Good article from '98

[True Red]

Long history for small
town with four in final
JUST HOW small is Clareen? Well - and this, to me, is the ultimate definition of small, in Ireland - it doesn't even have its own pub.
How do they celebrate? Where do they celebrate? And believe me, in recent times, Clareen has had much to celebrate.
Clareen is little more than a crossroads - "The second smallest parish in Ireland - about 400 people...", according to John Coughlan. A shop, a church, and a school. And a hurling team. Seir Kieran. But what a hurling tradition.
On Sunday afternoon, in Croke Park, the tiny parish of Clareen will have four representatives marching behind the Artane Boys Band. A fantastic achievement for a club the size of Clareen.
Three of those players aren't just from the one club - they're from the one family. And all in the forwards - Joe, Billy and Johnny Dooley have a natural understanding most managers can only dream of instilling. The fourth is full-back Kevin Kinahan - the stopper. Big families - in small parishes, the GAA is all about big families.
John Coughlan should know - "Well this is it, you see. As a matter of fact, there were five Dooleys in the Clareen team one year, and five Coughlans - that was ten, from two houses!". One of those houses was John's, and those five Coughlans could as easily have been six - the eldest son, Brendan, was away in Dublin. Another of those sons is the great Eugene, former Offaly full-back, while Michael and Liam also wore the tricolours.
A bit like Offaly themselves, it's only in recent years that Clareen hit the high spots, winning a couple of senior county titles. But - again like Offaly - the hurling tradition has always been there. John Coughlan explains: "Clareen was always a hurling parish - back as far as I can remember anyway. Back around the turn of the century, they were going well. I won three or four junior and intermediate counties with the club, in my time, but we were always short the couple of players needed to win the senior." Close, but no breakthrough.
Offaly also came close to the making the breakthrough in John's time: "The last time I played an inter-county match was against Kilkenny, in the Leinster semi-final in 1949 I think it was, in Portlaoise. They beat us by one point, and then won the Leinster Final well. So we were very close to winning it then..." Close, again. But again, no cigar. But I wonder how many All-Ireland titles would Offaly have now had they pipped Kilkenny then?
John Coughlan is now in his 80's, suffered the lean times - did he ever foresee this? "I couldn't. I never thought Offaly would win an All-Ireland in my time. Back in those days, there were good hurlers in the county, but there was no manager, nobody over them, nobody to tell them to come training. And I suppose they would have done better if there had been. There was too much parish rivalry - the county wasn't united like now."
He likes what he sees in the present bunch: "Oh begod they're good, they're good..." - as good as the team of he 80's? - "Well I'll tell you - that game against Clare in Thurles was a great game, great hurling. I said to myself all the time after the second half of the second game, when they brought in the two lads - Billy Dooley and Joe Errity - at half-time, and Offaly played very well in the second half, that it would be a great start for the third game. And it worked out that way all right."
Like a lot of Offaly old-timers, John used to be a Kilkenny supporter, in the times when Offaly were poor old Offaly. Now, though, he doesn't have too much sympathy for them anymore: "To be honest, I haven't - they have enough championships won! It's good to see new teams winning - isn't that it? We have a good chance, a fair chance - but you can never write off Kilkenny!"

Nobody in Offaly would.

Kelly's Bar in Breen Street in Birr is a hurling bar. Significant hurleys from various eras are on display, along with photographs of teams past, various hurling memorabilia. John Kelly and Finbarr Spain attend auctions together, each adding to the little museum.
I adjourned there for lunch the other day (no, not liquid! Strictly business - soup and a fine toasted sandwich...), in the hope of meeting with a few hardies. Initially, disappointment. One old lad in the corner looked promising, but he was attempting - in the uniquely Irish way - to engage a very young English visitor in conversation: "What soccer team do you support?" - "Manchester United..." was the flat reply. "Begod they're my team too!". Nothing from the sullen youngfella. "What position do you play?" - "Position? None yet - I'm too young...", replied the 10-ish looking visitor. "Well, I'll give you some advice - get up the forwards, score goals, and make millions!". The youngster was totally unimpressed. I was.
Eventually, John pointed me in the right direction. Michael Loughnane, Willie Rigney, Brendan Stephens, Kevin Madden - all in a tight group, all hurling. But surprisingly, it wasn't all about Sunday.
Michael is Chairman of Birr club, Willie one of his lieutenants on the Finance side. And Michael had a grouse: "In the last three months, we've started a major building project, a £400,000 development in St Brendan's Park - that's next door to Hoare's Field, where first All-Ireland took place, in 1888. I'm a bit upset at the moment, because we're not getting enough publicity for this. The papers, the television, only want to talk to the players, and to team management, but there's another angle to the GAA, and that's what the ordinary club members are doing.
"We've raised about 150,000 in cash in the last two years, but the final mortgage will still be about 150,000. We have a major draw taking place in the next few months, in conjunction with a GAA club in Kildare, and we hope to bring in about 30,000 from that. So we need a bit of publicity!"
Currently, Birr are All-Ireland club champions, and the town is surely the hub of hurling in the county. As Finbarr Spain says - "I'd say 20 or more of the Offaly panel at the moment are from within ten miles of Birr." They surely need a top-class ground and facilities, for players and fans alike.
Back to Sunday, and the subdued atmosphere in the county, in what should be a festive week. Willie Rigney reckoned it was apprehension, and he expressed his own concerns about what he called 'the Fennelly factor': "All the Fennelly's have to be feared - they're getting involved now in management, and doing very good jobs. Brendan manages Dunamaggin, and Kevin also manages Gowran, neither team very highly rated, yet they brought both to county titles lately."
Brendan Stephens, too, expressed his concerns about Kilkenny: "Kilkenny have won 25 All-Ireland's, lost only about 12, so they win two-thirds. That's a very good strike rate. I remember in '82 and '83, when Cork were hot favourites both years, yet Kilkenny had them beaten in ten minutes. They like to be underdogs...".
But it was left to 63-year-old Kevin Madden, former Birr Chairman, to sum it up: "There was more excitement when they were playing Clare. This is just the calm after the storm, waiting for the next storm - and waiting for Kilkenny to say something! It's a cat-and-mouse game, a bit!"
And that's it really. Of all the teams in Ireland, Offaly most respect Kilkenny. For decades, Kilkenny were their masters, and even when they did finally make the breakthrough in Leinster, in 1980, Moses was a Kilkenny-man - Dermot Healy. And the little touches he introduced that finally brought Offaly to the top table, were all little Kilkenny touches.
So, as Kevin Madden so concisely put it - it's a cat-and-mouse game. But Offaly? Mice? I don't think so!

[yokohama deise]

very intersting article!

Hopefully the bigwigs up in croke park won't forget that it is around clubs and especially small rural clubs that the whole organisation is built!