The night after Armagh won the All-Ireland title in 2002, the joy of the thing made a hard, old part of the country go wonderfully soft on itself. When the cup arrived in Crossmaglen on the team bus, a convoy of traffic stretched back towards the border.
That evening the local GAA club came to polite agreement with the army and police that local stewards could replace officers to keep order on the streets and the helicopters in the giant base welded to the back of the GAA grounds would stay grounded until after the homecoming was over. The police and army stayed off the streets and the night passed off without a second of trouble. As the team bus left for Armagh city leading