Alan Walsh of Cork has the edge on Sean Finn of Limerick during a league game on March 7. The counties face each other in Sunday’s final in Limerick.
NHL final to fill Gaelic Grounds
April 02, 2026 by Sean Creedon
The clocks have gone forward in Ireland and it’s full steam ahead for what has in recent years become a truncated hurling and football championship. But before the provincial action begins the winners of the National Leagues are decided. Donegal won the football on Palm Sunday, and next weekend, on Easter Sunday, Limerick will host between Cork for the hurling final at Gaelic Grounds. It has been a very competitive league campaign and we didn’t know the two finalists until the last series of games on March 21 when Limerick just held on to beat Galway and Cork scored six goals against Offaly.
Cork won the National League last year after a 27-year wait, beating Tipperary at Pairc Ui Chaoimh. Then the Rebels qualified for the All-Ireland final and after a great first half, collapsed in the second and it was Tipp who lifted the Liam MacCarthy Cup. Last year, the Cork-Tipperary NHL final, which had Waterford vs Offaly in the 1B final as the under-card, was a sell-out and similar levels of demand are anticipated this year.
In 2025, Cork had qualified for the final after the penultimate round of games and their supporters were in quick to buy tickets. This year the four county boards involved will receive allocations, which will then be filtered down through the clubs in each county. Should any tickets remain after that, there will be a public sale of tickets. A capacity crowd of 43,000 is expected at the venue on the Ennis Road on Sunday, the same venue that hosted last year’s Munster final which saw Cork eventually prevail over Limerick after extra-time and penalties. Limerick are not the force they were when winning the MacCarthy four years in a row from 2020 to 2023. But they still have a powerfully built team, who are capable of scoring points from over 70 yards from goal. But I fancy goal-hungry Cork to retain the Dr. Croke Cup.
RUSHE BOOST
FOR DUBLIN
Dublin, who play Clare in the Division 1B final in the curtain-raiser in Limerick on Sunday, got a boost last week with confirmation that Liam Rushe is making a comeback. The 35-year-old has been training with Dublin in recent weeks, having previously turned down invitations from the current manager Niall Ó Ceallacháin and his predecessor Micheál Donoghue to return. Rushe last played for Dublin in the 2022 Leinster Championship, a brief appearance off the bench against Westmeath that ended almost as quickly as it started after due to injury. Rushe started career with St Patrick’s of Palmerston, but later joined north Dublin club Na Fianna, who were managed O Ceallacháin and he is now the Dublin manger.
The Easter Lily turns one hundred this year, a symbol born in the crucible of 1916 and sharpened in the struggles that followed. From the very beginning it was never just a flower on a lapel; it was a declaration of allegiance to the Irish Republic, to those who died for it.
In the aftermath of the Rising and the wars that followed, thousands of republicans were executed, killed, imprisoned or driven into exile, leaving families shattered and destitute. The women of Cumann na mBan, who had marched, nursed, smuggled weapons and endured imprisonment alongside the men, refused to let that sacrifice be buried in silence. On the tenth anniversary of the Rising they chose the lily not as a polite ornament but as a badge of honour and a practical weapon of solidarity.
The first lilies were hand‑made by women who had walked the streets of Dublin under martial law, who had heard the firing squads at dawn, and who now turned remembrance into resistance. The badge was sold to fund the Irish Republican Prisoners’ Dependants Fund, ensuring that the widows, children and elderly dependants of Volunteers and political prisoners would not be abandoned by the state while those who led the Free State enriched themselves. To buy a lily was to say, in the language of the time, that the only true monument to Pearse and Connolly and Plunkett was the realisation of the Republic, not statues or plaques that could be ignored.
The design itself was a conscious act of republican symbolism. The white lily, shaped with a green base and orange centre, evoked the tricolour we know today. It was a national emblem made for the streets, for back‑to‑back houses and country lanes, for the working‑class heart of the people, not the marble halls of Leinster House or Stormont.
Republicans insisted that the lily must be worn openly at Easter Week commemorations, at funerals and at protests, so that the dead of 1916 and every other generation would be seen and remembered in the present. Early accounts speak of parades in the 1930s where every man, woman and child in the procession wore the lily, and the vast majority of spectators did likewise, turning the badge into a mass expression of loyalty to Ireland and its long line of martyrs. In that moment, the lily was not a sectarian symbol but a national one, embraced by many who still saw the Republic as unfinished and unachieved.
The choice of Easter was profoundly political, not merely religious. The churches of Ireland might fill with crosses and hymns, but republicans seized the season of resurrection to assert that the 32 County Republic itself was a living ideal waiting to be reborn. The lily, blooming at Easter, became a metaphor for the nation promised in the Proclamation: suffering, death and then the hope of new life.
For those who carried lilies in gable walls, at gravesides and in prison cells, the flower spoke of continuity. The same blood that ran through the veins of Tone, Emmet, and the Volunteers of 1916 flowed on into the Volunteers of the IRA, into the hunger‑strikers of the 1980s, and into every republican prisoner locked up for standing against partition and occupation.
To wear the lily at Easter was to say that the Irish Republic was not confined to a quarter‑century‑old insurrection, but a living project that must be renewed in every generation.
Because the lily was tied so closely to republican struggle, both the Free State and northern governments treated it as a threat. In the South, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael governments tried again and again to sideline or suppress Easter Lily sales, while in the North the badge was openly criminalised.
Sellers were vilified, assaulted, arrested and jailed for offering lilies at church gates, markets and street corners, even when the proceeds were publicly declared as support for dependants’ funds. For many republicans, those arrests and beatings only confirmed the badge’s importance: the state would not tolerate a symbol that linked the people to the prisoners, to the dead and to the demand for a united sovereign Ireland. It was in that atmosphere of repression that the lily became not just a lapel badge but a quiet act of defiance, worn in homes, on tombstones and in the heart of nationalist communities.
During the conflict from the late 1960s onward, the meaning of the lily deepened. It continued to honour the men of 1916 and the earlier generations, but it also embraced the Volunteers and civilians killed in the struggle for freedom in the North. Murals of lilies sprang up on gable walls, often alongside the names of those shot dead in the streets or in prison, binding the past and present into a single narrative of resistance.
For Irish republicans, the lily stands for more than historical memory. It is a symbol of our patriot dead, of those who gave their all, of the community that refuses to forget even as the authorities seek to bury or distort the past. It is also a reminder that the Republic proclaimed in 1916 has yet to be fully realised, that partition and the British occupation remain, and that the struggle for a free, united, sovereign Ireland is not complete.
There is ‘a lot of uncertainty’ surrounding the weather in the run-up to Easter — but early indications suggest that things aren’t looking good.
The country has, unfortunately, remained in the midst of cold Spring weather — and, coupled with the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, the price of heating up the house has skyrocketed.
While we’re all waiting for Spring to finally, well, spring with a spell of good weather, Met Éireann has indicated that there are no real details surrounding the weather leading into next weekend.
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However, Carlow meteorologist Alan O’Reilly has painted a bit more of a grim picture, stressing that while it’s early days yet, it’s probably going to be a fair bit colder in the next week.
‘Still a lot of uncertainty around Easter weekend with a risk of wind and rain Saturday,’ Alan wrote on Twitter (X). ‘No sign of any real heat with cooler air more likely, bad news for all those home heating oil users with no real reduction in cost.’
Looking to the weather for the next few days, Met Éireann has said that Saturday will be a bright one, with sunny spells and scattered showers, most frequent over the northern half of the country. Some of the showers will be heavy or thundery, but becoming increasingly isolated as the day continues. Highest temperatures of 7C to 10C.
Saturday night will be largely dry and clear at first, with just isolated showers. Cloud will then build from the west, with outbreaks of rain following into the northwest towards morning. Lowest temperatures of just 2C to 6C.
While we’ll be getting a grand stretch in the evening on Sunday, it’ll be wet and breezy to kick off proceedings, spreading southeast towards morning. The rain will be heavy at times, especially in the northwest, with some flooding possible. Sunny and dry spells will follow, with highest temperatures of 9C to 13C.
Sunday night will start off largely dry and clear, with isolated northerly showers before cloud spreads from the west. Lowest temperatures of 6C to 9C.
Kicking off holy week, Monday will be mild but becoming quite dull as clouds extend across the country, with patchy and light drizzle on the way. Highest temperatures of 9C to 13-14C.
Monday night will continue cloudy, with patchy light rain, drizzle and mist. Temperatures won’t fall too sharply, however, with lows of 7C to 10C.
Tuesday will be another mild and generally cloudy day with patchy rain and drizzle, but some brighter spells will break through at times too. Highest temperatures of 11C to 14C.
Wednesday will see things take a turn for the worse, as it’s likely to be wetter than previous days as outbreaks of rain move in from the northwest. Highest temperatures of 10C to 13C.
For the rest of the week, things are uncertain details-wise — although Met Éireann has warned that conditions are likely to continue mixed with rain at times broken up by dry intervals.
More flags appear in area where Belfast Council contractors removed them previously.
Flags had been removed in line with new Council policy.
Flags erected around Ballymacarrett playground in east Belfast, including one with a ‘stop the boats’ message.
By John Breslin
March 29, 2026 at 4:27pm BST
More flags have appeared in the area around an east Belfast playground where City Council contractors had removed previous banners.
Belfast City Council used the contractors to remove the Union and other flags from the park in the Ballymacarrett area of the city recently. However they were quickly replaced and threatening graffiti appeared.
It now appears a yet more flags have appeared, with two or three on some lampposts.
The graffiti on a wall close to the Severn Street park had warned ‘Anyone who touches these flags does so at their own risk’.
The flags now on the poles include ones that are religious-themed but also with a ‘stop the boats’ message.
Following the previous removal of the flags, the council confirmed outside contractors were used.
Their removal followed a meeting in December when it was decided to carry out an “audit” of flags and banners in line with a “commitment to creating a good and harmonious environment”.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in east Belfast, a UVF mural at the corner of Dee Street and Newtownards Road has been removed with the reported approval of loyalists in the area.
The mural, on the gable wall since 2011, featured two hooded gunmen. It was be replaced by one of Edward Carson, the early 20th century unionist leader.
Where did the phrase “Forty Shades of Green” for Ireland come from?
You might be surprised to hear that it was singer Johnny Cash that made the phrase “Forty Shades of Green” popular with a song that he was inspired to write after a trip to Ireland.
An aerial view of fields in Co Tipperary – how many shades of green can you count?! Getty
Describing the beautiful Irish landscape as “Forty Shades of Green” is used the world over, but how did the phrase become so popular?
You might be surprised to hear that it was country singer Johnny Cash who popularized the phrase “Forty Shades of Green” with a song of the same name, which appeared on his 1961 album “Ring of Fire: The Best of Johnny Cash”.
Cash was inspired to write the song during a trip to Ireland in 1959, and while he lists a number of popular destinations in Ireland – Dublin, Shannon, Dingle, Skibbereen – local legend has it that he got the initial inspiration in the Kockmealdown Mountains in Co. Tipperary.
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Listen to “Forty Shades of Green” by Johnny Cash:
Lyrics of “Forty Shades of Green” – Johnny Cash, 1959
I close my eyes and picture the emerald of the sea
from the fishin boats at Dingle to the shores at Donaghdee
I miss the River Shannon and the folks at Skibbereen the moorlands and meadows and their Forty Shades of Green But most of all I miss a girl in Tipperary town and most of all I miss her lips as soft as eiderdown I long again to see and do the things we’ve done and seen where the breeze is sweet as shalimar and there’s Forty Shades of Green I wish that I could spend an hour at Dublin´s churning suft I long to watch the farmers drain the bogs and spade the turf to see again the thatching of the straw the women clean I´d walk from Cork to Larne to see those Forty Shades of Green But most of all I miss a girl in Tipperary town and most of all I miss her lips as soft as eiderdown I long again to see and do the things we´ve done and seen where the breeze is sweet as shalimar and there´s Forty Shades of Green
