Rivalry a way of life in border village

ONE night some 43 years ago a delegation was ushered into a meeting of the Kerry County GAA Board in Tralee.

The visitors had travelled 35km from Ballydesmond, a parish spliced by the infant River Blackwater, which forms a natural county boundary along the upland parts of Cork and Kerry.

The group had discussed the possibility of forming a GAA club in the parish, but the Kerry board would have to give its blessing for those who resided on their side of the river to play with Ballydesmond in the Duhallow division in Cork.

Permission was granted, but as the visitors prepared to leave, chairman Dr Jim Brosnan, a former Kerry footballer, called them back.

“Ye realise, of course,” he said, “that if any of the players from our side of the parish are up to inter-county standard, they will have to play with Kerry.”

The good doctor from Dingle was perceptive, because Sean Kelly, who hailed from the Kerry side of the parish, later had the honour of wearing the green and gold jersey. But the balance was restored when Christy Kearney won a national league medal with Cork — he also helped Castleisland Desmonds to memorable victories.

Tim (Teddy) Dennehy also had a run with the Rebel County, and Jason Kelly played U21 for The Kingdom in later years.

Jerry Healy and Niall Fleming were chosen to play for their respective counties, Cork and Kerry, in the Munster junior football championship in 2006 and actually marked each other for 10 minutes in the final.

But that’s only part of the story. One of the players given Kerry’s blessing to play for Ballydesmond all those years ago was Dan O’Connor, one of seven footballing brothers who formed the backbone of the team for years.

Dan, who lived at Doctor’s Hill on the Kerry side, later married Noreen Murphy, from the Cork part of the parish, and moved across the border to the village, just inside Rebel territory.

Their son, Donnacha O’Connor, will play for Cork against Kerry in the All-Ireland final on Sunday.

It is a fascinating chapter in the story of ancient Cork-Kerry rivalry, an infectious and incurable condition that never leaves people who are born or happen to live on either side of what is the Golan Heights of football, except that the clashes here are all verbal, good humoured and largely without rancour.

Before proceeding, however, a declaration of interest is required. Donnacha O’Connor is doubly related to me through his father and his mother. And his family pub in Ballydesmond, a few strides from the Kerry border, is where my maternal grandparents lived.

Munster finals with Kerry are always a bittersweet experience for those of us who come from the Cork side of the river. Winning was enjoyed about twice a decade because Kerry usually dominated for the other eight years.

It nearly always rained for those games and the red dye in the crepe paper hats often ran down our faces. That was in the days before supporters started wearing their county jerseys and grown men began to hug teddy bears, blow whistles and shake rattlers.

Years earlier, crowds would gather in houses that had a battery radio to hear Micheál Ó hEithir commentate on the games.

My late father, from the Kerry side of the river, once constructed a receiver from parts he had sent from England. The kitchen was thronged for the broadcast of one match. Kerry was winning and a disgusted Cork supporter stormed out, declaring that Thade Ryan had built a Kerry wireless.

The barren years were a great ordeal for Cork supporters. Not even the Pope’s helping hand could change things for the better when he appointed as Bishop of Kerry a Cork man, Diarmaid Ó Súilleabháin.

But there was eventually joy when the Rebels came out on top again, winning glorious back to back All-Irelands (1989-1990).

Yet, the Cork and Kerry people from both sides of the parish still have much in common. It is said there are more mixed marriages (Cork and Kerry) in Ballydesmond than anywhere else. Rival supporters drink together, work beside one another. They share the same diocese (Kerry) but are in different counties for public services.

Some are joined in syndicates that have horses in training with Susan Finn in Ballinahulla, on the Kerry side. Her husband, Thadgie Ryan, who has managed football teams to championship titles in both Cork and Limerick, says Donnacha O’Connor is without question the best player he has ever trained.

That’s praise indeed and shows that supporters from each side have underlying respect for one another.

The flags of both counties are flying defiantly beside each other in the village, even from the same shops and houses.

Donnacha O’Connor, as he proudly marches with the Cork team in Croke Park on Sunday, will carry the good wishes of people on both sides, as was the case when a neighbour’s son, Ambrose O’Donovan, from Gneeveguilla, captained Kerry to success on another day.

But the tribal loyalties, which stretch back into the mists of history, will not change, nor should they, on what will be one of the truly great occasions in Irish sport and a momentous one for a small GAA club in Co Cork that was once given a helping hand by the Kerry County Board when it was needed most.