AS THE CELEBRATIONS ensued in the aftermath of Mary I’s Fitzgibbon Cup triumph, members of the successful panel descended on the Liscarroll Churchtown Gaels club in Cork last night.
The North Cork side is home to team captain Colin O’Brien, who is one of just three Rebel representatives in the Mary I squad. Manager Jamie Wall of Kilbrittain, and Jack Murphy from Dromtarriffe, are the other two corners of the Cork triangle.
O’Brien was honoured to be hauling silverware over his shoulder as he returned home two days after Limeric’s Mary I ended a five-year wait for Fitzgibbon Cup glory. Dethroning UL and halting their three-in-a-row march was an added sweetener.
And on Monday night, the songs were being sung at high volume. Seán South of Garryowen was understandably on the setlist to get them all warmed up, and at some point in the night, the Banks of My Own Lovely Lee took hold of the crowd. Some of the Mary I crew didn’t know the lyrics, but O’Brien certainly did. And Jamie Wall had a good handle of the bars too.
“There was only myself and Jamie singing,” says O’Brien. “That was special.”
After lifting the Fitzgibbon Cup trophy on Saturday, O’Brien said that he and Wall had “been through a lot together.” The pair have known each other four six years, dating back to O’Brien’s days as a first year student studying a BA in Irish and Psychology, right through to his time pursuing a Masters in Primary School Education.
By now, he’s on first-name terms with the lecturers, such has been the length of his time walking the halls of Mary I. His teammates Jason Gillane of Limerick and Clare’s Diarmuid Ryan are in the same boat as long-term students, and 2024 was their last chance at winning the Fitzgibbon Cup for Wall. He was their hurling manager all the way through from their Fresher days.
“He brought a few of us along with him over the last few years.
“He gave me chances in Fitzgibbon when I was very young coming onto the panel. He’s instilled a great confidence into everyone. I don’t think there’s anyone of the 35, 40 fellas who’d have a bad word to say about him.”
O’Brien knew of Wall before starting college. His personal story was widely known within the Cork GAA community and beyond. Wall was a brilliant dual player who had represented Cork at minor and U21 level before becoming paralysed from the midriff down due to an abscess on his spine.
O’Brien attended a challenge game between Cork and Kilkenny in 2015 which was organised to raise funds for Wall. But that was all he knew of Wall’s story. It wasn’t until the pair met in Mary I that he got a chance to scratch beneath the surface.
“The way he gets on with life is absolutely unreal,” says O’Brien about Wall. Even in the last few years, he went to UL and graduated with a Business and Law degree after starting a new job and after spending four years in Mary I, and qualifying as a primary school teacher.
“He has a great mind for hurling, but Jamie would never really tell you, ‘You were unreal today.’ But you’d get the tap on the back or the little look that you’d know you did well. But if he has something to say to you, he’ll say it to you too. If you need a boost, he’ll tell you what to do. I couldn’t do it for a better man.”
UL were considered the favourites for that Fitzgibbon Cup final, and there was a lot of firepower in the team to support that claim. Players like Gearóid O’Connor of Tipperary, Limerick’s Adam English and Clare star Mark Rodgers gave Mary I plenty of reasons to be fearful of what might be waiting for them after throw-in at the Abbeydorney pitch in Kerry.
But Wall brought a calmness and reassurance to the dressing room that inspired a dream start for Mary I in the final. They were five points up after five minutes, and a goal from Devon Ryan arrived shortly after to send them on their way.
“He just laid it out, 15 on 15,” says O’Brien of Wall’s words to them before the game. “He told us that if we click, we can win these 15 battles. And then we had five or six lads to come in off the bench as well. He has a way with words to make it really simple. There’s no mad tactics with him. He works on match-ups and our style of play, so he breaks it down really simply so he’s not confusing us going out on the field.”
O’Brien played his part in securing the result, slotting over a late free to ultimately give his side a two-point win, and celebrations that will surely truck on for a few more days.
Wall’s influence is stamped all over their victory, just as it was when he managed Mary I to a Fitzgibbon Cup title in 2017.
“As I said in my speech, I could talk about him until the cows come home.
I’d say he’s just proud because he’s after bringing myself, Jason [Gillane] and Diarmuid [Ryan] through from first year all the way up to this. It was our last chance to win it.”
The42 is on Instagram! Tap the button below on your phone to follow us!
