AHEAD OF AN Ghaeltacht’s All-Ireland intermediate final this weekend, RTÉ’s Seán Mac an tSíthigh called into the home of a club stalwart.
He was there to get a sense of the excitement building up to the game for the Nuacht programme. But this was more than fulfilling his professional duty as a video journalist with the national broadcaster. An Ghaeltacht is his boyhood club and Mac an tSíthigh is a former player. He continues to reside on the western side of the Dingle peninsula, compiling and editing his footage from home.
He had just finished his interview with Tony Ó Sé when the tea was being poured and the conversation shifted from the present team’s extra-time heroics in Páirc Uí Chaoimh to another team’s past regrets. Ó Sé personifies everything you can imagine about the lifelong GAA servant. Player. Coach. Committee member. He has filled every possible role.
At almost 80 now, Ó Sé has attended less games in recent years due to poor health. But he feels life in him again now. He told Mac an tSíthigh about how An Ghaeltacht’s run this season has blessed him with a renewed energy which brought him to Páirc Uí Chaoimh for that famous win over Sallins of Kildare which was settled by a late Éanna Ó Conchúir free.
An Ghaeltacht players celebrate winning the All-Ireland intermediate semi-final last weekend. Nick Elliott / INPHO
Nick Elliott / INPHO / INPHO
But it wasn’t the excitement of today that he wanted to talk about when the recording was completed. It was a game from almost 22 years ago that took over their chat.
The switches that weren’t made. The chances left unclaimed. An Ghaeltacht’s first chance at All-Ireland senior glory that ultimately eluded them. The recollections slap all the harder for Mac an tSíthigh as he was corner back when they were bested by Caltra of Galway on St Patrick’s Day in Croke Park.
“It’s a thing that still sticks in the craw of people back here,” Mac an tSíthigh tells The 42. “The one that was left behind.”
****
Spiorad, Croí, Caid agus Teanga
It’s the mantra in An Ghaeltacht where Irish is the spoken word, where the music is vibrant and where the football is sacred. When translated to English, it reads Spirit, Heart, Football and Tongue.
The Caid is an old version of football played in the peninsula before the formation of the GAA, and even before the famine. Rival parishes would play each other and the aim was to get the ball back to your parish. There were no rules and no limits on how many could play.
In short, according to Mac an tSíthigh, it was an “old game of rough and tumble.”
And together, these are the four pillars of their Gaeilgeoir life.
Even in their lowest moments after losing the 2004 All-Ireland final, the West Kerry people still had a song in their heart. It brought some comfort to Mac an tSíthigh.
“I think the biggest thing I brought out of it was to see the community celebrate itself,” he says. “It was a very powerful thing to witness the sense of pride rising up in the people. And I think because of the dimension of the language back here, it brought a kind of an added fuel to the romance of the whole thing.
“We were coming from a very remote part of the country. Very few rural teams get to play in Croke Park at that level. It’s normally town teams from around the country that achieve that.”
In a 2019 piece with The Sports Chronicle, Marc Ó Sé — who also played in that 2004 All-Ireland final — discussed the importance of music in An Ghaeltacht, revealing that when they contested the 2000 senior county final, some of their fans were playing accordions in the stands of Fitzgerald Stadium.
Seán Mac an tSíthigh at the 2011 International Rules series for RTÉ. James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
His former teammate Mac an tSíthigh has similar memories. From the day of the All-Ireland final, he recalls some of their folks carrying a type of fishing boat through O’Connell Street, celebrating their heritage in a profound way on the biggest day in the club’s history.
“I have a memory of a Naomhóg being brought which would be the traditional fishing craft of West Kerry. It’s like a currach but we like to think it’s a lot more elegant than the Galway style of currach.
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“People bringing the music and people bringing the language and that we were from the western periphery of Ireland. Here we were bringing not just our football team, but bringing our sense of identity to the heart of the GAA.”
That sense of tradition is still being preserved in An Ghaeltacht by the current group chasing All-Ireland intermediate glory. In the aftermath of their semi-final win over Sallins, video footage emerged of Irish music being played in the winning dressing room. The musician was Cormac Begley and he played out a tune on his concertina which had the players clapping in time with the beat. A powerful moment capturing the enduring love of music in their area.
“He’s probably one of the leading lights in that whole kind of traditional music scene at the moment,” Mac an tSíthigh adds. “He was playing ‘To War,’ it’s a kind of a marching tune.”
****
It was a rapid rise for the West Kerry club. In 1992, An Ghaeltacht were crowned novice champions in Kerry which Mac an tSíthigh indicates is the equivalent of a Junior B title. They were Junior champions the following year and Intermediate honours followed in 1998 when they defeated their neighbours Dingle in the final.
By 2000, they were in the senior county final where they lost out to Dr Crokes but quickly recovered to win two of the next three top tier deciders. An Ghaeltacht was a club peppered with household names in 2003.
The famous Ó Sé brothers Darragh, Tomás and Marc were at the coalface while their brother Fergal was player/manager. Kerry star forwards Dara Ó Cinnéide and Aodán Mac Gearailt were also involved. Mac Gearailt’s brother Roibeard started on the half-forward line with him against Caltra while their other sibling Muiris came on as a substitute.
Mac an tSíthigh reckons that almost every other player who featured in the 2004 All-Ireland final represented Kerry at some grade too. But even with all that pedigree in the team, An Ghaeltacht suffers from the same affliction that affects many rural clubs – depopulation. That geographical complexity makes it difficult to remain competitive at senior and when their All-Ireland quest ended in such disappointment, Mac an tSíthigh notes the periods of struggle that followed after.
Aodán Mac Gearailt carrying the ball for An Ghaeltacht. INPHO
INPHO
“They’re essentially being educated for export out of here,” Mac an tSíthigh explains. He also points to the difficult commutes that players from his club often undertake from places like Cork and Limerick.
He faced a similarly punishing journey from the South Kerry peninsula where he worked as a heritage officer for the Department of the Gaeltacht. Even though he was still based in his home county, he still had a two-hour drive over and back for training. He made the switch to journalism in 2006 which ultimately signalled the end of his playing career with An Ghaeltacht.
“There aren’t any jobs to cater for their qualifications here in West Kerry. Obviously, there’s teachers, and I think we were fortunate with that team in 2004, we had a lot of teachers playing.
“Quite often on days like Sunday then, a bit like 2004, it’s a day where you encounter old faces, people who come home from Boston, from England. They’re coming home from Australia for this match, and it kind of hits you, ’God, he was a mighty player, that fella. If only we got a bit more out of him.’”
****
A crowd of 38,500 attended the 2004 All-Ireland final. It was the largest crowd since Corofin’s success in 1998, with supporters coming to Croke Park while the Hill 16 was being redeveloped. Such was the influx of fans, there were reports that some people were permitted into the stadium for free.
There were similarities between Caltra and An Ghaeltacht which contributed to the big turnout. Two small countryside clubs with high profile inter-county players on each side. An added layer to that was that it was a case of brothers versus brothers too. While An Ghaeltacht had their super clans, Caltra were powered by five Meehan brothers.
Enda and Declan started in the backs. Tomás was in midfield while Michael and Noel were playing up front. Another brother, Séamus, was on the bench that day.
Michael Meehan kicking a free for Caltra in the 2004 All-Ireland final. INPHO
INPHO
“Both counties would have had a lot of depopulation and you have a wide diaspora,” Mac an tSíthigh continues. “And an awful lot of people based in Dublin with connections in West Kerry would have come to the game.
“The amount of people that travelled home from the States, and from Australia was amazing. I think that can’t be underestimated, that that would have pulled a lot of neutrals as well. People who would be involved in promoting Irish language and Irish language speakers around the country would have come because there was an affiliation with a Gaeltacht team.”
Caltra were underdogs for the final and were even known as a team who battled relegation worry in Galway. And while Mac an tSíthigh has never watched the game back, he can still remember how his side underperformed while Caltra were unshakable.
The margin was just one point in the end, 0-13 to 0-12. An Ghaeltacht had one final chance to snatch victory when Ó Cinnéide was presented with a shot at goal, but his effort sailed over.
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“You’re trying everything and they have the momentum,” says Mac an tSíthigh.
“All the small things you missed during the game all start to add up and prove so costly. We didn’t find our rhythm on the day and Caltra got great momentum.
“There was such disappointment there. The galling thing about it was, for a rural club like ourselves and the way our club evolved, you know you only get one shot at something like that. And it was just a shame we couldn’t see it through.”
A few months after the All-Ireland final, Mac an tSíthigh was in the Czech Republic attending a wedding for a friend from college. He flew out with a mutual acquaintance. After dropping off their bags in their hotel room, the pair went downstairs and headed towards the bar.
A familiar face greeted Mac an tSíthigh at the high stools, resalting the wounds that had not even begun to heal.
“Noel Meehan kicked three or four points off me that day. He was the last man I wanted to see.
“Lovely fella and we had a great chat. I remember him saying that he could put his hand on his heart and say that they never played as well as they did that day. And, Jesus, it was like salt into the wound to hear that because we really underperformed.”
****
An Ghaeltacht fans playing music in the stands on county final day in 2003. INPHO
INPHO
22 years on, and that chance Mac an tSíthigh thought An Ghaeltacht might never have again has come back around. Another group hoping to create another legacy.
There are some links between the past and the present too. Fergal Ó Sé is the manager again while his backroom team includes Ó Cinnéide, Aodán Mac Gearailt and Conall Ó Cruadhlaoich who were the full-forward line in 2004.
“I’d say all three of them were getting injections before the game,” Mac an tSíthigh says. “It was a disaster.”
The Ó Sé name also lives on through Pádraig, son of the late, great Paidí, and a cousin of Fergal, Darragh, Marc and Tomás. In place of Galway opposition, it’s the Derry outfit Glenullin who will provide the challenge in Croke Park this time. A reunion is also planned, where memories will flow and the intervening years will feel like no time at all.
In the midst of all that reminiscing, they will also think of Tomás Ó Conchúir, their half-forward from 2004 who has passed away since. Some of the current An Ghaeltacht team were coached by Mac an tSíthigh and Tomás at U14 level, including last week’s match-winner Éanna Ó Chonchúir and Kerry star Brian Ó Beaglaoich. They will remember him too as they take to the pitch.
And, as always, the Spiorad, Croí, Caid agus Teanga continues to steer An Ghaeltacht’s cause forward. After such a long wait, they will be hoping that this is their lá eile.
“It’s lovely to see the energy that a new generation now is coming with,” Mac an tSíthigh concludes.
“And even talking to old Tony Ó Sé today at his kitchen table, like that’s where he was drawing the real enjoyment out of, to see this younger crew now coming like.
“You almost got the sense that this was going to give him an appetite for matches for the next 10 years to see how this team progresses.”
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Kerry's An Ghaeltacht bringing Spiorad, Croí agus Teanga back to All-Ireland final 22 years on
AHEAD OF AN Ghaeltacht’s All-Ireland intermediate final this weekend, RTÉ’s Seán Mac an tSíthigh called into the home of a club stalwart.
He was there to get a sense of the excitement building up to the game for the Nuacht programme. But this was more than fulfilling his professional duty as a video journalist with the national broadcaster. An Ghaeltacht is his boyhood club and Mac an tSíthigh is a former player. He continues to reside on the western side of the Dingle peninsula, compiling and editing his footage from home.
He had just finished his interview with Tony Ó Sé when the tea was being poured and the conversation shifted from the present team’s extra-time heroics in Páirc Uí Chaoimh to another team’s past regrets. Ó Sé personifies everything you can imagine about the lifelong GAA servant. Player. Coach. Committee member. He has filled every possible role.
At almost 80 now, Ó Sé has attended less games in recent years due to poor health. But he feels life in him again now. He told Mac an tSíthigh about how An Ghaeltacht’s run this season has blessed him with a renewed energy which brought him to Páirc Uí Chaoimh for that famous win over Sallins of Kildare which was settled by a late Éanna Ó Conchúir free.
But it wasn’t the excitement of today that he wanted to talk about when the recording was completed. It was a game from almost 22 years ago that took over their chat.
The switches that weren’t made. The chances left unclaimed. An Ghaeltacht’s first chance at All-Ireland senior glory that ultimately eluded them. The recollections slap all the harder for Mac an tSíthigh as he was corner back when they were bested by Caltra of Galway on St Patrick’s Day in Croke Park.
“It’s a thing that still sticks in the craw of people back here,” Mac an tSíthigh tells The 42. “The one that was left behind.”
****
Spiorad, Croí, Caid agus Teanga
It’s the mantra in An Ghaeltacht where Irish is the spoken word, where the music is vibrant and where the football is sacred. When translated to English, it reads Spirit, Heart, Football and Tongue.
The Caid is an old version of football played in the peninsula before the formation of the GAA, and even before the famine. Rival parishes would play each other and the aim was to get the ball back to your parish. There were no rules and no limits on how many could play.
In short, according to Mac an tSíthigh, it was an “old game of rough and tumble.”
And together, these are the four pillars of their Gaeilgeoir life.
Even in their lowest moments after losing the 2004 All-Ireland final, the West Kerry people still had a song in their heart. It brought some comfort to Mac an tSíthigh.
“I think the biggest thing I brought out of it was to see the community celebrate itself,” he says. “It was a very powerful thing to witness the sense of pride rising up in the people. And I think because of the dimension of the language back here, it brought a kind of an added fuel to the romance of the whole thing.
“We were coming from a very remote part of the country. Very few rural teams get to play in Croke Park at that level. It’s normally town teams from around the country that achieve that.”
In a 2019 piece with The Sports Chronicle, Marc Ó Sé — who also played in that 2004 All-Ireland final — discussed the importance of music in An Ghaeltacht, revealing that when they contested the 2000 senior county final, some of their fans were playing accordions in the stands of Fitzgerald Stadium.
His former teammate Mac an tSíthigh has similar memories. From the day of the All-Ireland final, he recalls some of their folks carrying a type of fishing boat through O’Connell Street, celebrating their heritage in a profound way on the biggest day in the club’s history.
“I have a memory of a Naomhóg being brought which would be the traditional fishing craft of West Kerry. It’s like a currach but we like to think it’s a lot more elegant than the Galway style of currach.
“People bringing the music and people bringing the language and that we were from the western periphery of Ireland. Here we were bringing not just our football team, but bringing our sense of identity to the heart of the GAA.”
That sense of tradition is still being preserved in An Ghaeltacht by the current group chasing All-Ireland intermediate glory. In the aftermath of their semi-final win over Sallins, video footage emerged of Irish music being played in the winning dressing room. The musician was Cormac Begley and he played out a tune on his concertina which had the players clapping in time with the beat. A powerful moment capturing the enduring love of music in their area.
“He’s probably one of the leading lights in that whole kind of traditional music scene at the moment,” Mac an tSíthigh adds. “He was playing ‘To War,’ it’s a kind of a marching tune.”
****
It was a rapid rise for the West Kerry club. In 1992, An Ghaeltacht were crowned novice champions in Kerry which Mac an tSíthigh indicates is the equivalent of a Junior B title. They were Junior champions the following year and Intermediate honours followed in 1998 when they defeated their neighbours Dingle in the final.
By 2000, they were in the senior county final where they lost out to Dr Crokes but quickly recovered to win two of the next three top tier deciders. An Ghaeltacht was a club peppered with household names in 2003.
The famous Ó Sé brothers Darragh, Tomás and Marc were at the coalface while their brother Fergal was player/manager. Kerry star forwards Dara Ó Cinnéide and Aodán Mac Gearailt were also involved. Mac Gearailt’s brother Roibeard started on the half-forward line with him against Caltra while their other sibling Muiris came on as a substitute.
Mac an tSíthigh reckons that almost every other player who featured in the 2004 All-Ireland final represented Kerry at some grade too. But even with all that pedigree in the team, An Ghaeltacht suffers from the same affliction that affects many rural clubs – depopulation. That geographical complexity makes it difficult to remain competitive at senior and when their All-Ireland quest ended in such disappointment, Mac an tSíthigh notes the periods of struggle that followed after.
“They’re essentially being educated for export out of here,” Mac an tSíthigh explains. He also points to the difficult commutes that players from his club often undertake from places like Cork and Limerick.
He faced a similarly punishing journey from the South Kerry peninsula where he worked as a heritage officer for the Department of the Gaeltacht. Even though he was still based in his home county, he still had a two-hour drive over and back for training. He made the switch to journalism in 2006 which ultimately signalled the end of his playing career with An Ghaeltacht.
“There aren’t any jobs to cater for their qualifications here in West Kerry. Obviously, there’s teachers, and I think we were fortunate with that team in 2004, we had a lot of teachers playing.
“Quite often on days like Sunday then, a bit like 2004, it’s a day where you encounter old faces, people who come home from Boston, from England. They’re coming home from Australia for this match, and it kind of hits you, ’God, he was a mighty player, that fella. If only we got a bit more out of him.’”
****
A crowd of 38,500 attended the 2004 All-Ireland final. It was the largest crowd since Corofin’s success in 1998, with supporters coming to Croke Park while the Hill 16 was being redeveloped. Such was the influx of fans, there were reports that some people were permitted into the stadium for free.
There were similarities between Caltra and An Ghaeltacht which contributed to the big turnout. Two small countryside clubs with high profile inter-county players on each side. An added layer to that was that it was a case of brothers versus brothers too. While An Ghaeltacht had their super clans, Caltra were powered by five Meehan brothers.
Enda and Declan started in the backs. Tomás was in midfield while Michael and Noel were playing up front. Another brother, Séamus, was on the bench that day.
“Both counties would have had a lot of depopulation and you have a wide diaspora,” Mac an tSíthigh continues. “And an awful lot of people based in Dublin with connections in West Kerry would have come to the game.
“The amount of people that travelled home from the States, and from Australia was amazing. I think that can’t be underestimated, that that would have pulled a lot of neutrals as well. People who would be involved in promoting Irish language and Irish language speakers around the country would have come because there was an affiliation with a Gaeltacht team.”
Caltra were underdogs for the final and were even known as a team who battled relegation worry in Galway. And while Mac an tSíthigh has never watched the game back, he can still remember how his side underperformed while Caltra were unshakable.
The margin was just one point in the end, 0-13 to 0-12. An Ghaeltacht had one final chance to snatch victory when Ó Cinnéide was presented with a shot at goal, but his effort sailed over.
“You’re trying everything and they have the momentum,” says Mac an tSíthigh.
“All the small things you missed during the game all start to add up and prove so costly. We didn’t find our rhythm on the day and Caltra got great momentum.
“There was such disappointment there. The galling thing about it was, for a rural club like ourselves and the way our club evolved, you know you only get one shot at something like that. And it was just a shame we couldn’t see it through.”
****
A few months after the All-Ireland final, Mac an tSíthigh was in the Czech Republic attending a wedding for a friend from college. He flew out with a mutual acquaintance. After dropping off their bags in their hotel room, the pair went downstairs and headed towards the bar.
A familiar face greeted Mac an tSíthigh at the high stools, resalting the wounds that had not even begun to heal.
“Noel Meehan kicked three or four points off me that day. He was the last man I wanted to see.
“Lovely fella and we had a great chat. I remember him saying that he could put his hand on his heart and say that they never played as well as they did that day. And, Jesus, it was like salt into the wound to hear that because we really underperformed.”
****
22 years on, and that chance Mac an tSíthigh thought An Ghaeltacht might never have again has come back around. Another group hoping to create another legacy.
There are some links between the past and the present too. Fergal Ó Sé is the manager again while his backroom team includes Ó Cinnéide, Aodán Mac Gearailt and Conall Ó Cruadhlaoich who were the full-forward line in 2004.
“I’d say all three of them were getting injections before the game,” Mac an tSíthigh says. “It was a disaster.”
The Ó Sé name also lives on through Pádraig, son of the late, great Paidí, and a cousin of Fergal, Darragh, Marc and Tomás. In place of Galway opposition, it’s the Derry outfit Glenullin who will provide the challenge in Croke Park this time. A reunion is also planned, where memories will flow and the intervening years will feel like no time at all.
In the midst of all that reminiscing, they will also think of Tomás Ó Conchúir, their half-forward from 2004 who has passed away since. Some of the current An Ghaeltacht team were coached by Mac an tSíthigh and Tomás at U14 level, including last week’s match-winner Éanna Ó Chonchúir and Kerry star Brian Ó Beaglaoich. They will remember him too as they take to the pitch.
And, as always, the Spiorad, Croí, Caid agus Teanga continues to steer An Ghaeltacht’s cause forward. After such a long wait, they will be hoping that this is their lá eile.
“It’s lovely to see the energy that a new generation now is coming with,” Mac an tSíthigh concludes.
“And even talking to old Tony Ó Sé today at his kitchen table, like that’s where he was drawing the real enjoyment out of, to see this younger crew now coming like.
“You almost got the sense that this was going to give him an appetite for matches for the next 10 years to see how this team progresses.”
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An Ghaeltacht GAA Gaelic Football Kerry GAA Lá Eile Seán Mac an tSíthigh