“If a fellow isn’t good in Blarney this week, then he’s never good,” smiles Blarney GAA stalwart Martin Lynch at the club grounds decorated with billboards showing Blarney’s three men on the Cork hurling panel for this year’s All-Ireland, Mark Coleman, Shane Barrett and Pádraig Power.
The three hurlers, Coleman from the Hill, Barrett from Rathpeacon and Power from near Killard, are on the cusp of making history for the club – if they help the Rebels to lower the Banner in Croke Park – by becoming the first members of the club to win senior All-Ireland medals.
Blarney may be an 18th century landlord-designed village built around a green that wouldn’t look out of place in the Home Counties, but it is most assuredly Rebel Cork this week with the Square festooned with red and white bunting in anticipation of Sunday’s showdown.
And not surprisingly, with three players in the Cork squad, all the focus in the parish, home to some 2,500 souls and the world-famous Blarney Castle, is firmly fixed on Coleman, Barrett and Power, who this Sunday will swap the red and white of Blarney for the red and white of Cork.
But first, some history. Blarney may be looking forward to its first club members winning a senior All-Ireland on Sunday, but looking back Blarney has a long hurling tradition going back to at least the 18th century, says Lynch, a keen student of the history of the game in the area.
“There was a hurling match with 50 men aside played on a pitch three quarters of a mile long in the inch in Waterloo in 1770 – it was recorded over 60 years later in the 1830s by Fr Matt Horgan who provided Famine relief work when he built the round towers in Waterloo and Whitechurch.
“Fr Horgan heard the story of the match from the sons of men who played in it, and he reported how the two teams were captained by a landlord’s son, Rowland Davies from Dawstown and Denis Horgan, a wealthy farmer from Ballinaraha and Davies’ team won by one goal to nil.
“Now while the two teams were captained by Blarney men, it seems the players came from everywhere – from Carrigtwohill, Midleton and Youghal in east Cork and even as far away as Beara in west Cork and Kerry. But it just shows how long hurling has been played in Blarney.”
According to Lynch, hurling was played on an organised basis in Blarney before the GAA was founded and the club was one of the first to join the new association with an official certificate showing the date of affiliation as May 1st 1884, making it one of the oldest clubs in the country.
Fast forward 140 years to Sunday and all at the club are looking forward to the three Blarney men winning senior All-Ireland medals, but, if they do, as fellow club man David Coleman points out, they won’t be first the Blarney men to win a senior All-Ireland medal.
“Back in 1890,” says Coleman, “Aghabullogue [a neighbouring club in Mid-Cork] won Cork’s first senior All-Ireland hurling title and at the time club teams could have guest players and there was a Blarney man playing with Aghabullogue that day, Ned Reilly from Shamrock Terrace.”
Coleman’s great grandfather, Denis Linehan, travelled to the All-Ireland final at Clonturk Park in Drumcondra on November 16th1890 and, as was his habit at the time, he kept details of the game in a diary which Coleman discovered recently.
“My great grandfather used to write comments about the games – he went to all the Blarney games, but he went to Dublin to see Aghabullogue take on Castlebridge from Wexford and he noted that it was a very tough game that was abandoned because of Castlebridge’s rough play.
“Aghabullogue were leading 1-6 to 2-2 when their captain Dan Lane withdrew his team with the permission of the referee who awarded them the game, subject to Central Council ratification. So Ned Reilly became the first Blarney man to win a senior All-Ireland hurling medal.”
Reilly may be the only Blarney hurler to date to win a senior All-Ireland hurling medal but several from neighbouring Mid-Cork clubs have achieved that feat, going back to Billy ‘Long Puck’ Murphy and Paddy ‘Hitler’ Healy from Ballincollig, who won All-Irelands with Cork in the 1940s.
Colm Sheehan from Éire Óg and Tomas Ryan from Inniscarra both won All-Irelands with Cork in 1966 and Pat McDonnell from Inniscarra and Mick Malone from Éire Óg won All-Irelands with Cork in the 1970s, as did John Allen from Aghabullogue while hurling with city club St Finbarr’s.
Tom Kenny from nearby Grenagh also won senior All-Irelands in 2004 and 2005 while his team-mate on that great Cork team, Seán Óg Ó hAilpín from Na Piarsaigh, won three All-Irelands in 1999, 2004 and 2005 while living just over the Blarney border in Grenagh.
Lynch says: “We have never had a Blarney man win a senior All-Ireland while playing for the club, but we have had some success at underage and other levels – my own father, Dinny was on the first Cork team to win a minor All-Ireland in 1928.
“Since then, we have had a number of others winning minor All-Irelands with Cork – Johnny Pa Creedon in 1937, Tom Aherne in 1941 and Davy ‘Rocket’ O’Brien in 1970 while four years earlier John Mitchell won a medal when he played in goal in the 1966 All-Ireland-winning U-21 team.”
Coleman points out that Blarney, which has 13 Mid-Cork titles to its name, has also enjoyed success in Croke Park as a club when it won the All-Ireland intermediate title when defeating Cappataggle of Galway in 2009, heralding the start of an upward swing in its fortunes.
That victory in Croke Park came on foot of winning the Cork county intermediate title and going senior and while the club was relegated in 2011, they made it back to Senior A in 2022 beating Castlelyons and almost made it to Senior Premier last year before losing to Newcestown in a replay.
Coleman, Barrett and Power are among the linchpins of the current Blarney team so it’s no surprise that their names are on everyone’s lips at the Cúl Camp being held at the club’s pitch in Castleclose this week where over 240 boys and girls are enjoying learning the skills of the game.
“Mark Coleman is my favourite player,” says Tadhg O’Brien (5) as he joins his grandfather Davy O’Brien, another club stalwart, who reckons Cork’s bench could prove the difference with players like Shane Kingston, Robbie O’Flynn and Power well capable of delivering scores when introduced.
“I’m confident without being too confident – we have 21 players, and they could all come into play and we have a good line down the middle now with Robert Downey at centre back instead of Ciaran Joyce and that’s after releasing Joyce who seems to be relishing his role in midfield.”
Club president, Pat Joe Sheehan from Monard, hurled with Blarney in the 1970s and, now aged 87, is savouring the build up to the final as he watches his grandchildren, Seán (10) and Clodagh (12) participating in the Cúl Camp at the GAA pitch. He is quietly confident.
“I never thought I’d be seeing three Blarney men lining up with Cork in Croke Park for an All-Ireland final – I’m confident because they had a great win over Limerick, but they’ll have to keep a close eye on the likes of Tony Kelly and Shane O’Donnell because they can do damage.”
Pat Joe’s son, Brendan, is being a bit more cautious, anxious to point out that no one on Leeside – or Blarney – should be thinking that it will be plain sailing for Coleman, Barrett and Power & Co just because they saw off the reigning All-Ireland champions twice this year.
“Clare are hot favourites, we lost our last three meetings with them and Clare historically over the last ten to 15 years have had the upper hand over Cork. Cork are starting from zero on the day, the Limerick game is all over, no point in beating Limerick unless you go on to win the final.
“And after 19 years without an All-Ireland, the pressure is on Cork and there may be a small bit of fear too. But they have to go up there and do the job and make sure that it’s their best, give 100 per cent because that’s what it’s going to take to beat Clare on the day.”
His brother, Colm, agrees that Clare have had the upper hand over the last three years and while the Rebels have beaten Limerick twice on their way to getting to the All-Ireland final, Clare will pose a very different type of challenge to the more structured approach of the Shannonsiders.
“Limerick play a bit robotically so Cork were able to prepare for that type of approach whereas Clare play off the cuff a bit and kind of play with abandon at times so that’s a lot harder to prepare for – you just have to be on your game and the matchups have to be spot on.”
Their sister Mairead Rowley, who runs An Club Beag for U4s, said it would be great for Cork to win an All-Ireland after such a long wait.
“It would be brilliant to bring Liam MacCarthy back to Leeside after so long – I mean my eldest lad Darragh is 16 and he has never seen Cork win an All-Ireland.”
Blarney GAA’s grounds at Castleclose were developed over 60 years ago on lands originally part of the Blarney Castle Estate and the world-famous tourist attraction and impressive gardens are visible from the pitch – complete with a red and white flag flying high over the battlements.
Lynch explains: “We approached Sir Charles Colthurst who owns the Castle and asked him would he fly the Cork flag on the castle in recognition of the fact we have the three lads heading up to Croke Park and he readily agreed – he’s has always been very supportive of the club.”
Back in the village, All-Ireland fever is mounting and nowhere more so than at the Castle Hotel where maintenance man, Paul Carter, is finding talk of the game unavoidable as with help from Gillian O’Sullivan and Fintan Forrest he puts up a billboard showing the three Blarney players.
We were hurling here 100 years before the GAA was formed and we’ve been hurling ever since
“The whole place is decked out in red and white between flags and bunting,” says the quietly-spoken Londoner who admits hurling isn’t his thing despite years working in Blarney. But he’s wishing the three lads the best as do fellow Castle Hotel employees, O’Sullivan and Forrest.
“I’m working on Sunday so I will be holding the fort here and we’re expecting a huge crowd into us,” says Forrest whose family have owned the hotel for generations while O’Sullivan is off duty on Sunday but plans to head to the hotel to watch the game on the big screen.
Inside the hotel, which dates back to the 19th century, Fintan’s father, Ian is hopeful for Sunday as he explains the screensaver on the computer till – a photo of Cork captain Jack Lynch holding the Liam MacCarthy Cup outside the hotel after Cork won the All-Ireland in 1942.
“That was part of the Cork four-in-a-row team, and they called into the hotel on their way home from Croke Park – they stopped off at Blarney Railway Station and it was during the war years and petrol was scarce, so they came down to the village by horse and trap,” says Forrest.
“The photo was taken outside the front door with Jack Lynch, who was captain, holding the Liam MacCarthy with the rest of the team around him. We got a very nice letter afterwards from the Cork manager and trainer, Jim ‘Tough’ Barry thanking us for our hospitality.”
Forrest doesn’t expect the Cork team to stop off in Blarney on Monday if they beat Clare but, like everyone in the village, he would welcome a visit at some stage when the three Blarney men could bring the Liam MacCarthy Cup back to the Castle Hotel as happened over 80 years ago.
But let’s leave the last word to Martin Lynch, a man who, as an underage coach back in the 1970s, survived the challenge of coaching this writer to hook and block and take a sideline cut and went on to have a fine career with the treble-winning Blarney junior team of 1976-78.
“What does hurling mean to Blarney? We are the oldest, the biggest and strongest association in the community – we were hurling here 100 years before the GAA was formed and we’ve been hurling ever since – we even had parish leagues in the Square during the Tostal and into the 60s.
“So it’s the most traditional aspect of life in Blarney but at the same time it’s a most welcoming club and we have an open door to everyone, newcomers to the parish who may have no GAA background and they come and get involved in hurling, football and camogie.
“We have close to 600 playing members – we start them at U-4 hurling and playing football and camogie and we have a full-time coach who goes into the primary schools in the parish so about 1,000 children are getting coaching as a result, all financed by the club.
“I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say the GAA club is probably the soul of the community – I would say it’s the most unifying thing in Blarney if I was to call it. And people form friendships and build their social lives around it so it’s huge and this weekend is going to be extra special.
“All three lads were on the pitch at the end of the Limerick match and that was brilliant because while they all have great skill, the work they put in themselves behind the scenes, in the gym early in the morning or practising out in the field when no one is around – that’s unreal.
“The atmosphere in the village is just electric but when they line up in Croke Park on Sunday and the teams are read out and ‘Blarney’ is mentioned, it will warm the hearts of Blarney folk the world over – we never thought we’d hear ‘Blarney’ mentioned so much in Croke Park.”
