KEEPING hurling alive in the far west of the Carbery division has never been an easy task.
Down the years places like Skibbereen, Bantry, Kealkil and Ballydehob made huge efforts to introduce hurling but very often those efforts faded out. More often than not, it took a stranger, a ‘blow-in’, to get the sliotar rolling and hurling up and running. Such a man is the present manager of the Gariel Rangers’ junior B hurling team, Kieran O’Brien.
A native of hurling-dominated East Cork, from the Russell Rovers club, he has hurling in the blood and is now on a mission: to resurrect hurling in the Schull/Ballydehob/Goleen area and to build the present junior B team into a title-chasing outfit. His task is not an easy one. O’Brien knows he is operating in a mainly football environment and has no doubt that if they hope to develop hurling, it will have to have the full cooperation of the football brigade.
Brian Dillon's Darren Lynch is dispossessed by Luke Nolan of Gabriel Rangers during the Co-op Superstores Confined JBHC at Ahiohill on Saturday evening.
‘Most of this junior team play football, only about three are hurling only,’ said a realistic O’Brien.
‘We have some footballers from Goleen – without them we wouldn’t be fielding today. I like to call it the Mizen Hurling Club. They all put in the effort. We try to fit in training with the football, after the football sessions. We used to go before the football, but this is working better and the numbers are okay. We’re working very well together.
‘You need to get in some hurling training on a regular basis. I concentrate on the basic skills, I firmly believe in the basics. The footballers do the fitness work and then we try to get in a bit of hurling. Back where I come from, March is for football and then, the summer for hurling but that’s not the case here. Football is the game here.’
There won’t be any overnight resurrection in Gabriels’ hurling fortunes, O’Brien is very down to earth about that. He knows that he is in for the long haul if he wants to set hurling on a solid, permanent basis in the area. He looks at the success of the present Cork hurling team as a plus in trying to promote hurling among the youth in the area.
‘I see the bigger picture for Gabriels’ hurling,’ said O’Brien, whose enthusiasm is infectious.
‘The present team has a lot of young lads, they’re still in their early 20s and are sticking around, which is a good thing. It is hard to keep it going. If we can just keep going until the next generation comes through, we’ll have a chance. It’s not a five-year job, it’s a whole generation.
‘With Cork hurlers going so well and the young lads watching it, there must be a positive from that. We’ll use every advantage we can get.’
The traditions of hurling in the past in Ballydehob, the present difficulties and the future for his young son are all on O’Brien’s agenda as he plans a path for hurling against all the odds.
‘Our hope, like all clubs, is to win something every year, but at present we aren’t up to the junior A grade,’ admits O’Brien.
‘We have to plan for the long term. I have a young lad who’s only two and I want him to play hurling when he grows but we have to give lads like him the opportunity. I keep reminding the lads here that Ballydehob had a great hurling tradition, that the club won a hurling county in 1989 before winning a football one. Ballydehob provided some great players for Farranferris. My wife’s uncle was Mike Dinneen who played senior hurling for Cork. There was always hurling here and now it’s our job to resurrect it and to keep it alive. We’ll give it our best shot.’
