Nostalgic clip of Offaly hurlers playing on street before '85 final goes viral

Footage of some of the Offaly hurlers having a puck around on the street before their memorable All Ireland final win against Galway in 1985 has attracted a big response online, with tens of thousands of people viewing it within the last 24 hours.

Horeswood GAA Club in Wexford shared the 42-second clip on Twitter, which shows players passing the time before the big match by knocking around a sliotar outside Setanta Place, off Kildare Street in Dublin.

As traffic whirred by on the main street, Joe Dooley, Pádraig Horan, Pat Cleary, selector Mick Spain, and other members of the team could be seen limbering up in their regular clothes and shoes.

In less than 24 hours the clip has been viewed 50,000 times. The tweet sharing it -- which remarked, "Those were the days" -- has been seen more than 170,000 times:

Joe Dooley was among those who commented on the clip, describing it as "a blast from the past."

Sinn Féin TD Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire wrote that it was an "amazing clip," and pointed out that it was filmed "just around the corner from Leinster house... The wall on the left of the street is that of Kildare House where much of the Oireachtas media, IT and support staff work."

The warm-up on the street did the Offaly team no harm at all, as they ended up defeating Galway on a scoreline of 2-11 to 1-12, in front of 61,451 spectators at Croke Park on September 1, 1985.

Footage of the match itself has been posted on YouTube and can be viewed here: