O’Connor flies flag for the Banner at Cork IT

IT is more than 150km from Tubber, the North Clare parish that skirts the border with Galway, from the epicentre of Cork GAA that is Páirc Uí Chaoimh. Yet few people will be making that journey this weekend.

Banner native Patrick O’Connor is part of the CIT squad bidding to lift the Sean Óg Murphy Cup and the Clare senior hurler is embracing the novelty of the occasion.

“Being from Tubber, it is strange to be involved in a Cork senior final. But it’s a great honour and I think a few of them from home will probably come down for the match to make a weekend of it. There’s not many Clare men who can say they’ve contested for a Cork senior medal so I’ll treasure it if I get my hands on it.”

Stiofán Fitzpatrick was the last Clare man to contest a Cork county senior final when he featured for UCC in 1999. Cork third-level institutions are not teeming with Banner students but for O’Connor it was a pragmatic choice.

“I’m in third year of Agricultural Science. You can only do the course in Dublin or Cork so I chose to come down south. I’ve never regretted it, it’s been very enjoyable. I had to adjust to the lads’ accents down here but I got the hang of it!”

Making the commitment to commute to Cork for training and matches has not been without complication yet the treatment O’Connor received made him want to display his gratitude.

“It has been difficult alright. When the Fitzgibbon Cup was on earlier this year, I was working as part of my course in Limerick. But Keith Ricken and Pat Mulcahy were very accommodating with training and matches. When you get that sort of treatment, you want to give it back. I’d no problem driving down for training and matches with CIT. I’m used to the road from going to Clare senior training during the year with Darach Honan, who’s in UCC.”

Two years ago O’Connor, while still eligible for the minors, was part of a county’s U21 team that claimed the All-Ireland title. He is not expecting those celebratory scenes to be replicated if CIT win but explains the impact a victory would have.

“With CIT you might not have the parish spirit but everyone buys into it that this is a club and we’re committed to it. Inside the camp it’s the same as a club team.”