Emma Duffy

BEFORE THE TURN of the century, underage hurling was practically non-existent in Na Fianna.

From 1985 to 2000, they didn’t have the numbers to enter a team into the Dublin minor hurling championship.

Now, the Glasnevin outfit are in their first-ever All-Ireland senior club hurling final — after winning their maiden Dublin title in 2023, and Leinster crown last November.

They’re just the second team from the capital to reach the biggest stage, after Cuala, the 2017 and 2018 champions. Cuala also grace the Croke Park stage tomorrow for the All-Ireland senior football final, in an interesting trade of places. Na Fianna contested the Andy Merrigan Cup decider in 2000, but 25 years on, they’re eyeing historic small ball success.

For those at the heart of hurling in the club, the love of the game and passion runs deep. 

So too does family connection.

When The 42 approached Na Fianna with hopes to speak to someone about the resurgence of hurling in the club, Declan Feeney was the immediate suggestion.

“He’s has been one of the hurling stalwarts in Na Fianna over the past 30 years,” we’re told, “and was instrumental in driving forward our youth and underage structures that we are now reaping the benefits of at adult level.”

Feeney was also the senior team manager before Niall Ó Ceallacháin took charge, and he has two sons on the panel that will face Sarsfields of Cork: midfielder Peter and sub goalkeeper Oisin.

His late father, Pat, was among the club’s 201 founding members in 1955, and his uncle, Cathal Ó Fiannaidhe, named the club Na Fianna, so that it couldn’t be translated to English. The brothers were both All-Ireland minor winners with Dublin. 

Feeney brings us through the modern day landscape at the club, and its history. The 4000 adult members and burgeoning underage section; the 220 teams across all grades, male and female; the facilities on Mobhi Road and how they don’t actually own their pitch.

“We’ve huge numbers, our biggest problem is space,” says Feeney. “The land that we have for the main pitch that we have is on a 99-year lease from the Department of Defence. Any of the other pitches that we use are either rented, or we’ve two pitches that we use from the corporation. We’ve access to 10 pitches.”

Peter Feeney, Declan's son. Ryan Byrne / INPHO Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO

He paints the picture of a successful dual club in the fifties, sixties and seventies, before detailing the hurling struggles of the 1980s. That side of the house nearly collapsed.

“Something went wrong, I don’t know,” Feeney recalls. “I think the area just got old, and we ran out of young players. Hurling suffered in particular, numbers-wise. We went from 1985 to 2000 without any minor hurling team at all. 

“Effectively, we had no underage hurling. We had some, but not a whole lot. Some of the lads would have played with Setanta in Ballymun, just to go play.”

The club’s nursery was established in 1990, but football remained in focus. There’s a brilliant yarn about Waterford native Pat Fanning giving out lollipops to coax players to stay and hurl after football training.

Na Fianna eventually fielded minor hurling teams again from 2000. They reached back-to-back Dublin finals in 2006 and 2007, and went on to win five titles in six years from ’12 to ’17, including a hurling and football double in ’14.

In that period, the bulk of the current senior team passed through. Underage success takes some time to translate — not that it always does — but this is the fruit of much labour.

“The people that put the structures in place around the end of the 80s, they deserve huge credit,” says Feeney.

“Anybody and everybody that helped at the time to put a nursery together and get us the kind of numbers that we have playing hurling at the moment, it a was huge effort by them, and eventually success came.

“It’s just the love people have for the game. It’s highly unusual as a Dub to say that we have a love for hurling, not at the expense of football. We’ve a huge amount of people that just love the game. They’ve obviously impacted on the kids coming through, because they’ve embraced it. 

“The senior team are easy to follow, but people who keep hurling going at a much lower level, they’re the ones that deserve huge credit. To take a B, C or D team is much harder, and for me, they’re the stars of the show.”

A Dublin senior championship would have been Feeney’s personal dream.

An All-Ireland is in another stratosphere. 

Jack O’Connor (Sarsfields) and Sean Murphy (Na Fianna). Dan Sheridan / INPHO Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO

As the closest club to Croke Park, members will walk to GAA HQ together at 12pm tomorrow, with 2,000-2,500 expected in the parade.

“It’s a huge occasion for the club,” says Feeney.

“We’re lucky, we still have a couple of the founding members alive. Noel Clerkin, his grandson Diarmuid is on the panel. Of the founding members that we have, (there are) five grandsons involved in the team.

“To get where we are in hurling, there’s a huge connection going back to the founding members, it’s still there, it hasn’t gone.”

That connection runs deep within the Feeney family. Not only is this an extremely proud moment for Declan as a club stalwart and coach, but most importantly, as a father to Peter and Oisin.

“To see what it means,” he smiles. “I don’t know that there’s words for it.

“I’m just lucky that there’s a connection. My father died two years ago — he would have loved it, but would have said very little. I can’t imagine he was doing an interview for anybody, unlike me!

“The love of the game has always been there in the family. Me Da always told the story about his first trip to Croke Park to see his brother playing, brought down by the hand and over the ‘stiles, go down and wait at the other posts until they get there in the second half.

“That’s the novelty of it all. It’s just a passion.”