It’s hard to believe it is 25 years since Beara drew 1-10 apiece with Castlehaven following a pulsating Cork SFC county final in front of 16,000 spectators.
Harder still to imagine Beara’s 1-10 to 1-7 victory in the replay was watched by 12,000 paying customers at the same Páirc Uí Chaoimh venue.
Much has changed in the quarter of a century.
Yet the memories of that unforgettable campaign, both on and off the pitch, came flooding back to this week’s Star Sport Podcast guest Ciarán O’Sullivan.
On Sunday, O’Sullivan and the 1997 Beara panel will be introduced to the crowd at half time of the Cork PSFC Nemo Rangers and St Finbarr’s county final.
The Urhan stalwart is synonymous with Beara football.
An All-Ireland winner with Cork and the 1997 Cork SFC championship’s top scorer (1-27), O’Sullivan and his divisional team mates will never forget that year.
Not to mention the closing minutes of the drawn final when a Cork GAA legend had a chance to win it for the Haven. The sides were level and deep into injury-time when Larry Tompkins strode forward following the award of a late free.
‘I couldn’t believe it when Castlehaven were awarded that late free because we were so close,’ Ciarán O’Sullivan said.
‘I happened to be involved with Cork at the time and Larry (Tompkins) was in charge. When I saw him putting the ball down I said, this can’t be happening.
‘That’s because (usually) Larry didn’t miss. I couldn’t believe it when I saw the ball drifted wide of the post. We were let off that day. I felt we didn’t deserve to lose that final but it happens. I would have put my house on Larry putting the ball over the bar because he was an unbelievable player and his free-taking was exemplary.
‘Somebody must have blown it wide! Thankfully for us, it allowed us to come back for a second day.’
The 1997 county final replay took place two weeks later in the same venue.
Beara, who squeezed past Clyda Rovers by a point in round one, edged out Na Piarsaigh in the quarter-finals and caused an upset by defeating a fancied Duhallow in the last four, were granted a second shot at the Haven.
They didn’t miss.
Beara won the replay by three points and Ciarán O’Sullivan remembers feeling overwhelmed at the final whistle.
‘Oh my God but I’ll never forget it, it was unbelievable,’ O’Sullivan said.
‘First of all the conditions were appalling that (second) day. The pitch was so heavy and it was a really tough game. They had chances right near the end.
‘A sideline ball was put into our square, it bobbled around and came out. Eventually, the final whistle went. It was every positive feeling you could have all coming together at once. It was just unbelievable because it had been 30 years since Beara last won the Andy Scannell back in 1967.
‘I’ll never forget the way the crowd just drove on to the pitch at the final whistle. The support we had all year and over those two games was just phenomenal. Even the first night we drove back to Castletownbere after the drawn game, the crowds that met us along the roads, everywhere, was something else.
‘That and the road home the night after winning the replay, I’ll never forget that as long as I live.’
Additional stories about those two clashes with Castlehaven, Beara’s county-winning squad trip to Malaga and special t-shirts are recounted by Ciarán O’Sullivan on this week’s Star Sport Podcast which is available to watch on YouTube and wherever you listen to podcast.
On Sunday, as happened 25 years previously, a bus will leave Castletownbere in the early hours of the morning and transport the 97’ county championship-winning panel to Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
‘Everyone is looking forward to Sunday and there is a great buzz around the place,’ O’Sullivan said.
‘There is a WhatsApp group going and it is hot and heavy on it at the moment! Barry Murphy and a few more have organised the bus heading up from Castletownbere on Sunday morning.
‘We hope the bus will get there on time (laughs) even though there might be one or two stops. It is leaving early enough anyway. Seamus Harrington told me this bus is leaving earlier than the one on the morning of the 1997 county final itself but everyone is looking forward to the day out.’
