1939 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final
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| Event | 1939 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship | ||||||
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| Date | 3 September 1939 | ||||||
| Venue | Croke Park, Dublin | ||||||
| Referee | J. Flaherty (Offaly) | ||||||
| Attendance | 39,302 | ||||||
| Weather | Thunderstorm | ||||||
The 1939 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final, also known as the Thunder and Lightning Final, was the 52nd All-Ireland Final and the culmination of the 1939 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship, an inter-county hurling tournament for the top teams in Ireland. The match was held at Croke Park, Dublin, on 3 September 1939, between Kilkenny and Cork. The Munster champions narrowly lost to their Leinster opponents on a score line of 2-7 to 3-3.
Sunday, September 3 was the date of the 1939 All-Ireland senior hurling final between Cork and Kilkenny. Cork were appearing in their first championship decider since 1931 when they defeated Kilkenny after a three-game saga to take the title. Kilkenny, however, last won the All-Ireland title in 1935 and last appeared in the final in 1936 when they fell to Limerick. Two days before the final, on September 1, Nazi Germany invaded Poland, and, when his ultimatum expired, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain broadcast Britain's declaration of war on Germany over the radio at 11.15am on September 3, signaling the start of World War II. His declaration of war came 4 hours before the final began at 3.15pm.
Players and supporters awoke to torrential rain on the morning of the game. It continued to fall until the early afternoon but subsided just before the game started. As Jack Lynch and Jimmy Walsh led their respective teams around Croke Park bright sunshine greeted the men in red and the men in black and amber.
At 3:15pm GAA President Paddy McNamee threw in the sliothar the game was on. Even with the benefit of the wind at their backs the Cork men, who were playing at Croke Park for the first time in eight years, began slowly. Within three minutes the Munster champions were 1-1 to 0-0 in arrears as Jimmy Phelan found the net for the first time in the game with an early assault on the Cork goalmouth. Cork captain Jack Lynch opened the scoring for his team, however, ‘the Rebels’ struggled until half-time when they trailed by 2-4 to 1-1.
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