Thousands of Limerick fans greet All-Ireland hurling champions

Thousands of Limerick GAA fans swarmed a sweltering Shannonside to welcome home the newly crowned three-in-a-row All Ireland hurling champions on Monday evening.

As temperatures soared to over 30 degrees the hurling stars arrived into Colbert railway station carrying the Liam MacCarthy Cup and sparked a homecoming party to set the city alight for months to come.

A tsunami of green and white supporters swept into the city to catch a glimpse of the hurling champions who were carried in an open-top bus to the TUS Gaelic Grounds for a concert like homecoming celebration.

Conor Campbell Vereker (12) and his cousins Sophie Crowe (13), both from Corbally, who had been lucky to have seen the team win at Croke Park on Sunday, went one better when they managed to join their heroes on the team bus.

“It was just amazing, we just walked with the players onto the bus, we couldn’t believe we were on the bus with them, so we just stood in a corner watching everything,” said Conor Campbell.

As the bus snaked its way through a sea of fans players jokingly pretended to shower the scorched supporters with the coveted silverware that has earned them a place in GAA history as only the fourth ever team to have won three back-to-back All Ireland titles.

Earlier Campbell-Vereker received a handwritten letter from Limerick defender Diarmaid Byrnes who unwittingly left the lad hanging for a “high five” after a previous match earlier in the year, “and some of the payers said they would send me some hurling gear” he added.

Seven-year-old Heidi Donnelly from Broadfod, travelled to the Gaelic Grounds with her mother Miriam with a hand-made card she drew for her favourite player Cian Lynch who she had previously helped save his gear-bag when it almost