decades of excellence is also being damaged.

The sad and irrefutable common bond that McCarthy and the current players, represented by Donal Óg Cusack, still share is a genuine and deep commitment to maintaining and enhancing that reputation.

Nobody should doubt the Cork hurlers fully believe they are doing the right thing. From the young team that swooped to win a surprise All-Ireland back in 1999, they have developed a sense of brotherhood that is clearly unbreakable and is probably more profound than any similar system of trust practised by elite teams in any sport.

They have strong personalities and common goals and it was their belief in the group, rather than any star individual players, which brought them to within one match of winning three All-Ireland titles in a row.

So it is no surprise they have been absolute in their stance in this row, even if that means they may never hurl for Cork again. That up to 10,000 showed up for their rally last Saturday – while only 2,000 paid into Páirc Uí Chaoimh for Cork’s first league game the following afternoon – seemed to suggest the Cork public is behind them. One can understand why: the fans just want to see the best team out for the championship.

The exiled players have, at least, the comfort of solidarity. McCarthy, however, is in a desperately lonely place. McCarthy has become so emblematic of the “manager” that it has been largely overlooked that he, too, was a player and ranks among the best and most successful the game has seen.

It may well be true, as the players’ maintain, that their argument is ultimately with Frank Murphy and the county board, with McCarthy caught in No Man’s Land. But it would be wrong to presume McCarthy would allow himself to be “used” by anyone: he is too clever and too proud for that. It is true he could have made his point and walked away and then this row would be over. But we can only presume that that would not feel true to himself and so he is enduring a few months that must be extraordinarily stressful. One can only guess at the physical and mental toll this mess must be taking on a man who has passed his 60th year.

This row has gone beyond the ramifications for this summer of hurling. Kilkenny hurling people must be looking in appalled fascination at the absolute meltdown of the county that might well have represented their toughest opponents this summer – under the stewardship of McCarthy or otherwise. The big two are at opposite ends of the spectrum, with absolute harmony reigning in the Nore county and the smoke of civil war hanging over the Lee.

Across the country, the Cork hurling row has been broadly interpreted as a battle between new player power and the old administrative forces that have long governed the GAA, a feud that has simmered and boiled across the landscape in recent years. And for every person who just wants to see the best Cork team back on the field this summer, there is an opposing view deeply suspicious of the fact that those players are refusing to wear the jersey – whatever the reason.

But this row is no longer about sides. In fact, it is no longer even about what happens next. For even if a magical solution is formulated in the next week, what then? Do the present panel of players who have been training for the past few months and who are destined to hold a unique and not particularly flattering place in Cork hurling lore simply melt away as if they never existed? It should be recognised that what they are doing takes considerable bravery and strength as well.

Donal Óg Cusack and the players have made points that sound valid. McCarthy has made points that sound valid. On both sides are men of incredible stubbornness. There is furious righteousness and belief on both sides that, in its own way, explains to the rest of us why it is Cork have won so many All-Ireland titles. Soon, the country will grow weary of it and it will become a local dispute again. And what then? If it takes Cork hurling 10 years to recover from the fall-out of this seemingly impossible row, will it all seem worth it?