Flying the flag for the Rebels
It was a chance meeting with Cork footballer Eoin Cadogan which prompted this article. I happened to ask if he knew any of the Cork fans who traipsed the length of the country to follow the Rebels in league and challenge games.
“Here’s a phone number,” he chirped.
Anthony Hayes is from Rosscarbery and is one of the hardy travellers who’s seen a lot of Ireland supporting Cork.
“For the faraway league games, you’d know the faces even if you don’t know the names, and you’d nod. But numbers, you’re talking maybe 10 people, as well as family members who’d go anyway. Because there are so few of us there’s probably a bond between us and the team. Eoin passed on my name to you. Paddy Kelly said in an interview last week that they joke about losing one or two of us if the hurlers are going well.”
That small cohort gets a warm welcome, though. Hayes stresses the friendly reception they get no matter where they land.
“The other teams’ supporters are hugely welcoming, always.
“At the last league game up in Derry there weren’t 10 of us, but walking through the Bogside in our Cork jerseys, there was a huge fascination with us. There’s no hostilities, certainly, There never are.
“For the league game against Down up north earlier this year I was in a shop and a man came up to me and started chatting. Turned out he was on their All-Ireland team back in 1968.
“They’re always very appreciative. Ballybofey, Scotstown . . . I was delighted to see Monaghan win the Ulster championship there a few weeks ago, because there was a bit of a rivalry between us for a while.
“It was nice seeing them have a good day out and the likes of Dick Clerkin getting a medal... they’re very good to us any time we’re up there.”
The team are good to them, too. After Cork won the All-Ireland, a night in Derry earlier that year popped into Hayes’ head.
“Lashing rain, bad day, but they won by a point, the kind of win that helps to win championships later in a season.
“After they warmed down, Michael Shields, who was captain, brought them over to us and they all shook our hands and thanked us for travelling. That meant a lot, that it showed they appreciated us heading up.
“We were thinking when they won in Croke Park in front of 80,000 — ‘how many of the people here have experienced something like that?’”
People will miss the team when they’re gone, he says: “Munster championships, league titles, All-Ireland finals, All-Ireland titles . . . it’s gas to read people saying Cork have to front up or walk the walk. They’ve walked the walk I don’t know how many times.”
Hayes has plenty of highlights: “The first league game of 2010, grinding it out by a point in Scotstown when they were just off the plane . . . you’d be a bit protective of them. Lads saying, ‘you’d fit the Cork support in a phone box’.
“I suppose we set ourselves up for that by not travelling in numbers, but still...
“This is my favourite time of year, head up Friday, stay in the Croke Park Hotel and get in the mood, maybe do the rooftop tour to really get in the mood — they’ll do it the day of an evening game — or the stadium tour, because you’re shown around the dressing room.”
When they finally won the All-Ireland in 2010, Hayes was there. He’d been there when they’d lost All-Irelands as well, of course.
“In 2009, the Burlington Hotel put out extra taps on the Sunday night, but they took them down, the crowd was so small. There might have been 15, 20 people there to applaud them in.
“There wasn’t a sinner at the homecoming, for instance. There were crash barriers up but no crowd. The faces you’d see at the league games, though, they were all there. The following year when they won there was a huge crowd there to welcome them back, obviously. Fintan Goold was the first we met and he was shaking hands with people, but when he saw us he came over and gave us all a hug.”
In Killarney this year Hayes and his mates hung around afterwards.
“It was a bad day at the office so it was important to show some solidarity with the lads afterwards. We went out to the team bus and encouraged the lads when they came out of the dressing room, saying they were still in the competition, there were plenty of games left. Am I framing my entire summer about it? Yes. It’s a big part of my life, just as it’s a big part of a lot of people’s lives.”
It’s a big part in spring and autumn as well. Earlier this year Hayes and co were down in the Rochestown Park Hotel in Cork one Friday and they met Noel O’Leary. He said there was a challenge against Laois on the Sunday morning.
“We decided to go away up to it. It doesn’t matter where, or what the competition is, or the weather. We’ll still go.”
So even after the championship, the McGrath Cup in 2014 . . .
“What do you think?”
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