As though farming life doesn't already require immense dedication, having the time and talent to become a high-achieving sportsperson into the mix is particularly impressive. HELEN RIDDELL spoke to two of West Cork's finest recently.
Brian O’Driscoll
Road bowling is in twenty-two year old Brian O’Driscoll’s genes. His grandfather enjoyed the sport and in 2003, the year Brian was born, his late father Teddy O’Driscoll won the Munster junior B title, but lost out in the All-Ireland series.
Brian credits his father for introducing him to the sport.
“My interest in road bowling came from him, he got me into it from an early age.” Sadly Brian’s father passed away in September 2023, just days after Brian had won the All-Ireland Novice 1 Championship in Waterford.
Earlier this summer, Brian made his father proud by himself getting to the championship and bringing the All-Ireland cup back home to Drimoleague.
Now running the family farm in Castle Donovan where he rears dairy and beef cattle, Brian enjoys life on a busy farm and still manages to fit in time to travel to competitions.
“No two days are the same on the farm, I enjoy the work, I’m doing different things every day, but it can be hard to fit everything in. When you have cows to milk every evening, and you also have an evening score on that you have to travel to, it’s not easy and it can be tiring, but when things are going well with the bowling you don’t mind.”
As much as he enjoys working on the farm, Brian feels it’s vital to have an outside interest from farming. “You need to have an activity outside of farming, there’s a great social life with road bowling and you would meet a lot of young people from the local area.”
Most of the scores are local says Brian with a few taking place in the city or beyond and while he manages to get to most of them, he says there are times that the farm has to come first. “I might not be able to get to some throws due to work that needs to be done on the farm, but I do my best to work around it.”
Brian believes the physical demands of a farming lifestyle, stand him in good stead for his bowling.
“People ask me if I go to a gym and I teel them, the farm is my gym.”
With the main season now finished, there will still be a few local scores coming up says Brian, and he’s already looking forward to the next season, where he will step up to the Junior A and hopefully ensures an All-Ireland cup will make a return visit to Drimoleague.
Nicola Tuthill
Photo by Shauna Clinton/Sportsfile
Olympic hammer thrower, Nicola Tuthill from Kilbrittain is the go-to heavy lifter on her family’s dairy farm.
“I have two sisters and out of the three of us, I’m the one my Dad will come to first when there’s something heavy he needs help with moving on the farm.”
Nicola, (21) has always been involved in athletics but after trying hammer throwing at a local athletic camp, she decided to take it up full time. “I started hammer throwing when I was 12, and at 16 I decided to concentrate on the sport, a neighbour coached me for a while and then my current coaching team came on board.”
Her parents built a hammer cage on the farm for her to enable her to practice at home and although she is currently studying at Dublin City University to be a secondary school teacher, she still trains on the farm and gives a hand whenever she returns to West Cork.
“Growing up we’ve always helped on the farm, I’m not there that often at the moment with studying in Dublin, but anytime I come home I give a hand. My sisters are busy working and my training schedule, particularly having the cage on the farm allows me time to help out.”
She credits her father’s idea to install the cage with not just giving her more time, but also the rest of the family.
“Before that, when I was doing my junior cert, there was a lot of travelling to training, my mother drove me and my sisters would have been in the car as well. Having the cage here makes it a lot easier for everyone.”
In 2024, Nicola made it to the Paris Olympics where she achieved a throw of 69.90 metres, narrowly missing out on advancement to the final by just one metre.
The same year she recorded a personal best throw of 70.32 metres, becoming the second ever Irish woman to pass the 70 metre mark, and earlier this year, Nicola won the gold medal in the Under 23 hammer throw at the European Throwing Cup in Nicosia.
Nicola is currently training for the hammer throw world championships in Tokyo this September, and after that she’s thinking of the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
“Getting to Olympics in Paris was the pinnacle for me, it’s something every athlete aims for. I’m hoping to get to Los Angeles, but with injuries and everything else, it’s something you can’t take for granted.”
Between helping on the family farm, fitting in training and studying for her degree, Nicola barely has a minute to herself.
“I have a really busy college timetable, although I’ll be missing for a few weeks with going to Tokyo but UCD are very accommodating.”
However, studying and training doesn’t leave Nicola anytime for a part-time job.
“My training is my job at the moment. I’m very lucky in that I’ve got some sponsors and Sport Ireland are funding me, so that makes life easier as I don’t have to have a job outside of college.”
Eventually Nicola hopes to return to West Cork. “I think I will move back to Cork when I’ve finished college as my coaches are based here and it’s home.”
