“NORMALLY JANUARY IS cold, dark and grey. But not in Tooreen at the moment. The excitement is unbelievable.”
In their patch in east Mayo, the hurlers of Tooreen have helped light up the winter.
They broke new ground last November as they ended the Galway stranglehold on the Connacht intermediate hurling championship.
That final success propels them into an All-Ireland semi-final today in Ennis, the first Mayo hurling club to sample that stage.
Dom Greally is the club chairman and spent enough days hurling for Tooreen in Connacht without getting a reward.
“We would play the winners of Roscommon and then the winners of that would play the senior winners in Galway. In my time we would have played Castlegar of Galway the time they had the Connolly’s, then Sarsfields had the Cooney brothers, we played Athenry when Joe Rabbitte and (Eugene) Cloonan was playing. We played all the top teams in Galway.
“It’s probably one of the best things that the GAA have done in the last 20 years. Putting us in the intermediate has given clubs like ourselves a chance to win a Connacht title and go on to an All-Ireland series. It has opened it up for so many clubs. It has been fantastic.”
They came desperately close in 2013 but lost the final by two points to Kilnadeema Leitrim. They’d watched their neighbours Ballyhaunis knock continuously at the door and reckoned it was going to open some time for a Mayo outfit.
“It was a very special day,” recalls Greally of last November’s decider in Athleague against Ballinderreen.
“We went there confident of winning it but you never know. I think those last five, ten minutes of the Connacht final when you knew we were there and you could start to cherish it.
“The scenes afterwards on the pitch with supporters and players, it was unbelievable. Something the club had dreamed about for many years. It had happened and it was great to be there.”
The giddy euphoria that the celebrations sparked was tinged with poignancy. Tooreen people thought of those who had toiled on the hurling front and were not part of this landmark victory.
Adrian Freeman sprang to mind. He was 24 when he died in a car accident in Melbourne in 2010.
A shining light for his club, a leading figure with the Mayo county side and a player who had risen to prominence by featuring for the Connacht inter-provincial side.
“Adrian was an unbelievable player, he was the heart and soul of our team at the time when he was killed. I think that really knocked us back as a club, certainly as a team it knocked us back for a good while. It was just great to do it and his memory was there very much so on the day.
“He was a great player and a very modest player. Never looked for any of the limelight. To the lads he was just another player but he was special. Cathal (Adrian’s brother) is still playing and it was lovely to see his parents were there and his sister the day of the final. It was a very special moment.
“It was mentioned in the speech by team captain Stephen Coyne that day, that it was the efforts of all those people down through the years that had made this possible. A special mention was made to Adrian.”
In Tooreen hurling is at the top of their sporting priorities. They are an outlier in a county where football is the principal passion. Tooreen’s players play football with Aghamore.
Fergal Boland and David Kenny won All-Ireland U21 football medals with Mayo in 2016. Boland lined out for Stephen Rochford’s senior side last season.
But despite the lure of football, they keep hurling going.
“We’re close to Roscommon and Galway, a little pocket based in east Mayo that nearly touches both counties,” says Greally.
“There are only four senior hurling clubs in Mayo – ourselves, Ballyhaunis, Castlebar and Westport. There were six before with Belmullet and Ballina but there’s only four now.
“Our own club is nearly 60 years old and for many of those years lads from Ballyhaunis would have played with Tooreen. About 25 years ago Ballyhaunis set up their own club after many years.
“It took them a while to win their first county final and they took over then for a while. But thankfully we’re back again.
“It seems when it was set up by Michael Henry 60 years ago that it just took off. Michael would have gone to secondary school in St Mary’s in Galway. That’s where he kind of got the bug for it.
“More young lads started playing and it just got going. At the moment now all young people play hurling. Many of them play football as well but their first preference would be hurling.
“There seems to be a love for the game in this area that isn’t elsewhere in Mayo unfortunately. In fairness Keith Higgins in Ballyhaunis would have always said hurling is his first love even though he’s a fantastic footballer. For people that have played it, I think hurling is that bit more special. We’re biased here but that’s how we feel anyway.”
They now stand a game away from featuring in Croke Park. A bunch of Tooreen players lined out there for Mayo in their Nicky Rackard Cup triumph in 2016.
Leinster kingpins St Patrick’s Ballyragget are the obstacle they must overcome to secure a spot in the decider in early February.
“They’re Kilkenny champions and you can’t go much higher than that,” says Greally.
“It really adds to the whole occasion. I’d say there’ll be very few left in the parish on Saturday. There’s huge interest.”
The42 has just published its first book, Behind The Lines, a collection of some of the year’s best sports stories. Pick up your copy in Eason’s, or order it here today (€10):
