BEARA have a great history in the county U21 championship and hope to continue that tradition this year. Just two years ago, the West Cork divisional side made it to the county final, losing to Bishopstown.

They have won the championship in 1996, 1997, 1999 and 2006 and face Carrigaline in an away quarter-final to start their 2026 campaign on Sunday (2.30pm). 

‘It would be fantastic to get to a semi-final,’ Beara boss Peter O’Leary, who also manages their senior team, said.

‘When you get to the quarter-final stages of any competition, it’s about winning. If you could win a game playing poorly, you’d take it. You can play a game, play very well, and get beaten. That’s no consolation to you. The performance at the end of it will be minimal. It'd be massive to get into a semi-final. There were some great teams in the 1990s.

‘Beara won the senior and the U21 the same year in 1997. There’s been a bit of a love affair with the competition ever since. We got to the final a couple of years ago and were beaten by Bishopstown. There’s history there. The lads are very proud to wear the jersey and they’ll be looking forward to representing all their clubs and their families in the peninsula.’

Conor Downing of Beara in action for Cork this year. (Photo: Martin Walsh)

They are coming up against a club on a high right now though, and in their own back yard.

Carrigaline reached the county premier senior semi-finals, narrowly losing to county champions Nemo Rangers. Their second team won the Carrigdhoun junior A championship and their U21s beat Valley Rovers 2-15 to 1-16 in their divisional final.

‘An estate in Carrigaline has probably as many footballers inside in it as we have in the whole of the peninsula. We’re under no illusions whatsoever. They’re going very well,’ O’Leary noted.

‘From the lads that are playing U21, I'd imagine a lot of them are juniors. With us missing a few lads, that’s an opportunity for other lads to pick up the torch. Our mantra is we want to have a go. There’s no pressure on us. We’ll definitely be underdogs and that suits us fine. We’ll give them plenty of it. We’ll give them a battle.’

O’Leary has had to deal with a lot of injuries before the game, which is far from ideal preparation.

Adrigole’s Ben O’Sullivan, Niall O’Shea of Urhan, Glengarriff’s Callum McElhinney and Danny Walsh from Castletownbere are all sidelined. 

Jack Crowley and Tom O’Connor are two key players that have to make trips down from Portlaoise and Limerick respectively from college too.

Beara will have Cork minor stars Kieran O’Shea and Conor Downing at their disposal but the injuries could be a big blow to their chances.

‘We’ve only been able to train once a week because we’ve lads from everywhere. In Portlaoise across to Limerick, Galway and Cork in college. We’re so geographically isolated, it curtails us being able to train midweek. We’ve trained for the last four or five Sundays really and had one challenge game,’ the Beara boss explained.

‘It just shows the difficulties we have compared to maybe clubs who can train two and three times a week but we knew that at the beginning. That’s the cards you’re dealt with. You have to drive on.

‘With Conor and Kieran, they’d stand out because of Cork minors’ success at All-Ireland level this year. Conor’s older brother Mark is the captain and he’s a good footballer too. We have around five or six fit players who were on the senior panel for Beara earlier in the year. Lads like James Spencer for instance. Callum McElhinney broke his jaw in two places in a challenge game. We seem to be badly hampered. All the injuries we have are serious. It’s just very unfortunate for the lads as much as anything else. That’s what will rule them out for a good portion of next year as well.’ 

Beara U21 manager Peter O'Leary. (Photo: Martin Walsh)

One thing that can’t be doubted in Beara is their commitment.

Even in his first year with the seniors and U21s, O’Leary can see that within the squad. 

‘There was a lot of groundwork done by the senior board at the beginning of the year before I was asked to take the seniors. All the clubs were met by the board and a lot of lads made themselves available. 

‘There is a hunger to play. Lads want to play with the division. You’re just trying to work with the clubs to make sure that you can look after the lads. Make sure that they’re not going four and five times a week. We’re so far away. A training session for us can cost lads 5, 6 or 7 hours between traveling up and down from training and a bit of food afterwards. Other lads around the county are training for maybe an hour and 10 minutes and they're home five and ten minutes each way. We have lads two hours traveling. It’s a huge commitment. You have to be careful with lads that way,’ O’Leary concluded as they brace themselves for a big quarter-final test.