GARNISH GAA is a small club with big dreams.
Survival is a constant challenge for Garnish, nestled in Allihies on the western tip of the Beara peninsula.
For the furthest GAA club from Croke Park, keeping the show on the road has its challenges, but the community pulls together – they realise the importance of the GAA club to its locals.
It’s why Garnish is currently upgrading its facilities, to make sure it can offer its members the best possible experience.
‘We are in the process of putting up floodlights – we will be the only club in the Beara peninsula with lights sufficient enough to play football or hurling,’ explains chairman Ollie Rue O’Sullivan, a former Cork footballer and Beara captain.
‘Also, we are putting a walkway around the pitch with lighting. As soon as that is done, then there are the dressing-rooms and so on.
‘We are putting a big effort in to make our facilities as good as they can be. With rural depopulation and being where we are, it is hard enough to survive. We believe the GAA club is the focal point in every parish and it's important that they survive in rural Ireland – I am very vocal on this.’
Each of the three peaks provides its own challenge.
Keeping the doors to Garnish GAA Club open requires a huge buy-in from the local community, and Ollie Rue takes huge encouragement from the work being done right now. It’s the team effort off the pitch that gives teams on it the chance to play football.
‘Earlier this year we were faced with the prospect: do we fold, do we amalgamate, what do we do, but we made a conscious decision that we are going to continue as long as we possibly can,’ he admits.
‘There is good work being done in the national school, and we have underage teams at U18, U10, U12, and we are playing games and blitzes.
‘There is potential if we can keep a core of lads playing. It is junior B, and while there is the social element, we want to be competitive and we have lads who are more than capable of playing at senior level – it’s very important that we survive to allow these lads to play.’
The Beast of Beara is open to everyone.
In recent years Garnish has been very active with its novel fundraisers, to raise money for club development – like Ollie Rue points out, they want the best facilities for their members. These fundraisers are game-changers. They are also innovative. In 2021 there was the 1967 Massey Ferguson vintage tractor draw. Now it’s the Beast of Beara that lives up to its name – it’s a challenging, gruelling, testing half-marathon distance (21.1km) in the untouched wilds of Beara. Held for the first time last year, this adventure race is back again, roaring into life on Saturday, July 19th, at 11am.
‘After we raffled the Massey Ferguson tractor, we needed to have a fundraiser to keep funds coming into the club,’ Ollie Rue says.
‘We also needed a new concept for a fundraiser, and taking into account the picturesque area, we wanted to use the natural resources and that’s where the Beast of Beara came from.’
There’s a beauty in this Beast – it’s the fundraiser that brings an entire community together. The funds it generates are important, but so too is its social impact.
‘I can’t reiterate enough the amount of support we have got from people in the parish and who have left the parish,’ Ollie Rue says. ‘There are people in the parish not involved in the GAA club who have helped us with the promotion and marketing. David Dudley, from Allihies Men’s Shed, made the trophy. We base it in Allihies Community Centre. We got support from the Allihies Copper Mine Museum and the Lehanmore Community Centre.
‘We run the Beast, funds primarily go to the GAA club but we make a donation to all the other community groups within the parish.’
The Beast of Beara is open to everyone, so you can walk, jog, hike or race. There are three peaks on the route – 250m, Allihies Mine Trail; 200m, Teernahillane; and the lactic acid inducing 340m, Guala – that add to the challenge; it’s hard to find a rhythm. The trade-off is the stunning Beara backdrop. It starts and finishes in Allihies.
‘This is a great event to showcase the village too,’ Ollie Rue adds.
‘The weekend it’s on, the Eyeries Family Festival is on too, and as our event finishes, it’s starting in Eyeries which is just over the hill, so it’s going to be a great weekend. The Beara peninsula is unspoiled in so many ways and this is a chance to explore a different part of West Cork.’
The more you chat to Ollie Rue, the more you realise there is so much beauty in this Beast – the location, the Beast itself and how it’s bringing a community closer together to help its GAA club survive.
For more information, and details how to register, check out garnishgaa.ie/beastofbeara/
