THE Chinese curse of living in interesting times landed with a thud on top of Jimmy Barry Murphy at the weekend. Appropriately, the occasion of Cork's heavy defeat by Limerick at. Pairc Ui Chaoimh was accompanied by a variety of shattered records, all of which the home side would have wished to maintain little longer.

It's easy to get carried away when such rare and momentous matters occur, but, allowing for that caution, there are grounds for believing that we are witnessing historic shifts in the hitherto caste ridden world of senior inter county hurling.

There have been bleaker times for Cork and. bleaker times for Tipperary, and there have been times when Munster titles were hammered out between counties other than the province's big two. But it's hard to think of a time when such things all happened at once.

It may be jumping the gun to dismiss Tipperary's challenge, but no one at Pairc Ui Chaoimh last Sunday would be too sanguine about their chances against the survivors of Clare and Limerick's forthcoming and elemental looking semifinal.

Before examining this context any further, there are certain points to be made about the weekend's tale of two managers. It's impossible not to feel glad for Tom Ryan. Having taken on the job in unpropitious circumstances, he has presided over the county's metamorphosis from championship fodder into significant challengers.

Such achievements have been recorded against a wearying backdrop of intermittent squabbling, allegations that he is unpopular with the players or that his influence in the wider scheme of things is minimal. (Though, of course, Ryan's influence was recognised in the interests of blaming him for the late collapse in 1994's All Ireland final against Offaly.)

Nonetheless, in two years he has sent out a team with five, and three, new faces to play Cork in championship hurling and recorded decisive wins. In each of his three years, Limerick have produced at least one championship performance of compelling desire.

A stern but courteous man, he has borne all setbacks with the slight exception of last year's Munster final defeat by Clare with stoic dignity. He may need to delve into his reserves of this quality again, but for the present he and his players have again defied the Doomsday prophecies riding on defeat.

If Jimmy Barry Murphy and his selectors look for consolation, it can only come from the likelihood that Cork's fortunes have bottomed out. Nonetheless, it is a lowlier nadir than even pessimists could have reasonably foreseen.

At the heart of the situation is a bitter irony. Cork's most charismatic player of recent times whose appointment with full power to name his own selectors was such a terrific boost to morale in the county has presided over a performance so abject that it will live in history far longer than its contemporary significance warrants.

It's not easy to meet anyone in Cork who doesn't sympathise with JBM and the sentiments he expressed in Sunday's match programme. "Club hurling is not good", "talent is limited" and "today's game is going to be very hard for us to win" are excerpts which give an idea of his apprehension.

Not surprisingly, his final word was a request "for our supporters to have faith in what we are trying to do".

THAT faith, blind and devotional at the start of his tenure, will be tested in the future. But there are good reasons for saying that he is the ideal man for Cork to have at the helm at present. Some of these qualities were recognised by an overheard conversation in the Pairc after the whistle.

This ran to the effect that although Barry Murphy really didn't need the hardship of managing the county in such trying times and could easier walk away from it, "that he had too much".

He knew from the day of his appointment that he was accepting a poisoned chalice. The inane acclaim that led to his management and selectors being labelled "The Dream Team" extended beyond the county. Only last January, in a survey of inter county managers in this newspaper, Cork attracted more votes than any other team.

At least that sort of pressure has lifted now. It looks likely that the county's resurrection will depend on bringing through younger talent. Players who have known success at inter county level are by and large growing old, whereas many of those who have known only failure, have known it too often.

As the people who turned around Cork's grim record at minor level, JBM and company are better placed than anyone to bring their charges to fruition at senior level.

To return to the possibility of fundamental shifts hurling has changed. Last March, the day before Cork lost their Division One status, there was a seminar in UCC on "Cork Hurling planning for the 21st century". It was an imaginative project and earnestly executed as the usual problems of competing sports, television and the marketing of the game were all addressed.

At times it lapsed a bit too much into dewy eyed reminiscence. In an open session with a high powered panel on the inter county game, too often the demands of the 21st century were put on hold to recall the facility with which Ringy could pull on an overhead ball.

There was much emphasis placed on encouragement and enjoyment of the game's beauty and skill. Many of these concerns would have found an echo in the gentle approach that characterises Jimmy Barry's tuition, but this old joie de vivre with which Cork hurlers could set out to conquer the world, secure in the knowledge of their place in it, is no longer the whole story.

Only Offaly at their best can play the Munster game to such a traditional prescription, and within the southern province other approaches emerge.

Both Limerick and Clare's successes had to spring from convictions that owed little to tradition. The inner convictions which wiped out Cork on Sunday and drove Clare to an All Ireland were forged in the searing pain of intense physical preparation.

Trips to National Training Centre in Limerick or the arduous slog up the hill in Crusheen and precise programmes for maximising physical fitness have replaced visits to the graveyard in Cloyne as expressions of modern hurling's zeitgeist.

Anyway, Cork's manager may like to know that six years ago, in the same dressing room complex, I was present when Mickey Ned O'Sullivan, after his first Munster final in charge of Kerry's footballers, stood stricken before a jubilant Cork throng after watching his team lose by 16 points.

I was also in Killarney less than 12 months later when Kerry beat Cork by two points.

A desire for variety rather than a hankering after old empires should prompt people to wish Jimmy Barry Murphy well.