King of the castle O Sé aiming to bring glory home

TIMING. Somewhere along the line Micheál O Sé got it right. He’s developed the knack these past few years of landing in places where football success invariably ensues.

When he linked up with Mickey Whelan and Pat Gilroy in Marino in 2007, he got it right and by the following March he had an All-Ireland club medal with St Vincents.

When he linked up with Jack O’Connor in Caherciveen in 2008, he got it right and by the following April he’d helped Coláiste na Sceilge bring the Hogan Cup to South Kerry.

With Castlegregory he’s got it right as well. Returning home at the start of last season meant O Sé had missed out on the most demoralising campaign imaginable before that. The men from the Maharees had lost finals at county junior, West Kerry and county league level in 2007, all by demoralising one-point margins.

They carried the grief over into a 2008 season that was middling, but by the start of 2009 had flushed all the toxins out of their system. Division 3 of the county league was topped, county junior championship honours were collected and they swept all before them in the provincial arena as well, culling Mountcollins in last December’s Munster final.

In 2010 the dream has been maintained. Meath’s Longwood were dispatched in the All-Ireland semi-final and tomorrow they become the latest Kerry club to empty its parish of inhabitants and ferry them up to GAA headquarters on Jones Road. Mayo’s Kiltimagh stand between O Sé and a second All-Ireland club medal in three short seasons.

Back in 2006, O Sé was based in Dublin as a teacher in St Benildus College and his appetite for football was waning. Transfers are one of the most emotive issues in the GAA, but when O Sé switched allegiances from rural roots to urban it was a choice borne from pragmatism.

“The commute to west Kerry was a killer. At the end of 2006, I wasn’t worth my place on the Castlegregory team. It was either give up and go playing golf, or have a crack at it in Dublin. Being honest when I left, I don’t think the club were that bothered because I wasn’t contributing much. They were disappointed but most of them understood. Alan Costelloe was St Vincent’s captain and he was teaching with me. He was at me to join because they were stuck around the middle. Alan gave me a foot in the door and I felt I could slide in there without stepping on too many toes. Pat Gilroy was very welcoming and reassuring as well.”

St Vincent’s began the year with modest expectations but a whirlwind campaign saw them emerge from Dublin and Leinster with silverware. In the All-Ireland series they surmounted the Rangers of Crossmaglen and Nemo, and O Sé was left triumphant on St Patrick’s Day.

“To me the big thing winning that All-Ireland was just relief at the final whistle. You’ve put a whole year of your life into it. If you lose an All-Ireland it leaves a sour taste, no matter how many you’ve won before.”

He didn’t stick around long to savour the success though, with his St Vincents sojourn destined to be brief.

“In August 2007, I’d my mind made up that it was my last year in Dublin. I couldn’t see myself living long-term there and teaching is a job you can work anywhere with. I was back taking football seriously and Kerry is a great place to live.

“The Vincents lads were brilliant about it. I remember sitting in the car in St Vincents with Mickey Whelan, telling him I was leaving and he turned to say, ‘if he’d been born and raised in West Kerry, he’d never have left either’. He was an absolute gentleman.”

The first season back donning the club colours did not yield a spate of success but O Sé experienced football glory down in the Iveragh Peninsula.

He served as adjutant to Jack O’Connor’s general as Coláiste na Sceilge finally claimed the Hogan Cup. That triumph last April whetted his appetite and his football has flourished ever since with Castlegregory as their precocious youngsters have been welded to older heads like O Sé and Sean O’Mahony.

“It was bugging myself and Sean that we’d never won a championship, but we could now win a third. This isn’t a diehard football area as there’s a lot of surfing and tourist attractions. But this run has drawn people together and it’s been hugely enjoyable.”