See you at a match: building up the bucket list for a trip back home
Rockie rolling: Alan Connolly of Cork celebrates after scoring his sides opening goal during the Munster GAA Hurling Senior Championship Round 5 match between Tipperary and Cork at FBD Semple Stadium in Thurles, Tipperary. Pic: George Tewkesbury/Sportsfile
There's great excitement among us Irish expats in New York who are moving ever closer to wheels up for a summer trip home. And not just because our county team will be over there this weekend for the Tailteann Cup.
Temperatures hit the wrong end of the 30s on Tuesday, the sort of dog day that should never happen in May, the one where you spend it indoors because even the breeze brings a flame of heat and no respite.
From afar, we have been following the stories of extreme inconvenience at Dublin Airport and rising costs of renting a car but we won't be swayed. We need a break from this town.
I'm always stumped when Americans ask me what I miss most about home apart from family and friends (Obviously! Relax!). They want to know about local delicacies or a bar or whatever other idea they have about Ireland.
My back home bucket list is topped by simply hearing the Cork accent in the wild and whatever makes that possible is fine by me.
It can be Pana or the coffee shop in Blackrock Village. I’ll be at Turner’s Cross for a Cork City game to see the RF again and I’m banking on the Rockies being involved in a championship game at some point over the course of my three-week stay.
Across Church Road, though, the Blackrock Hurling Club has become something I crave as trips back to the parish begin to loom large. There has been a lot of work put in during the decade I’ve been away and bit by bit, a genuinely welcoming community hub has evolved.
To the forefront of this effort has been our friend and Willowbank neighbour, Conor Hurley, whose eight-year stint as Bar/Facilities Manager ends this week. He steps back into the realm of dedicated volunteer and onwards to a new professional chapter.
He’s trying to go quietly but I have told him I won’t accept that. He’s done too much good - above and beyond what he was paid to do. When I’m home, I’ll be able to pop across to the Caf Feen for one of their coffees, a simple but effective pandemic upgrade which has helped bring the place together.
It isn’t always easy working with the wide and varied interests that make up a club membership but he has always done it with a brilliant sense of humour.
After a long time away, Conor went above and beyond to accommodate me last August - catching me up on the gossip and letting me grasp the Seán Óg Murphy Cup when it was still in its rightful home. He might have also helped me get to Croker on a couple of occasions.
The night of the extra-time win over Kilkenny, he raved about the 2022 potential of Alan Connolly. It was only a matter of time before the entire country got to learn what every Rockie already knew.
Naturally he would balk at the suggestion but the breakthrough of Connolly to the national consciousness this year stems from a strong collective that Conor helped steer. It was easy to walk away from the GAA in the 90s in Cork city - there wasn’t much keeping us there. But it’s the likes of Conor - up and down the country - who have helped modernise the GAA and keep it striving for the generations behind them. They bridge the gap between tradition and the future.
Best of luck to Conor and thank you for everything you did for the club. However his digital marketing expertise got me thinking about how simple tweaks to the way clubs put themselves out there can only deliver support to the overall project, whether that be county titles or simply participation at all grades. It’s not rocket science but it requires consistency and dedication.
If you happen to follow the personal Twitter account of GAA President Larry McCarthy, you will have seen his regular posts from games of all levels being played at grounds up and down the country (and a couple of recent ones over here in Gaelic Park).
It’s a conscious effort to continue the approach that helped him secure that surprise election win in early 2020; dig out a meaningful touchpoint in every nook and cranny of the Association. As many parishes as possible, as many sidelines on as many fields, great and small, that he can fit into his schedule over the course of his three-year term.
Call it the twee absence-makes-the-heart-grow-fonder of the émigré but I’m really enjoying these updates. No frills framing of pitches and players with backdrops that are picturesque though not quite to the demanding levels of a Tourism Ireland marketing push.
I get to learn a tiny bit about new clubs I’ve never heard of and I get to glimpse a sliver of their grassroots efforts to promote their games and keep their communities thriving.
Last October, McCarthy seemed to be workshopping this series of tweets in real time and by the end of the month he had settled on the consistent wording that would both round out the message while also stringing the mini missives of his low-key effort together: “See you at a match..."
He’s not a prolific tweeter by any means, which is a good thing but also a necessary choice when the office you preside over has the potential to be so divisive if the right or wrong conditions arise.
There is good value to his approach, nonetheless. A steady stream of communication that’s not headline-making and not controversial. I should disclose that I helped McCarthy launch his presidential campaign in September and October of 2019, a little bit of pro-bono consulting to get it off the ground. I had some insight into the air miles he racked up to ensure he got to matches such as a Down county hurling final or a Wicklow football final, all squeezed into a long weekend away from northern New Jersey.
My distant cheerleading aside (that’s what it is at this point), I am a full proponent of this balanced communications strategy. And it feeds into my back home bucket list.
I’m looking with a little bit of envy at the trip of the New York football team home for the Tailteann Cup to take on Offaly in Tullamore, a quarter-final tie that was set up when John Maughan’s Faithful side overcame Wicklow last weekend.
Yeah, the GAA cut a corner by admitting the Exiles in at a round of the competition which made a little more logistical sense but I'm going to whisper to the critics to get over yourselves (before ducking for cover).
The last time I was in Tullamore was 25 years ago. My alma mater Coláiste ChrÃost Rà sent its senior football team into the fray of the Hogan Cup semi-final against St Patrick’s Academy, Dungannon. Apart from a couple of exceptions, the skillful boys of Capwell were outmuscled by the physically superior Tyronemen and it was a hammering.
It’s very likely I’ll never darken the door of Tullamore again, not to mention O’Connor Park. Which is fine! But I couldn’t be happier for the New York panel that they get to line up on Irish soil, in meaningful competition, no matter how it was finagled.
Not since 2001 - a fateful year over here - has a New York senior team in either code travelled to Ireland for a competitive clash. It’s just over 20 years since a fairly convincing loss to Roscommon at Dr Hyde Park which occurred a few months before the world changed forever. Stricter border controls in the US which stemmed out of the September 11 attacks meant that New York footballers couldn’t risk a flight across the Atlantic.
So while tomorrow’s game will be a little down the totem pole of priority for sports fans in Ireland, those of us watching in New York will celebrate the fact that it’s even possible, no matter how it was achieved. And for the players themselves, not to mention Johnny McGeeney and his backroom team, there’ll be a healthy mix of business and pleasure but ultimately a back home bucket list of memories for a lifetime.
If you’re in and around Tullamore this weekend, go see them at their match.
