On September 30th, 1938, the British Prime Minister, Mr Neville Chamberlain, disembarked from an aeroplane at Croydon and waved a piece of paper in the air. It had been signed, he said, by Mr Hitler. "I believe it is peace for our time, peace with honour. Go home and have a nice quiet sleep."
Twelve months later, however, Mr Chamberlain had a different message to convey. At 12 noon on Sunday, September 3rd, 1939, he addressed a hushed and silent House of Commons. An hour earlier Britain's ultimatum to Hitler, demanding that he suspend his activities in Poland, had expired. Chamberlain's speech was to last only two minutes, and concluded with the historic announcement: "This country is at war with Germany."
But that same Sunday, priorities this side of the Irish Sea were rather different. Even as Chamberlain rose to his feet in London, we in Ireland were preparing for a confrontation of a different and, some would say, a more important and historic kind. It was the day of All-Ireland Hurling Final, and 40,000 people were converging on Croke Park to see Cork and Kilkenny engage in battle for the McCarthy Cup.
Coincidentally, the Cork team was led by one who was himself to become prime minister of his country, Jack Lynch, a future Taoiseach, and the match was to be one of the most memorable ever played. It is remembered in hurling circles as the "thunder and lightning final".
The first half was played in relatively good conditions. During the morning, however, a deep depression had approached Ireland from the south, on a track that was to bring it directly over Dublin before it moved across the Irish Sea to Scotland.
It was remarkable for the heavy, thundery showers embedded in its circulation and early in the second half, when Kilkenny were leading 2-6 to 2-2, one of these shower-clouds settled over the north Dublin suburbs: a first flash of lightning was followed by a loud and prolonged roll of thunder, and seconds later the heavens opens and torrential rain descended on the pitch.
The thunderstorm continued unabated throughout the game, but play continued with unrelenting vigour. Eventually, with the two sides level and seconds to go before the final whistle, Jimmy Kelly sent the ball surging through the appalling downpour towards the Cork goalposts.
It went over the bar to leave the score 2-7 to 3-3: Kilkenny had won the Thunder and Lightning Final, and carried off the McCarthy Cup for the fourth time that decade. Meanwhile in Europe, Hitler was advancing steadily through Poland . . .