Going in different directions
BREAKING up is hard to do a Neil Sedaka number that's quite apt nowadays in Inniscarra GAA club in Cork.
Even at the best of times, disengaging from a relationship isn't easy; when the relationship has lasted for well over a century however, things can get very fraught indeed.
So it is in Inniscarra, after Dripsey a thriving village and community in its own right, but part of this huge Mid-Cork parish announced its intention to break away from Inniscarra GAA and form a club of its own.
The first unofficial AGM was attended by 115 members, but of special significance was at least half were estimated to be under the age of 25.
A full quota of club officers was elected in under seven minutes and club name and colours were democratically decided. If their application to Cork County Board is accepted, Dripsey GAA Hurling and Football Club, red jersey, blue cuffs and collar, will become a reality.
Standing in their way? Inniscarra GAA.
"We're going to fight this," said club chairman Jerry Linehan, in a recent local radio interview (following a county board directive, Inniscarra refused to comment for this article).
"We're going to contest it at county board level, we'll contest it as high up as we can. We feel the parish can't sustain two clubs. We cater for all sides of the parish, we have the facilities to do that. We feel very strongly about this, we will fight it to the bitter end."
There has been acrimony between Dripsey and Inniscarra before, a long-standing dispute ended up in arbitration at county board level a couple of years ago, with former GAA President Con Murphy acting as mediator. That dispute was settled, apparently to everyone's satisfaction, but there are those who say that some of those involved then, on the Dripsey side, are the driving force behind this move. Not so, says William Buckley, chairman of the breakaway club.
Prime movers behind this development are the players themselves, six players specifically.
"The idea has been knocking around for generations, but in latter years, the population has grown a lot here, as has the community spirit. Our biggest problem down the years would have been players, did we have the numbers, but there's a group of young lads there now.
"They're all very keen, they've played together all the way up along, with the school here, with Coachford Community College, and they want to play with their own club, with Dripsey."
The six? Diarmuid O'Riordan, Pat O'Riordan (no relation), John Cleary, Mark O'Sullivan, John Hogan and David Buckley, all members of the
Inniscarra intermediate panel last year. They resigned just before Christmas, committed to forming their own club. The most prominent of those, on the field and off, with All-Ireland medals with Cork at underage and intermediate level is new club Development
Officer Diarmuid O'Riordan.
"Speaking for myself, but also from speaking to the other five lads, this has nothing to do with whether we were or weren't getting a game with Inniscarra. I have so many friends in Inniscarra, I have no enemies up there. It comes down to where you're from.
"During the summer, it's fine, I'm up there training, meeting the lads, but in the winter, when it's all over, I'm back here, meeting the lads I grew up with, I have no contact with the Inniscarra lads, and I won't see them again until we start training. There are people from Inniscarra who have never even been in this village.
"John (Cleary) and myself were training for the intermediate team last year, and there was a young fella from Inniscarra, a nice fella, a great friend of ours, but he didn't know where the village was.
"We brought him across, it was his first time here, and he's 19 years of age. He's only four miles from here, but this is a part of Inniscarra parish that no one ever really comes to, they just pass us by on the way to Coachford, or places like that. To most people, we're only the two pubs below at the cross, but no one knows about the village.
"This is about identity, and up here, we meet each other every day, and it's always being talked about. People have been wondering, will this last, is it viable, but we have a population of about 1,300. In addition, there's planning permission granted for another 130 houses right across the road from the village. If you combined the population of the two All-Ireland club champions (Newtownshandrum of Cork in hurling, Caltra of Galway in football), it would barely make up the population of Dripsey."
A cut and dried case for independence, unless you are from Inniscarra.
Daire Holland, a long-time player and administrator with Inniscarra, is just as passionate, emotional and adamant as Diarmuid.
"I have played the last 26 years with the club, I've played with the division, I've been involved with the county as a player and as a current selector with the Cork intermediate team," he said in the radio interview.
"If you were to ask me what I take out of it, what did I gain, it's the memories, friendships, the camaraderie within the parish, the division, all around the county. That's why we're all involved in the game, I think people should put their differences to one side, row in with the club, and we'll go forward together."
What message would he have for those who want to break away?
"First, the feedback we're getting is some younger players are being pressurised into making a decision regarding their involvement in the coming year. That's a cause of huge concern for the club, and I would ask them, to leave people alone, don't be pressuring them.
"The second message is for the six players who resigned from the club before Christmas. Since they were eight years of age they were afforded every opportunity by the club to fulfil their own ambition on the field. It's unfair that they are turning around and depriving the next generation from Dripsey the very opportunity they got themselves."
Diarmuid says this is not about depriving future generations, it's about empowering them, enabling them, keeping Dripsey lads in the game who would otherwise be lost; it's about putting Dripsey on the GAA map in its own right.
"I know a lot of the lads from Newtown and from Dromina, two clubs from the same parish, a parish smaller than Dripsey. In the last four years, Newtown have won two county
senior titles and the All-Ireland, while Dromina have won a couple of North Cork Junior A titles, the county junior in 2003 and reached the intermediate final last year.
"We have the numbers I was going through it with John (Cleary). We counted 13 lads who had played with Cork at one level or another. It would be fantastic for them, for all of us, if we could have our own club."
The application has already led to acrimonious debate. The two sides are in dispute about the demographics, with Dripsey claiming they will be only denting an overall parish population of 12,000, while Daire Holland says the last census (2002) showed only 5,500 in total in Inniscarra.
Then there will be the contentious issue of boundaries. Where does Dripsey end and Inniscarra begin? What rights would the club have in the Inniscarra Community Centre, where Inniscarra play all their home games, but to which the Dripsey community undoubtedly also contributed?
Regardless of the outcome at county board level, this one looks set to run. It may even end up in court.
Neither a happy nor desirable outlook for any of those involved.
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