RUAIRÍ Deane knows the importance of preparation. On the football field, it can be the difference between winning and losing. When he went for the principal’s job at Scoil Phobail Bhéara, he approached it in much the same way.

He made notes. He recorded voice notes. He listened back to his answers and worked on them, preparing himself for an interview that could change his professional life.

Normally, he is a fan of silence on his regular commute from Beara to the city for Cork football training. Three days a week, he makes this journey.

If the radio is on, it’s background noise. He is comfortable in silence.

That four-hour round trip from Castletownbere – the base for Scoil Phobail Bhéara – to Cork city gives him time to process his day – the good, the bad and everything in between. If he is leaving from Adrigole, home for now with his family, the journey is slightly shorter. Slightly. He put that time to use before the biggest interview of his professional life.

‘When I was going for this job, it was around the time of the big games during the summer, so the season was heating up. I was thinking to myself “how am I going to get the chance to prep for this, because I’m so focused on football?”’ he explains.

‘I wrote out all my notes, pages and pages, and I spoke them into the phone and made voice memos.

‘I separated them into the six different sections of the application form, which is what the interview was based on. I listened to that the whole way up and down to training. Every game we went to, I had the headphones in, that’s what I was listening to on the way to games – my own voice notes about my experience in school, the leadership and management, and how the application and the interview would go.

‘I remember being that prepared going in. I came out of the interview thinking, “If anyone beats that, I’ll be happy enough to accept that they were just better than me,” because everything went so well on the day.’

His experiences in both his professional life and football have taught him to put his utmost effort into preparation, no matter what it’s for.

It’s why the Bantry man, who turned 35 in September, still played a role for Cork this past season. The oldest player on the panel, he started the Munster final against Kerry in Killarney, and was the first sub on in three other championship games. Deane has prepared himself to be in a position to make a difference with Cork.

That approach saw him secure a win in this interview process.

‘Sometimes, someone is just better than you too. If that had happened for this role, I’d have just accepted it and sucked it up, because I went in, I did my best. If it wasn’t good enough, that’s fine, and that’s what happens in sport too,’ he says.

‘Sometimes you’ve just got to accept that someone else is better than you, and a team is better than you.’

But his preparation paid off.

Ruairi Deane started as principal of the Beara school in August. (Photo: Anne Marie Cronin)

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It’s a glorious Monday morning in October that wouldn’t be out of place in the summer.

Castletownbere is glistening in the morning sun.

The corridors of Scoil Phobail Bhéara are filled with chatter and noise, the start of a new school week.

The bell sounds. Classes begin at 8.55am, so at 9am, a quietness descends.

Deane sits in his office. A floor-to-ceiling window, with its vertical blinds pulled back, looks out towards the school grounds, and in the distance, the rolling Beara hillside. He loves that view.

He loves Beara.

There’s something about this limb of West Cork that speaks to him. It’s why he’s building a home for his family – his wife Niamh and their kids, Setanta (5), Cairbre (4) and Saorlaith (1) – in Castletownbere. This feels like home. It will be home.

‘It’s just the people. It’s very good-natured,’ he says, sitting behind his busy light-oak desk, dressed differently to what Cork football supporters are used to.

A sharp, slim-fit, long-sleeved shirt in a grey floral pattern, complemented by a dark slate tie and navy-blue trousers – Deane wears the principal look well.

‘We all know about the changes in society, the changes in technology and all that, but I still feel that the way of living down here is just nice. It’s simple,’ he continues.

‘The concept of people just being very, very good to each other and embracing each other. If anyone’s ever stuck, all the communities come together and stand up if there’s ever anything or someone in need.

‘It’s small, it’s rural, but it’s a very good community across all the areas. We have our seven feeder schools here that would come into us, and you’d nearly know them all before they’re coming to you. That connection is nice.’

This is where he wants his family to grow up.

It’s why they are putting down their roots here.

‘We made the decision as a family that the right thing for us in the long term is to move down,’ he says.

‘It wasn’t an easy decision, because I’ve a huge connection with Bantry. I grew up there myself and I spent all my life there!

‘But ultimately, our work-life balance is much better since we moved down. It was the right decision, but a very challenging one.’

Setanta has started national school locally. Cairbre and Saorlaith attend Caha Childcare in Adrigole. His wife Niamh is deputy principal at Scoil Phobail Bheara.

‘I’m not from here, but I’ve been embraced as someone that is from here nearly. The people down here look after you like one of their own,’ he says, proudly.

The more embedded he became in the community, the more he wanted the opportunity to give something back. For ten years, he did that from the PE department. Now, he is doing it from the principal’s office.

New principal of Scoil Phobail Bheara Ruairi Deane is excited for the next chapter. (Photo: Anne Marie Cronin)

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Deane spent ten years as a PE teacher at Scoil Phobail Bhéara, building relationships with students that extended beyond the classroom and the playing field. As principal, he wants to hold on to that connection with young people, even as his responsibilities change.

‘I started as a PE teacher here in 2016, thoroughly enjoyed it, and still obviously love that connection,’ he explains.

It was his first job after finishing college in Limerick. Initially, he came in for additional hours, but that was his starting point.

On the pitch, his reputation as a footballer was growing. By then, he had already captained the Cork junior footballers to All-Ireland success in 2013 and made his Cork senior debut in 2014. By 2016 he was battling to establish himself in the senior set-up.

Off the pitch, he was a PE teacher, starting out on a new journey.

‘A PE teacher is very unique in the sense that the relationship you get to have with the kids is very special,’ he says.

‘Sometimes students who excel in PE can find it challenging inside the classroom.

‘I’d take the kids away on extracurricular trips and sporting events and different things throughout the year. You just get a very unique connection with the group and it’s something I hope to keep now, in the sense that you don’t want to lose that connection with the young people in your school.’

That familiarity is something Deane has been keen to maintain since becoming principal. He has made a conscious effort to build relationships with the current first years, just as he did with the second to sixth years when he was their PE teacher.

‘You love going out to the hallways and knowing all their names, that’s very important,’ he explains.

‘Getting the connection, knowing their parents, knowing what they’re doing in the community, their achievements, on and off the fields of play, or the sporting events that they do, all that. In a smaller school like this, it’s important.’

An Irish blessing hangs on the wall in Deane’s office. Fáilte Romhat Isteach, it says. You are welcome in. The door to his office is open. He wants his students and staff to know that.

‘Whatever anyone walks in that door and says to you, it’s big to them because they’re making the effort to come to you,’ he explains.

As principal, Deane knows that students, parents and staff will increasingly turn to him for help, advice and decisions. How he responds matters.

Football, whether with Cork, Bantry Blues or Carbery, has helped prepare him for those moments. One of the lessons he has taken from the game is the importance of composure under pressure.

Ruairí Deane celebrates Cork's promotion to Division 1 of the national league, secured earlier this season.

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He has learned from one of Cork’s greatest leaders, his fellow Bantry man Graham Canty. A colossus, he ticks every box as a leader. Cork’s last All-Ireland-winning football captain, Canty set standards, earned trust, made the people around him better and was calm under pressure. He was resilient, too.

‘With Bantry, you had Graham to aspire towards, who is one of the most substantial leaders I’ve ever come across in any capacity. If I was to look at him in his professional life as well, he was very outstanding in that too,’ Deane says.

For Deane, leadership isn’t about being the loudest voice in the room. It’s about the standards you set, the example you give and the way you make people around you better.

Those lessons were visible to him long before he became a principal.

‘A lot of attributes and traits that you’d like to think you have yourself, you’ve learned from other people and seen in other people,’ he says.

Canty was one of those people.

So too were the managers and players Deane has encountered during his Cork career. He has spent more than a decade inside a high-performance environment, watching different management styles, observing how teams are built and seeing how leaders respond when the pressure rises.

‘You look at the last ten, 12 years, I’ve been looking at how the Cork senior football team has been managed, and that’s a high-performance environment,’ he says.

‘You’re able to pick up traits and attributes from those people, which is important, because, again, that’s a very professional set-up, the way it’s run.’

And then there are his teammates.

Different personalities, different leadership styles, different ways of communicating. Deane has learned from all of them.

‘The players that I play with are people much more leadership-orientated than I would be. Again, you take those traits and experiences of being around those people back to your work too.’

That is perhaps the biggest lesson football has given him.

You don’t have to lead in exactly the same way as someone else. You take what works, learn from those around you and develop your own way of doing things.

Now, the challenge for Deane is to bring all of those experiences – from the dressing room, the classroom and the wider school community – into his new role.

The footballer and the principal may occupy different worlds, but the lessons are remarkably similar.

Standards matter. People matter. And when the pressure comes, stay calm.

Ruairi Deane in action for Bantry Blues.

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Deane knows the clock is ticking on his Cork football career. It’s entered its final stages. The end could be close. But there’s no decision made yet. He wanted to focus his energy on his first term as principal – this is his present and future.

‘I’ve always been firm: if my football is going well, that’s fine, but that’s only one aspect,’ he explains.

Deane is a husband and father. He is now a principal, too. There’s more to his identity than being a Cork footballer.

‘For me, I’d always say I need to look after my family, I need to do that well. I need to do the football piece well. I need to do my personal life well, albeit with sacrifices. Then your professional life is very important,’ he explains.

‘The concept that you have your eggs in a number of different baskets as opposed to one is when you’re going to be successful, because you’re going to tip the scales otherwise.

‘If I put all my eggs into my football basket and that starts going poorly, well then I have nothing. Whereas if I can take satisfaction from my day at work, in my day at football and then at home, that’s important.’

Spending time in Deane’s company, you quickly learn his family means the world to him. A few years ago, the day after Bantry Blues had lost a county premier intermediate football final, he spent the morning afterwards at a pumpkin patch in Grenagh. Family time.

‘I think my kids are quite happy that I’m not going training at the moment!’ Deane smiles.

The older his kids get, the more they realise he’s not at home as much as he’d like. With the county, it’s three training sessions a week and then games. He’s away every second weekend.

‘They don’t actually particularly like football,’ he laughs, ‘because they associate football with me leaving the house. They’re quite happy that I’ve had those few months to myself now and to be at home.

‘When I had kids, I learned very quickly that whether you win or lose on a Saturday or Sunday, they’re getting up at 6.30 anyway. My five-year-old has never turned around to me and asked me anything about a game the next day.

‘I learned that lesson, that while it’s the be-all and end-all for you, a lot of other people just move on with their lives very quickly.’

The pull of football remains, though. Deane has spent years preparing for the next game, the next challenge, the next opportunity to pull on the Cork jersey. Walking away from that is not a decision he is ready to make lightly. He has played over 100 games for his county.

‘The starting point for me is, do you enjoy it?’ he says.

‘Plenty of people have an opinion or view of a footballer, and people think you’re good or bad or indifferent, but I really enjoyed last year. I actually think it was one of the most enjoyable years I’ve had.

‘I suppose I’m selfish as in I want to be the best on that team – everyone wants to be the best on that team – so you want the most opportunities on the pitch that you can get. But when you’re at this stage of your career, you’ve got to accept that there are different roles and responsibilities for each person. I probably learned a good lesson from that last year.

‘I started the Munster final and I didn’t get to finish it. And the game is decided in the last 20 minutes. I learned, whether I’m starting or whether I’m coming on as a sub, you’ve a job to do.

‘I was very much willing to accept towards the end of the season that I would have actually preferred coming on, because you’re in the game when it’s being decided.’

Just turned 35, Deane is still learning, on and off the pitch. He’ll make the call on his Cork career soon. That’s a conversation that starts at home with Niamh, the unsung hero in his success.

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So, why did Deane want to be principal of Scoil Phobail Bhéara?

‘I think it’s the ability to shape the future of a lot of young people and give them the best possible learning experience that they can get inside the school here,’ he says.

‘Our motto in the school is we want all our students to reach their full potential. If that’s the doctor, the surgeon, the nurse, the teacher, the mechanic or the person stocking the shelves in SuperValu, all those jobs are very, very important and keep the community running.

‘It’s for me as a principal and us as a school and all our staff to strive for all those people to be successful, whatever that looks like for them.

‘You want them to be happy, you want them to experience sport, you want them to leave having had a nice school experience. That they like coming in here, that their parents feel supported and that we’re serving the community is a very big thing for me.’

The skills he has learned on his journey so far have taken him to this point. As a footballer, as a teacher and as a dad. He knows too that the preparation continues. In fact, it never ends.

Hanging on his office wall is a map of Beara. This is home now.