A THOUGHT STRUCK the Clare FM commentator Syl O’Connor this week.
He was writing an article for the matchday programme of the county hurling final this Sunday in Páirc Chíosóg, Ennis.
He considered the two teams, Clooney Quin and Eire Óg, and the bottomless depths of hunger for both clubs, before totting up the numbers.
“It’s incredible,” he tells The 42.ie.
“The combined total of years without a championship between the two clubs is 118 years.
“It’s amazing like. With the way the club scene is in Clare, any one of eight, nine clubs could win the championship.
“It’s going to be a fantastic day for somebody. It’s been 35 years since Eire Óg won it and they are also in the football final, so they are going for a double.”
There are bearpits of championships and then there is the Clare hurling championship.
Come what may on Sunday, barring a replay this will be the 13th winner since the turn of the century. In the first eleven seasons of the new century, nine different clubs alone took home the Canon Hamilton Cup.
Again, this is all fresh and new.
The last time Clooney Quin won the Clare hurling championship, the crowd at Cusack Park numbered just over 2,000.
It was a remarkable number, given the restrictions that were in place in 1942, with World War II raging and limited means of travelling. Nonetheless, the parishes of Clooney and Quin, playing under the single title of Clooney against Scariff, were well represented with Mick Hennessy’s goal-scoring prowess edging them home for their first and only county title.
Hennessy was one of the best players, not only in Clare, but in Munster of the time. In the second half of one Munster championship game against Cork in 1936, he scored three goals in the second half.
Indeed, only for him there might not have been hurling in the area as he revived activity in the early ‘30s. The club play in green and red as he borrowed a set of jerseys from a friend in Mayo. One final remarkable feature; the same year he shot the club to their only county title, he refereed the All-Ireland senior final, as well as the final two years after that.
Even throughout his playing days, this singular figure also doubled up as the Clare county board secretary. Today, the club grounds in Ballyhickey is called the Hennessy Memorial Park.
There have been final defeats since, the 2017 replay loss to Sixmilebridge cutting deep.
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On that team was Donnchadh Murphy, who has taught as a national school teacher in both Clooney and Quin and knows every seed and breed of the current players.
Cut the Hollywood chase scene at the end of the movie, and this final is a shootout between Clooney Quin’s Peter Duggan, scorer of 1-10 in their semi-final win over Ballyhea, with Shane O’Donnell on the Eire Óg side.
“Mick Hennessy was the Peter Duggan of his era,” explains Murphy.
“He played for Munster, one of the best players in the country. In terms of descendants from ’42, Shane McNamara is still on the panel, his granduncles were the O’Hallorans and they had a huge part to play in the ‘40s teams and a number of them would have played for Clare as well.
Peter Duggan attempts to block Sixmilebridge goalkeeper Derek Fahy in the 2017 final. Tommy Dickson / INPHO
Tommy Dickson / INPHO / INPHO
“We are a fairly rural, close-knit parish and there are a lot of people who can trace their relations back to those that played in eras, which is nice. My dad would have played. My grandparents would have played and there’s a lot of families like that.”
In the meantime, they had their low spells. They spent the ‘80s and ‘90s pinballing up and down through the ranks before they landed the intermediate title in 2006 and have remained senior since.
The 2017 final offers some reference points.
Goalkeeper Cillian Duggan is still playing and was a wing-back in 2017. Jimmy Corry is the current captain. Peter Duggan and Ryan Taylor are the obviously reference points, along with current manager Fergal Lynch, who was the longest-serving Clare player on the 2013 panel that won Liam MacCarthy.
Fergal Lynch, Clooney Quin manager. James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
On Tuesday, Clare FM visited both primary schools. While Murphy was able to get into the excitement with the children at Clooney school, Lynch as Principal of Quin school was trying his best to keep himself scarce.
“He’s trying to keep the players’ feet on the ground and knowing Fergal, he will carry it very well. But this time to be a fan, putting up the bunting and flags and everything like that, it’s fabulous,” says Murphy.
As for Eire Óg, it was a rather football-looking scoreline in 1990 by which they triumphed over O’Callaghan’s Mills, 1-5 to 1-3. Despite being a fine and dry day, you’ve never seen a display of mullocking like it. Just watch the video for yourself. If it was Ulster football it would be called, ‘grimly compelling.’
Man of the Match that day was Barry Smythe. On a day for doughty hurlers, he held his end up. As O’Callaghan Mills poured forward towards the end, he deflected one goal-bound shot out for a ’65. In the final play of the game, Sean Hehir floated a free in towards the square, and Smythe caught it. The ball was in his hand when the final whistle blew and he took off in a Shane Lowry hop and skip.
Nowadays he runs Barry Smythe DIY in the Quin Road Business Park in Ennis, and might just be the only man in Ireland that still doesn’t bother with a mobile phone.
Which would preclude him from doing the other position within the club at the time, that of club chairman. It was a heavy load to bear, surely?
“It was, but that’s just the way things were and times were different. I was younger. I have drifted a bit. I still go to the matches but I don’t know the young fellas as well as I used to.
“Now, they are all into playing the hurling and football and treat it the same. We didn’t really give a shit about football. And I would have played Clare minor football.”
Back to 1990. Once Eire Óg got over O’Callaghan Mills, they were liberated, running up 2-16 to beat Roanmore of Waterford. The 2-5 they got in the semi-final was enough to get over Na Piarsaigh of Cork, but they could only manage 0-6 in the provincial final to lose by two points to Patrickswell.
It was an autumn of slog. But the thinking that they would be the following year, rolled into the next, and the next, and 35 years have gone by.
“Nobody thought that,” says Smythe.
“We had young team in 1990. I could name off ten players who had Harty and All-Ireland Colleges medals. Players who had played senior hurling with Clare. Colin Lynch (yes, that Colin Lynch) came on in that Munster club championship at 17 and he never won anything more with Eire Óg.”
In recent years, Eire Óg have not been far away, reaching the 2022 county final.
Shane O'Donnell against Ballyhea in the 2022 final. Ben Brady / INPHO
Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO
O’Donnell, while not reaching the heights of the in-form Duggan, is still a generational player, assisted by the neat and tidy promptings of David Reidy.
If one was on the hunt for excuses, they might generate one in saying that football is now at least on a par with hurling in the club, going as they are for their fourth football championship in five years when they meet St Joseph’s Doora-Barefield in the upcoming final.
The arrival of Gerry O’Connor as hurling manager has gelled things together, his experience as the former joint county manager with Donal Maloney helping greatly.
All eyes in Cusack Park will be trained on the headline acts on Sunday. For all they have achieved in the game, either Peter Duggan or Shane O’Donnell will be winning their first county title now.
“Within the county of Clare, I can guarantee you that there wouldn’t be a single person that would begrudge either one of them a county senior title,” says Syl O’Connor.
“There is so much respect there for both of them. You only have to go through their careers to know that.
“I suppose I have to day that if there is a slight, slight advantage this year, it would be that Peter Duggan is having slightly better, more high-profile year than Shane O’Donnell.
“And the simple reason for that is that Shane is being watched by one or two players every single time. Peter has a different style, but he is really on fire for Clooney Quin.”
Unfortunately, the TG4 cameras will be elsewhere on Sunday. But it would be worth anyone’s while to get along to this.
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The hunger games: The Peter Duggan and Shane O'Donnell Clare final face-off
A THOUGHT STRUCK the Clare FM commentator Syl O’Connor this week.
He was writing an article for the matchday programme of the county hurling final this Sunday in Páirc Chíosóg, Ennis.
He considered the two teams, Clooney Quin and Eire Óg, and the bottomless depths of hunger for both clubs, before totting up the numbers.
“It’s incredible,” he tells The 42.ie.
“The combined total of years without a championship between the two clubs is 118 years.
“It’s amazing like. With the way the club scene is in Clare, any one of eight, nine clubs could win the championship.
“It’s going to be a fantastic day for somebody. It’s been 35 years since Eire Óg won it and they are also in the football final, so they are going for a double.”
There are bearpits of championships and then there is the Clare hurling championship.
Come what may on Sunday, barring a replay this will be the 13th winner since the turn of the century. In the first eleven seasons of the new century, nine different clubs alone took home the Canon Hamilton Cup.
Again, this is all fresh and new.
The last time Clooney Quin won the Clare hurling championship, the crowd at Cusack Park numbered just over 2,000.
It was a remarkable number, given the restrictions that were in place in 1942, with World War II raging and limited means of travelling. Nonetheless, the parishes of Clooney and Quin, playing under the single title of Clooney against Scariff, were well represented with Mick Hennessy’s goal-scoring prowess edging them home for their first and only county title.
Hennessy was one of the best players, not only in Clare, but in Munster of the time. In the second half of one Munster championship game against Cork in 1936, he scored three goals in the second half.
Indeed, only for him there might not have been hurling in the area as he revived activity in the early ‘30s. The club play in green and red as he borrowed a set of jerseys from a friend in Mayo. One final remarkable feature; the same year he shot the club to their only county title, he refereed the All-Ireland senior final, as well as the final two years after that.
Even throughout his playing days, this singular figure also doubled up as the Clare county board secretary. Today, the club grounds in Ballyhickey is called the Hennessy Memorial Park.
There have been final defeats since, the 2017 replay loss to Sixmilebridge cutting deep.
On that team was Donnchadh Murphy, who has taught as a national school teacher in both Clooney and Quin and knows every seed and breed of the current players.
Cut the Hollywood chase scene at the end of the movie, and this final is a shootout between Clooney Quin’s Peter Duggan, scorer of 1-10 in their semi-final win over Ballyhea, with Shane O’Donnell on the Eire Óg side.
“He played for Munster, one of the best players in the country. In terms of descendants from ’42, Shane McNamara is still on the panel, his granduncles were the O’Hallorans and they had a huge part to play in the ‘40s teams and a number of them would have played for Clare as well.
“We are a fairly rural, close-knit parish and there are a lot of people who can trace their relations back to those that played in eras, which is nice. My dad would have played. My grandparents would have played and there’s a lot of families like that.”
In the meantime, they had their low spells. They spent the ‘80s and ‘90s pinballing up and down through the ranks before they landed the intermediate title in 2006 and have remained senior since.
The 2017 final offers some reference points.
Goalkeeper Cillian Duggan is still playing and was a wing-back in 2017. Jimmy Corry is the current captain. Peter Duggan and Ryan Taylor are the obviously reference points, along with current manager Fergal Lynch, who was the longest-serving Clare player on the 2013 panel that won Liam MacCarthy.
On Tuesday, Clare FM visited both primary schools. While Murphy was able to get into the excitement with the children at Clooney school, Lynch as Principal of Quin school was trying his best to keep himself scarce.
“He’s trying to keep the players’ feet on the ground and knowing Fergal, he will carry it very well. But this time to be a fan, putting up the bunting and flags and everything like that, it’s fabulous,” says Murphy.
As for Eire Óg, it was a rather football-looking scoreline in 1990 by which they triumphed over O’Callaghan’s Mills, 1-5 to 1-3. Despite being a fine and dry day, you’ve never seen a display of mullocking like it. Just watch the video for yourself. If it was Ulster football it would be called, ‘grimly compelling.’
Man of the Match that day was Barry Smythe. On a day for doughty hurlers, he held his end up. As O’Callaghan Mills poured forward towards the end, he deflected one goal-bound shot out for a ’65. In the final play of the game, Sean Hehir floated a free in towards the square, and Smythe caught it. The ball was in his hand when the final whistle blew and he took off in a Shane Lowry hop and skip.
Nowadays he runs Barry Smythe DIY in the Quin Road Business Park in Ennis, and might just be the only man in Ireland that still doesn’t bother with a mobile phone.
Which would preclude him from doing the other position within the club at the time, that of club chairman. It was a heavy load to bear, surely?
“It was, but that’s just the way things were and times were different. I was younger. I have drifted a bit. I still go to the matches but I don’t know the young fellas as well as I used to.
“Now, they are all into playing the hurling and football and treat it the same. We didn’t really give a shit about football. And I would have played Clare minor football.”
Back to 1990. Once Eire Óg got over O’Callaghan Mills, they were liberated, running up 2-16 to beat Roanmore of Waterford. The 2-5 they got in the semi-final was enough to get over Na Piarsaigh of Cork, but they could only manage 0-6 in the provincial final to lose by two points to Patrickswell.
It was an autumn of slog. But the thinking that they would be the following year, rolled into the next, and the next, and 35 years have gone by.
“Nobody thought that,” says Smythe.
“We had young team in 1990. I could name off ten players who had Harty and All-Ireland Colleges medals. Players who had played senior hurling with Clare. Colin Lynch (yes, that Colin Lynch) came on in that Munster club championship at 17 and he never won anything more with Eire Óg.”
In recent years, Eire Óg have not been far away, reaching the 2022 county final.
O’Donnell, while not reaching the heights of the in-form Duggan, is still a generational player, assisted by the neat and tidy promptings of David Reidy.
If one was on the hunt for excuses, they might generate one in saying that football is now at least on a par with hurling in the club, going as they are for their fourth football championship in five years when they meet St Joseph’s Doora-Barefield in the upcoming final.
The arrival of Gerry O’Connor as hurling manager has gelled things together, his experience as the former joint county manager with Donal Maloney helping greatly.
All eyes in Cusack Park will be trained on the headline acts on Sunday. For all they have achieved in the game, either Peter Duggan or Shane O’Donnell will be winning their first county title now.
“Within the county of Clare, I can guarantee you that there wouldn’t be a single person that would begrudge either one of them a county senior title,” says Syl O’Connor.
“There is so much respect there for both of them. You only have to go through their careers to know that.
“I suppose I have to day that if there is a slight, slight advantage this year, it would be that Peter Duggan is having slightly better, more high-profile year than Shane O’Donnell.
“And the simple reason for that is that Shane is being watched by one or two players every single time. Peter has a different style, but he is really on fire for Clooney Quin.”
Unfortunately, the TG4 cameras will be elsewhere on Sunday. But it would be worth anyone’s while to get along to this.
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Banner final Canon Hamilton Clare final clooney-quin Éire Óg Peter Duggan shane o'donnell