Inevitably the shadow of darker events fell across Croke Park yesterday. Before the Guinness All-Ireland hurling semi-final, GAA president Joe McDonagh led the attendance of 50,856 in a minute's silence for victims of Saturday's bomb-massacre in Omagh.

Those who travelled from the North to the Kilkenny-Waterford match expressed a sense of unreality at the exuberant normality of a big event at headquarters after the numbed silence that hung over their journey to the border. They wondered whether any thought been given to calling off the match, but the thought didn't appear to have crossed the minds of those Southerners attending.

GAA PRO Danny Lynch did say that the atrocity had been discussed by the Management Committee of the GAA. "It would have come up yesterday but everything was too advanced," he said. "Teams would have been almost on their way, supporters were staying in town. It wouldn't have been feasible."

In a week's time, the Tyrone minors are due to play at Croke Park. If the events of Saturday had happened a week later, it's hard to know how they and perhaps even the Derry seniors would have felt about going to Dublin to play a match.

On the field, yesterday was the fifth championship meeting between Waterford and Kilkenny and Kilkenny's third win. All their victories have been by a single score and in each of the five meetings, Waterford have been the favourites.

At half-time, Kilkenny's wides with the wind at their backs had helped translate a steady supply of ball into a paltry two-point lead and Waterford's status hardened during the interval. But Niall Maloney's smartly-taken goal for Kilkenny five minutes after the restart helped establish a gap which Waterford were unable to close despite a late surge.

Kilkenny manager Kevin Fennelly is heir to this irrepressible tradition and yesterday afternoon he reflected on having reached the county's first All-Ireland final in five years.

Such an achievement is made remarkable by the wasteland over which he was presiding six months ago, when DJ Carey had announced his retirement and the team looked as near to the moon as to a Leinster title and All-Ireland appearance.

Not surprisingly for someone who had walked calmly through such trials, Fennelly didn't appear taken aback by the latest chapter in his team's progress.

"I genuinely thought we'd win today," he said. "In the end I have to say we were lucky but I genuinely did think that. I watched the video of the Galway-Waterford game the other night and said, `Yeah, we'll win this'.

"Games seem to be low-scoring that we play in. Don't ask me why. Our backs are tight, good hurlers, and forwards aren't getting the room they used to get.

"Waterford proved how good they are. They could have beaten Clare the first day, could have beaten us today," he continued before adding with unconscious modesty, "How much better can you get than that? They're as good a team as is in the country."

Kilkenny have the luxury of watching Clare and Offaly dispute the replay of their semi-final next Saturday. Naturally, Fennelly is on the edge of his seat over the outcome.

"I couldn't care less. The colour of their jerseys won't matter to me. I'll go up and enjoy the game next Saturday evening and whoever wins, we're facing them."

Waterford manager Gerald McCarthy had spent the afternoon banished from the dugout to the stand - "It wasn't a nice feeling. A bit frustrating" - and spoke without bitterness of a below-par performance.

"I'm obviously disappointed. We had our chances in the second half. The lads could have played better but I wouldn't be critical. They fought hard to the end and were unlucky not to get an equaliser. Their goal was crucial, a little bit of luck attached to that. They seemed to have the breaks in the second half, we didn't."

Despite several attempts to uncover an effective combination, McCarthy acknowledged that his attack hadn't clicked on the day.

"Yeah, the forwards didn't find the room we should have. They were striking under pressure and it affected their shooting. There were several chances early on (in the second half) that we could have clipped balls over the bar and we paid dearly. Perhaps heads went down and we thought we had to get goals.

"I can't be critical though, they've given a fabulous year, some great memories. They fought hard to get this far and fought very hard today. You can't ask any more than that."

The end of the road was hard to accept for Tony Browne, whose excellence at centrefield has been a feature of Waterford's emergence. Yesterday wasn't one of his more dominant displays, despite a scoring return of 1-3.

"This team has character and I've no doubt we'll bounce back. Trophy-wise, it hasn't been any good to us but we've made massive steps in putting Waterford hurling back on the map and I'm even looking forward now to getting back out there next year."