Spirits lifted by Limerick’s All-Ireland win, says Bishop Leahy

The bishop of Limerick congratulated the hurling team on their win, adding that there are many lessons outside of sport to be gleaned from their achievements.

In a statement, Bishop Brendan Leahy praised the “profound” message coming from the squad and the backroom staff – that together “we can climb mountains”.

“For me, there was a deeper life-lesson from them, captured brilliantly by Cian Lynch in his post-match interview when he talked about the team ethic,” the bishop continued.

“He talked about the last 18 months, how they were always able to depend on each other and how every man was ‘on the next man’s shoulders’.”

Bishop Leahy highlighted Mr Lynch’s statement that, “for any young girl or boy aspiring to represent your county in any sport, be a team player and keep driving on”.

This is a “lesson that can be translated to family, to the workplace, to friendship and can stand us in such good stead in challenging times and, no doubt, there were those along the journey for this team too,” the bishop of Limerick continued.

“The message we can take from this is that we can only do so much on our own in life but together with others, we can scale mountains, just like this Limerick team.”

One parish in Limerick, Patrickswell, Ballybrown, were delighted by their team’s success, especially as five players from the parish were in the squad.

Fr Mike Cussen told The Irish Catholic that, more than the win, it was “the gift of sport” that really came through the team’s performance.

“I’ve spoken to a number of parishioners living on their own who have spoken about how it has united people.

“The spirituality of sport is not about the winning, it’s the way it binds people together,” he said.