Advertisement League of Ireland Horse Racing TV Listings GAA Fixtures The Video Review Sport meets news, current affairs, society & pop culture Rugby Weekly Extra Dive into all the news and analysis 3 times a week The Football Family Weekly insights from the week’s big talking points Advertisement More Stories Declan Hannon.Brendan Moran/SPORTSFILE Declan Hannon 'It’s been a lovely life, I wouldn’t change it for the world' - Hannon's Limerick ambition The most successful hurling captain is bidding for his place in the Munster championship. 6.16am, 10 Apr 2025 Share options Declan Bogue THE AFTERNOON OF 12 June, 2011 was one that Declan Hannon could never forget. All that year, the pupil of Ardscoil Ris had been dropping in and out of Limerick training, learning from manager Donal O’Grady and his technical guidance, watching the example of senior players Seamus Hickey, Wayne McNamara, and Niall Moran, his teacher at the time. But that evening, Hannon was at home, watching Limerick play Waterford in Semple Stadium in what feels now like a paltry attendance of 15,650. Limerick had been coping well and were in front as the game came down the stretch. In the final minute and just on the pitch, Eoin Kelly had a free blocked. In the follow-up attack he launched a crossfield ball to John Mullane. He let fly from an angle, the ball took a deflection and flashed to Nickie Quaid’s net. Waterford won 3-15 to 3-14. Limerick players crumpled on the turf, devastated with the effort they had put in, coming to nothing. 60 miles away in Adare, Declan Hannon turned off the television and turned to head back to his books and Leaving Cert revision. 15 seasons on and he’s still there. Once again, he cannot be sure of his place on the team. He’s gone full circle where age becomes a factor again. Once, he was too young, now, it’s about how his body responds. A knee injury picked up in the course of the 2023 Munster final against Clare has been dogging him since. He played against Cork in the All-Ireland semi-final last year and hasn’t been seen since. “Progressing great!” he answers enthusiastically to some gentle probings about his injury status as Limerick eye up their trip to Thurles to take on Tipperary on 20 April. “Obviously it was a bit frustrating in the league there. I picked up a niggle in my calf but I am progressing really well, yeah. Looking forward to two more weeks to the Munster championship and trying to get it right. “Being involved in the squad for the Munster championship is the aim now. I suppose I didn’t get any game time in the league, which is a bit annoying. But it is part and parcel of sport and from here on in, you hope you stay injury-free,” said Hannon, speaking at the launch of the ‘eir for all’ Poc Tapa Challenge. Advertisement In between those beginnings – he made his debut for Limerick a few months prior in a league game against Antrim in Loughgiel – and now, he made history by becoming the first captain to lift Liam MacCarthy four times, before captaincy was passed onto Cian Lynch at the start of this year. Making his senior debut against Antrim in the 2011 league.©William Cherry / Presseye ©William Cherry / Presseye / Presseye Hannon has given up his entire late teens and young adulthood to this and there’s not an ounce of him feels that he has given anything up. “I got an opportunity to go to San Francisco in 2016. We were knocked out in the qualifiers and so three or four of us went out to San Fran for four months,” he says. “I got that opportunity. But summers were spent at home, training and playing with Limerick and then you would be back with the club. “It’s been a lovely life and I wouldn’t change it for the world. I think as long as you are enjoying it and having fun, that is the main thing. I didn’t want to miss out. I didn’t want to see the other side of the world if I would miss out.” In his time there, he cites the obvious changes to the game; speed, intensity, the emphasis on mental preparation. “But it’s changing constantly,” he adds. “I think in five or ten years’ time, it is going to be all different again. So you are going to have to learn and adapt as best you can and try to implement the changes as best you can into the group. “It’s very much the speed has gone up levels since I first came in.” Surely though, it cannot get any higher? “As a spectacle, for the general public and from the feedback I hear over the last couple of years, people are loving the games and enjoying the speed and physicality of it all. To watch as a neutral they are probably fantastic,” Hannon says. “To be involved in it, it is different. You want to win the game and you don’t care if it is two points to one, or 200 points to 199 points. As long as you win the match. “But it is great to be back at it. It is my fifteenth year and the enjoyment is still as high as it has ever been.” With the re-emergence of Cork as the glamour team of the winter and spring, the status of All-Ireland winners Clare, and Tipperary and Waterford all having reasons to be cheerful along with Limerick’s assurance that comes with their insane levels of achievement, it could be argued that we have never had a competition in the GAA as alluring as the Munster hurling championship this year. Morgan Treacy / INPHO Morgan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO Sure, sure. It’s a hectic schedule. There’s a lot to it and you wouldn’t dare ask a player nowadays to give you a day bagging turf between the third and fourth rounds. But for players and spectators there’s not a single complaint. You might find the odd manager to have a moan, but when it comes to complaints, they’ll root them out like pigs finding truffles. “I remember my first couple of years involved, you would have the first round of the Munster championship and if you were beat you might not have a match for six, seven weeks,” recalls Hannon. “There was two rounds of club championship thrown into the middle of that as well. “It was a mix and match, you were in and out and there was no real flow to the whole thing. “But the round robin is fantastic. You can see from the attendances at matches and the viewing figures on TV, they are going up and up and up every year. “From a spectator’s point of view it is great but from a player too it is a dream. As a young fella growing up, you wanted to play in at Semple Stadium and Páirc Uí Chaoimh and all those places. “To have that opportunity to do that in any year in the Munster championship in the round robin system is fantastic. Players would be very, very happy with the structure at the minute.” One man who wouldn’t be complaining at any rate is Shane Dowling. Hannon’s former wingman at school, they came up through the system winning all there was; a first Harty Cup for Ardscoil Rís in 2010, a Munster U21 in 2011, Munster senior in 2013, the All-Ireland in 2018. Hannon lifts the Harty Cup along with Shane Dowling.Cathal Noonan / INPHO Cathal Noonan / INPHO / INPHO Having to retire in 2020 at 27 with a knee injury was heartbreaking. He had a go at the punditry thing, but if ever a man couldn’t sever the umbilical cord, it was Dowling as he continually wore the Limerick jersey under the smart shirt, fighting out of the green corner. So when Nicky Quaid ruptured his ACL while playing a bit of casual soccer last winter, it opened up a spot in nets. Dowling re-entered the stage. “I was delighted when I heard he was coming back in,” says Hannon. Related Reads Hype, setback, selections: how will Cork and Tipp approach the next two weeks? Call for All-Ireland preliminary quarter-finals to be scrapped from hurling calendar “We are great buddies. It is all fine, but then he has to come in and train really, really hard and contribute on the field and mind himself off the field, which he has done fantastically well. “He loves Limerick hurling so we couldn’t ask for a better fella to come in.” Seeing Dowling’s glee has only reinforced the message to Hannon that he appreciates it all the more with the passing of time. “When you are young, you are nearly just delighted to be on the panel, saying, ‘Sure isn’t this great?’” he explains. “You try to enjoy the highs as much as you can, try to build relationships on and off the field, as they are your buddies and your team mates. Whereas in the first few years, it’s all fantastic and great. “At the end of the day it is about winning. That’s the cut-throat nature of the thing and if you are not winning, it’s not a successful year. “But I probably appreciate it a bit more now and enjoy the journey.” eir, Ireland’s leading telecommunications provider, is calling on GAA clubs across the country to take part in the ‘eir for all’ Poc Tapa Challenge to be in with a chance to win up to €5,000 for their club and play on the hallowed turf of Croke Park on All Ireland Semi-Final Day. For further information on how to enter follow @eir.ireland or visit eir.ie. Declan Bogue Viewcomments Send Tip or Correction Embed this post To embed this post, copy the code below on your site Email “'It’s been a lovely life, I wouldn’t change it for the world' - Hannon's Limerick ambition ”. Recipient's Email Feedback on “'It’s been a lovely life, I wouldn’t change it for the world' - Hannon's Limerick ambition ”. Your Feedback Your Email (optional) Report a Comment Please select the reason for reporting this comment. 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