AS THE WEEK begun, the good people of Midleton, led by club Chairman John Fenton, were not hanging out the bunting around the town for a county final; they were adding to it.
Their U14 camogs were in the county final and fell short to St Catherine’s. But all the same, the colours were flying high to celebrate their progress of the camogie wing of the club, just nine years after it was founded.
Now, even more black and white colours have been hung out as they face Sarsfields in the senior hurling final.
As it happens, the two also faced off in the final a decade ago, the one that came to be known as ‘The Conor Lehane Final’ as he scored 2-10, 2-7 from play.
Midleton, and hurling, is a very different country now for Fenton and few are aware of the fleeting nature of success like him.
In his playing prime as one of Cork’s finest-ever players, the club reached the final in 1983, their first since 1938, but they hadn’t won it since 1916.
40 years on, the club is a rolling juggernaut. The population of the area has exploded and they have bolted on ladies’ football and camogie teams on.
In his own club career, respect was hard won. Midleton wouldn’t have been thought of as a fashionable club.
“When we started off first, when Midleton GAA was founded, our primary focus was on football and we were the first Cork football team to win an All-Ireland title for Cork in 1890,” he proudly states.
“After that then, the team kind of disbanded and by the early 1900’s, hurling was taking over. We had two great victories with our county champions in 1914 and 1916. We also won the Croke Cup in 1914. We qualified for the final in 1938, but it was 1983 until we next reached the final.
“So to win against the Barr’s on the 9th of October 1983, I think for every one of us involved, it was probably the greatest day in our sporting life.”
They had paid their dues. For four years previous they had met the Barr’s at the final stage and lost each time, watching on as the Barr’s won titles in 1980, ’81 and ’82.
Almost a fortnight ago, they were in the infinity more preferable position of halting Barr’s gallop in a county semi-final. On the sideline for Barr’s was Ger Cunningham, who had broken their hearts so many times as the guardian of the goals.
This is their fourth appearance in the final in the last decade, but it never gets old.
“The excitement around Midleton for the two weeks before the county final in 1983 was absolutely palpable. You could feel it in the air,” Fenton reminisces.
“The bunting was up around the town, not as much as we have now. But our membership back then was around a quarter of what it is now, so we have a lot more playing members and underage members.
“So we have to reach out to these young lads, to our camogie teams, to our ladies’ football teams. We are all part of the one club. We have to give them something to latch onto and aspire to down through the years.
“When we reached county finals in the last couple of years, we have always decked out the town and put up the bunting. Everybody knows how special an occasion it is as a club and for the town of Midleton, as a town, a community and an area.”
As well as working for G4S, Fenton had an unusual hobby for a former intercounty hurler with his deep interest in local history. It led him to publishing a book in 2012 about a colourful chapter in the ‘60s when they felt the echoes of the Cromwellian Conquest in 1649. It’s called ‘When Midleton Town Was Sold.’
“It’s going back to the 1650’s after the arrival of Cromwell, there is a guy St John Brodrick who was one of Cromwell’s soldiers,” he explains.
“When Cromwell took over the country and took over the land, this guy got thousands of acres around Cork, Waterford, Dublin and particularly around Midleton.
“So he took over most of the town and his descendants held leaseholds and freeholds in Midleton in 1964, when the Viscount Midleton, the last Viscount to have financial interest in the town, sold his interest to local guys through his agent and solicitor.
“What they did then with the properties, they started upping the freehold rents and there was two years of a lot of strife before eventually the leaseholders and the tenants bought out the rights to their property. It went on for about two years.
“It started in the 11th of December 1964 when the announcement first appeared in the papers and it finished up in August 1966.”
Fenton made a rich contribution to the GAA’s Oral History project, detailing how he introduced a version of Road hurling to his club over 40 years ago. Versions of it have sprung up all over Cork since.
“I played in the Cooley Mountains, at the Poc Fáda. When I came home, we were looking for an idea to do something and so in 1982, we started a thing on St Stephen’s morning where we went up to Lisgoold, 8 kilometres from us and we had a version of the Poc Fáda in the Cooley Mountains, only going down the road to Midleton.”
They do it in teams of three, senior players mixing with coaches, supporters and committee members, each taking their turn for a shot. They make their way back to the clubhouse where they have soup and refreshments, while donations are handed over to charity.
“There’s a tremendous culture there now,” Fenton exclaims.
“We have ladies’ football and we have camogie and we are making great strides, both of them. And seven years ago we bought 37 acres of land and we are developing that into pitches as well.
“We will need it. Because when I was growing up, the population of the Midleton area was probably around 2,500. It’s five times that now and is going to grow by another five to 10 thousand in the next 20 years. It is going to be a big place.”
Onto the final. Cork club hurling is something of a bearpit, as Glen Rovers found to their cost this season with their relegation from the senior championship and an end to the status they had held for 97 years.
Neither team got out of their group stages last season. Denis Hurley of the Evening Echo dug out an interesting stat that held since the reformation of championship structures in Cork, it was the first time in 23 championships that two teams who didn’t come out of their groups, would contest the final the following year.
In a vast county like Cork, the 13 or so mile that separate them makes this feel like a derby that will be savagely fought.
There’s a democracy to the Seán Óg Murphy Cup. A Sarfields win would mean the fourth different winner in succession and they might feel they are coming in with the nice momentum of a dramatic 1-23 to 0-25 extra-time win over regional side Imokilly in the semi-final.
Whatever happens, for the man who slammed home one of the most famous goals of all-time, the long range groundstroke against Limerick that was voted in one the top five of GAA Moments in 2005, he won’t be urging his clubmen to let a few strokes on the floor go.
“I stay out of now, to be honest with you!” he laughs.
“We have a selection committee and I let them work away.
“I think of the teams that are playing this year, we certainly would be one regarded as playing with the more direct style. Not necessarily ground hurling, but certainly direct hurling, which is pleasing to see.”