"Five in a Row" was a song released in advance of the
1982 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final
The 1982 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final was the 95th All-Ireland Final and the deciding match of the 1982 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, an inter-county Gaelic football tournament for the top teams in Ireland. The game, ...
to celebrate Kerry's imminent winning of five consecutive titles. ''
The Irish Times
''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It was launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is Ireland's leading n ...
'' has described it as "infamous".
The song's chorus features such lines as: "Five in a row, five in a row, never again will there be five in a row" and "It's hard to believe we've won the five in a row".
Kerry, however, had not won the fifth title; they still had a game to play and faced
Offaly
County Offaly (; ) is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the province of Leinster. It is named after the ancient Kingdom of Uí Failghe. It was formerly known as King's County, in honour of Philip II of Spain ...
in the decider. Offaly manager Eugene McGee played the song in his team's dressing room ahead of the game. With Kerry leading by two points approaching the game's conclusion,
Séamus Darby
Séamus Darby (born 1950, Rhode, County Offaly) is an Irish former Gaelic footballer.
Darby is best remembered for scoring an unexpected late goal that deprived Kerry of a 5-in-a-row in the 1982 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final ...
scored a critical goal (worth three points) to give Offaly the lead. The referee then blew the final whistle, thus restricting Kerry to just the four.
Radio Kerry
Radio Kerry is a full-service, licensed radio station that operates from the franchise area of County Kerry in Southwest Ireland.
Radio Kerry was established in 1989 and began broadcasting on 14 July 1990.Players of the Faithful'', which first aired on national television's
RTÉ One
RTÉ One is an Irish free-to-air flagship television channel owned and operated by RTÉ. It is the most-popular and most-watched television channel in the country and was launched as ''Telefís Éireann'' on 31 December 1961, it was renamed ''R ...
Dublin
Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...
— bidding to do what Kerry had not in 1982 — meeting Kerry in the decider. Dublin did it; however, the song's lyrics refer specifically to Kerry...
References
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Song
A song is a musical composition performed by the human voice. The voice often carries the melody (a series of distinct and fixed pitches) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs have a structure, such as the common ABA form, and are usu ...