IT WAS HIS father, John, who inspired and encouraged Peter O’Mahony to take up rugby in the first place, making him part of the furniture at Cork Con from his earliest days.
John O’Mahony is also known as ‘Con John,’ such is his dedication to the Cork club, and had his son playing for the U8s at the age of just five, while also helping out the senior team in any way he could as he grew up.
“I remember bringing a tee on for ROG [Ronan O'Gara] and they were big games in the AIL back then,” says Ireland flanker O’Mahony.
“My old fella would be looking after the corporate stuff and you would have had a tent on the side of the pitch with 500 people in it. You’d sometimes have 10,000 people in Temple Hill for games. I brought a tee on for ROG one day and I didn’t bring it on quick enough and he abused me.”
O’Mahony’s father was still playing in those days, meaning the young Peter was invariably involved too.
“Going to his games, he was playing Minor 4s, like, and I think he was in the second row at that stage but he was normally a centre. He wasn’t in great shape then and I don’t think he was supposed to be there at all.
“The subs on the sideline would be babysitting me, taking turns as they went on and off. Bringing pints into the dressing rooms afterwards, I lived up there and we were up there nearly every weekend, so he would have been the reason why I got stuck in.”
O’Mahony’s mother, Caroline, comes from a family of rowers, the Conroys, some of whom have starred for the Cork Boat Club, so it seems those genes have also played a part in his professional sports career.
While encouraging him to get involved with Con, O’Mahony’s father was never pushy as he showed talent early on.
“I probably wouldn’t have reacted overly well to that kind of thing,” says O’Mahony before explaining that his father coached some of his underage teams before realising it might be better to give him more space.
“I can be a bit contrary at times,” says O’Mahony with a knowing smile, “so he had probably had enough of me at that stage.”
O’Mahony has two younger brothers in Mark and Cian, the latter of whom is 11 years his junior, and sport was always heavily discussed in their home.
As Peter’s career took off through Con, his school days with PBC, Ireland underage teams, Munster, then at senior Test level, he has appreciated the support from those closest to him, although his father has learned not to offer any rugby-specific advice.
“He knows that I’d hang up the phone! They literally all think you’re the greatest thing ever. They’re warped from loyalty, which is great because on bad days, they’ll still think you’re great whereas you’re getting it from all angles from everyone else.
“We don’t discuss a huge amount of rugby. The old fella would tell me he thought I was great at the weekend or ‘this part went well’ but that would be it. You’d know after the game when you’d come up and he’d smile at me if it was a good one, that would be about it.”
While O’Mahony’s career has involved plenty of highs, he has experienced testing times too.
Among the peaks was the honour of captaining the Lions in 2017. With official tour skipper Sam Warburton slowly recovering from injury on the trip to New Zealand, O’Mahony first took on the role for the warm-up game against the Māori All Blacks.
His father managed to get out to New Zealand just in time to see that game in the flesh, with an emotional moment between the O’Mahonys caught on camera post-match, the Lions flanker reaching up to grasp John’s hand.
“That’s a great shot, he had literally just arrived and he made the game. They’re special moments.”
O’Mahony retained the captaincy through to the first Test against the All Blacks, leading Warren Gatland’s side out for their clash with the Kiwis in Auckland.
But after a 30-15 defeat in which Warburton came off the bench in place of O’Mahony, the Irishman was dealt a crushing low as Gatland opted to leave him out of the Lions’ matchday 23 for the second Test.
With Warburton leading the tourists to a victory in Wellington to send the series into a decider back in Auckland, O’Mahony played no further part for the Lions.
“It was tough, one of the tougher ones, but what can you do?” recalls O’Mahony. “Sam was there, obviously he’s a hugely accomplished international and Lion. I didn’t play well enough to probably earn a start the following week.
“So it was disappointing but I don’t think I could have a huge amount of complaints. I don’t think I played well enough in the first Test.
“Did I deserve to come off the squad fully? I don’t know but, look…”
As had been the case when he was first given the Lions captaincy, O’Mahony says there wasn’t much of a discussion with head coach Gatland when he was dropped.
“I got on well with Gats. I didn’t have a huge amount of interaction with him throughout the whole series. We got on well. I would have had a huge interaction with [forwards coach] Steve Borthwick, got on very well with him.
“Gats didn’t say a huge amount to me. He just said he didn’t have a spot for me that weekend. That’s rugby, it’s cut-throat.”
His family naturally played a part in O’Mahony recovering from that low and he counts himself lucky to now have his own little clann with his long-time partner, Jessica.
O’Mahony has had some difficult times during the current Six Nations, having been omitted from the starting XV for Ireland’s opener against Scotland.
21-year-old Caelan Doris came into the Ireland team at number eight for that game, with CJ Stander shifting to blindside flanker as O’Mahony was dropped to the bench.
Head coach Andy Farrell praised O’Mahony’s immediate reaction to being dropped, while the Munster captain also impressed off the bench against the Scots as Doris cruelly suffered concussion just three-and-a-half minutes into his debut.
“I’ll sound like Roy Keane here but I don’t know what people expected of me,” said O’Mahony of being left out.
“I would never be the person to be named on the bench and be moping around, taking away from the squad. I would never do that. I would pack it in if I thought I was that person. I tried to prepare the team as best as I could and to be involved in everything, as I would do if I was starting. That’s all I’d ever expect from anyone else.”
O’Mahony has been one of the Ireland’s better players in their opening three games of this Six Nations since, starting against Wales and England after playing most of the Scotland game.
Did being left out against the Scots initially light a fire under him?
“I suppose subconsciously it’s there but when the game kicks off, I’m not there thinking, ‘Come on, I’m gonna do something different’. You want to play and do well, that’s all I could do.
“It was incredibly unfortunate for Caelan so I felt hugely sorry for him. We met his parents the previous couple of days and they are really nice people so I felt hugely sorry for him but that’s rugby and unfortunately, we’ve all been there.”
30-year-old O’Mahony was as frustrated as anyone last week as Ireland dealt with the disappointment of defeat against England without another game ahead to rid themselves of the dejection.
But last Friday evening, O’Mahony headed home to Cork to be with his two young kids, Indie and Theo.
“Those are the hardest few days of our job, we never like losing,” says O’Mahony, “but it’s made a lot easier, I’m lucky enough to have kids.
“I remember coming back after losing big games and they weren’t there and you’d have it all weekend until you met back up. It’s great to get home and the kids don’t care whether you win, lose or draw.
“Although I took Indie to a Munster game recently and she said, ‘I hope they win by 100 points’ so that was the first time she had grasped the whole winning or losing. After that, she didn’t care, she was onto her bag of chips.
“It’s the same at the weekend, they just want to have the craic and it’s great.”
Dove Men+Care brand ambassador Peter O’Mahony was speaking at the Aviva Stadium last Friday.
