The national feast day is a tricky one to call GAA-wise. From the halycon era of the Railway Cup and full houses things just fell away. In the dark 70s March 17th became a mild form of child abuse.

A child's head would be jammed against a barrier in O'Connell street while rain fell and several hundred goosepimpled Americans walked past. Then as a "treat" the child would be frogmarched to Croke Park for flu and Munster versus Leinster.

Yesterday the public appetite for gaelic games took the GAA itself by surprise. The Association's crowd estimate was more than 50 per cent out and before the end of the afternoon an apology had been issued to patrons. If there is consolation for those who missed the start of the hurling final it is that they were part of history. A GAA apology? Who knew there could be such a thing. It is worth noting too that any potential danger was quickly avoided by opening the Canal End gates.

"On balance," said stadium director Peter McKenna "we have had a successful day. We had in excess of 38,500 in the stadium this afternoon. We were expecting only between 22,000 and 25,000. Many people arrived at the ground after the parade finished in town. There was a good deal of crushing or queuing outside the stadium. We reviewed the situation as the game was starting and decided to open the Canal End gates to allow people to enter in as orderly manner as possible."

The GAA estimates that about 2,000 people entered the ground through the open Canal End gates and conceded that the original mistake had been the association's in underestimating interest in the matches.

"Certainly," said Peter McKenna. "A number of individuals got very upset. They'd come huge distances from all parts of the country to be with particular groups or their families and so on. On behalf of my team and the GAA I'd like to apologise to anyone who was discommoded in their travel arrangements or in entering the ground. It certainly wasn't our intention."

The GAA originally estimated that if the weather were poor yesterday that the attendance would be no more than 18,000 and if conditions were favourable that it might reach 25,000. It was decided on the basis of atmosphere for the games to only open the Hogan and Canal End sides of the grounds. That area takes 48,000 people and all stiles along Jones Road were open.

However, the numbers attending were far bigger than anticipated. With so many people queuing on Jones Road a decision was taken in consultation with Gardai to hold about 2,000 supporters back behind barriers at Gill's pub at the junction between Jones Road and the North circular Road.

"We held a number of people back at Gills. When they were admitted they came in and straight through the Canal Gates," said McKenna.

McKenna conceded that the situation would be reviewed as would the policy of cash only at the stiles.

"It is far easier to legislate for the number of turnstiles we need when we know how many are coming. That doesn't take from the fact that this is a fantastic day and we've let a lot of people down. That's the real issue.

"From a health and safety perspective everyone was kept in an very safe environment . . . with the decision taken to relieve any potential danger we weren't unduly worried. My preference though would be to look at going all-ticket for an event like this. With up to 25,000 cash on the turnstiles works well. People were upset today and that is understandable."

As a result of the difficulties outside and the decision to throw open the Canal End gates much of the first half of the hurling game took place with a stream of people moving like a lost tribe across the back of the Canal goal. The distraction wasn't enough to hinder a confident Newtownshandrum side from Cork who won their first All-Ireland title at the expense of Dunloy from Antrim who were losing their fourth final of recent years. Newtownshandrum become the first winners from Cork in 16 years.

The football final had a closer finish but that couldn't disguise the sense of inevitability that pervaded the second half. Caltra, a small family driven club from Galway who draw their entire panel from 20 houses were too quick and inventive for a Gaeltacht team whose big stars went missing after the half-time break. The football title eluded the province of Connacht entirely until 1998 when Corofin won but last night the Andy Merrigan Cup crossed the Shannon for the fourth time in six seasons.