WITH ALL THE changes to the Gaelic Games calendar, it is nonetheless 35 years to the very week that Clare champions Eire Óg were last heading into a Munster club final, at that time shrouded in some good old-fashioned pot-boiling controversy.
Some of this is lost in the midst of time, but the fact is that Ciaran Carey did not play in that final for Patrickswell.
He had been sent off in a previous game and there was bad blood arising from the incident with the Limerick champions believing that the Munster Council had been given a nudge by Eire Óg to suspend him for the final.
In any event, Carey did not play. It didn’t affect them unduly as they won 0-8 to 0-6. But they refused to let Eire Óg representatives into their dressing room after to offer their congratulations.
“It was a very sour atmosphere on the day and I remember Bishop Willie Walsh was a selector. I think he got a lot of stuff,” recalls the Eire Óg captain of 1990, Micheál Glynn.
“He was a lovely man. A gentleman of the highest order.
“So, it was very bitter on their side for whatever reason.”
That was the Clare sides’ sole appearance in a Munster final. It has taken ‘The Townies’ 35 years to get back to this stage, when they face the daunting prospect of Ballygunner this Sunday (3pm, FBD Semple Stadium, Thurles).
“It was a game we should have won. I think we missed a penalty and a couple of easy goal chances. It was like our county final actually, or very close to it,” says Glynn now.
“But that was our big chance. The Bridge (Sixmilebridge) might have gone close the year before that.
Advertisement
“Now, we left it there, really. They had a man sent off that day (Paul Foley, with four minutes to half-time). But that got them going. In fairness to Patrickswell they were a good team. I still felt we should have handled it, with a man up and should have pushed on.
“We had the ability, but we just didn’t have the killer instinct and it was a big regret.”
He continues, “It would have been a lovely one to win, because at that time, Clare teams won very little inside or outside of Munster. When it came to hurling, there was an inferiority complex. That was changed a few years later then, when Ger Loughnane came on board.”
A look back at hurling of that era is revelatory. The Clare county final was a blustery afternoon in Cusack Park and Eire Óg won the ultimate arm-wrestle 1-5 to 1-3 against O’Callaghan Mills, who hit their goal in time added on.
Some years after, Glynn’s daughter brought a tape of that game home from school. It didn’t make for pleasant viewing.
“Well sure at that time, you might have trained twice a week, for an hour and a half at a time,” explains Glynn, a solicitor with a practice in Limerick city.
“Now, they have everything suited to them. They are so much fitter than we were. They play to a pattern and plan. When we got the ball in the backs, you drove it as far as you could towards the ‘D’ and let the forwards forage for it.
“But now, and I was down below in the game against Loughmore Castleiney and was low on the sideline. And I could see the organisation, the planning… Everything is so purposeful now.
“The club scene is not far off the county scene now, especially among the stronger clubs. It’s a totally different bracket from when we were playing. It was leisure for us.”
And in some ways, the way the game is now might have appealed to the exacting and precise nature of a man like Glynn. But not entirely.
“The only thing I would say is, the club scene becomes more like a county scene, lads are giving up their life. Sometimes I think would you be better off to play a game of soccer there on a Sunday morning and go for a pint afterwards.
“But that’s the way the club scene is gone. It’s probably good for the clubs, I am just talking about a personal sacrifice thing, you have given an awful lot in the best years of your life. There’s more to life than sport, but it is a great discipline for young lads to be able to sacrifice things to compete at that level and be so focussed.”
After retirement, Glynn took the Eire Óg team with Pete Barry, the goalscorer of the 1990 county final.
They made it back to county final day in 2000. It was an unlikely achievement, given they had beaten St Joseph’s Doora-Barefield in the semi-final, who had been All-Ireland champions on St Patrick’s Day, 1999.
But when it came to the county final, they were bullied by a ravenous Sixmilebridge team who won 4-9 to 1-8.
“When we met the Bridge in the final, ah, we didn’t turn up on the day. Our lads got overawed a bit and I was surprised by the physicality of the ‘Bridge on the day. It was a regret we had, that we didn’t meet them halfway on that front,” he says.
“The Eire Óg team now, there is such a physicality.”
For sure. After the Munster semi-final win over Loughmore Castleiney at Sixmilebridge, the Eire Óg manager Gerry O’Connor described it as, “The most physical game of hurling I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Eire Óg manager Gerry O'Connor is congratulated by Loughmore Castleiney manager Eamon Kelly after the Munster semi-final. Natasha Barton / INPHO
Natasha Barton / INPHO / INPHO
It’s a cliché, but teams get surprised when it comes from a town team.
But Eire Óg have had it with hard luck stories. A look through their recent record shows how the graph has been rising.
In 2020, they lost a semi-final against Sixmilebridge by a point. One year later at the same stage it was a three-point loss to Inagh Kilnamona.
By 2022, they got to a final and were squeezed out by Ballyhea by a single point. It was three points to eventual county winners Clonlara in the 2023 quarter-final, while last year it was a two points loss to Inagh Kilnamona at the quarter-final.
Related Reads
Hayes hat-trick powers St Finbarr's past Éire Óg to book Munster showdown with Dingle
Shane O'Donnell: 'It's never been on my mind, it really is the stuff of dreams'
Éire Óg Ennis win extra-time thriller against Loughmore to reach Munster final
There’s a different feeling around the club now too. Take Aaron Fitzgerald as an example. One of 16 dual players who won the double in Clare this year, he lifted both county championships from the Cusack Park stand when they completed the feat, defending the Jack Daly Cup by beating neighbours, St Joseph’s Doora-Barefield.
And speaking of neighbours, nothing draws the ambition out of a club quite like seeing your nearest and dearest do big things. Eire Óg had to sit back and watch as clubs such as the aforementioned St Joseph’s Doora-Barefield, Ballyhea and Clarecastle went on to claim bigger and better prizes.
Perhaps they feel now, that this is their turn.
With that said, Ballygunner, playing in their seventh consecutive provincial final, are 1/8 on.
“I think Eire Óg will turn up. If they stay with Ballygunner and don’t let them get too far ahead, then they will be in with a shout coming down the home straight,” says Glynn.
“Eire Óg have been good this year, winning tight games throughout the whole championship. It was the other way round up to the last year, we used to lose games we should have won and there were a couple of games Éire Óg won this year that they might have or should have lost.
“So, fingers crossed, we are hoping for a good one!”
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Close
Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic.
Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy
here
before taking part.
'It was very bitter on their side' - 35 years after losing a Munster final, Eire Óg are back
WITH ALL THE changes to the Gaelic Games calendar, it is nonetheless 35 years to the very week that Clare champions Eire Óg were last heading into a Munster club final, at that time shrouded in some good old-fashioned pot-boiling controversy.
Some of this is lost in the midst of time, but the fact is that Ciaran Carey did not play in that final for Patrickswell.
He had been sent off in a previous game and there was bad blood arising from the incident with the Limerick champions believing that the Munster Council had been given a nudge by Eire Óg to suspend him for the final.
In any event, Carey did not play. It didn’t affect them unduly as they won 0-8 to 0-6. But they refused to let Eire Óg representatives into their dressing room after to offer their congratulations.
“He was a lovely man. A gentleman of the highest order.
“So, it was very bitter on their side for whatever reason.”
That was the Clare sides’ sole appearance in a Munster final. It has taken ‘The Townies’ 35 years to get back to this stage, when they face the daunting prospect of Ballygunner this Sunday (3pm, FBD Semple Stadium, Thurles).
“It was a game we should have won. I think we missed a penalty and a couple of easy goal chances. It was like our county final actually, or very close to it,” says Glynn now.
“But that was our big chance. The Bridge (Sixmilebridge) might have gone close the year before that.
“Now, we left it there, really. They had a man sent off that day (Paul Foley, with four minutes to half-time). But that got them going. In fairness to Patrickswell they were a good team. I still felt we should have handled it, with a man up and should have pushed on.
“We had the ability, but we just didn’t have the killer instinct and it was a big regret.”
He continues, “It would have been a lovely one to win, because at that time, Clare teams won very little inside or outside of Munster. When it came to hurling, there was an inferiority complex. That was changed a few years later then, when Ger Loughnane came on board.”
A look back at hurling of that era is revelatory. The Clare county final was a blustery afternoon in Cusack Park and Eire Óg won the ultimate arm-wrestle 1-5 to 1-3 against O’Callaghan Mills, who hit their goal in time added on.
Some years after, Glynn’s daughter brought a tape of that game home from school. It didn’t make for pleasant viewing.
“Well sure at that time, you might have trained twice a week, for an hour and a half at a time,” explains Glynn, a solicitor with a practice in Limerick city.
“Now, they have everything suited to them. They are so much fitter than we were. They play to a pattern and plan. When we got the ball in the backs, you drove it as far as you could towards the ‘D’ and let the forwards forage for it.
“But now, and I was down below in the game against Loughmore Castleiney and was low on the sideline. And I could see the organisation, the planning… Everything is so purposeful now.
“The club scene is not far off the county scene now, especially among the stronger clubs. It’s a totally different bracket from when we were playing. It was leisure for us.”
And in some ways, the way the game is now might have appealed to the exacting and precise nature of a man like Glynn. But not entirely.
“The only thing I would say is, the club scene becomes more like a county scene, lads are giving up their life. Sometimes I think would you be better off to play a game of soccer there on a Sunday morning and go for a pint afterwards.
“But that’s the way the club scene is gone. It’s probably good for the clubs, I am just talking about a personal sacrifice thing, you have given an awful lot in the best years of your life. There’s more to life than sport, but it is a great discipline for young lads to be able to sacrifice things to compete at that level and be so focussed.”
After retirement, Glynn took the Eire Óg team with Pete Barry, the goalscorer of the 1990 county final.
They made it back to county final day in 2000. It was an unlikely achievement, given they had beaten St Joseph’s Doora-Barefield in the semi-final, who had been All-Ireland champions on St Patrick’s Day, 1999.
But when it came to the county final, they were bullied by a ravenous Sixmilebridge team who won 4-9 to 1-8.
“When we met the Bridge in the final, ah, we didn’t turn up on the day. Our lads got overawed a bit and I was surprised by the physicality of the ‘Bridge on the day. It was a regret we had, that we didn’t meet them halfway on that front,” he says.
For sure. After the Munster semi-final win over Loughmore Castleiney at Sixmilebridge, the Eire Óg manager Gerry O’Connor described it as, “The most physical game of hurling I’ve ever seen in my life.”
It’s a cliché, but teams get surprised when it comes from a town team.
But Eire Óg have had it with hard luck stories. A look through their recent record shows how the graph has been rising.
In 2020, they lost a semi-final against Sixmilebridge by a point. One year later at the same stage it was a three-point loss to Inagh Kilnamona.
By 2022, they got to a final and were squeezed out by Ballyhea by a single point. It was three points to eventual county winners Clonlara in the 2023 quarter-final, while last year it was a two points loss to Inagh Kilnamona at the quarter-final.
There’s a different feeling around the club now too. Take Aaron Fitzgerald as an example. One of 16 dual players who won the double in Clare this year, he lifted both county championships from the Cusack Park stand when they completed the feat, defending the Jack Daly Cup by beating neighbours, St Joseph’s Doora-Barefield.
And speaking of neighbours, nothing draws the ambition out of a club quite like seeing your nearest and dearest do big things. Eire Óg had to sit back and watch as clubs such as the aforementioned St Joseph’s Doora-Barefield, Ballyhea and Clarecastle went on to claim bigger and better prizes.
Perhaps they feel now, that this is their turn.
With that said, Ballygunner, playing in their seventh consecutive provincial final, are 1/8 on.
“I think Eire Óg will turn up. If they stay with Ballygunner and don’t let them get too far ahead, then they will be in with a shout coming down the home straight,” says Glynn.
“Eire Óg have been good this year, winning tight games throughout the whole championship. It was the other way round up to the last year, we used to lose games we should have won and there were a couple of games Éire Óg won this year that they might have or should have lost.
“So, fingers crossed, we are hoping for a good one!”
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Ballygunner Clare Éire Óg GAA club Munster Final