Bishopstown and Cork reap benefits of dual drive

Traditionally, Bishopstown may have been regarded as a football club, but nowadays it is the epitome of a dual operation.

While Ken O’Halloran and Jamie O’Sullivan are on the Cork football panel, captain Pa Cronin and Shane O’Neill will represent the Rebels in Croke Park on Sunday, with selector Johnny Crowley — the club’s first All-Ireland senior medallist — assisting Jimmy Barry-Murphy on the sideline.

Club chairman Denis Crowley, Johnny’s brother, said: “We have been senior in football for longer than we have been in hurling,” he said, “but the hurling is very strong. Since becoming senior, we have maintained that status and won two county U21 titles and last year we got to the senior final.

“We’ve had a number of Cork players, and this time we have the good fortune to have a selector and two of the players, and this is the first time the captain of the Cork team heading into a senior final has been from Bishopstown.”

In a dual club, it is often the case that the success of one code helps the other and vice-versa. Bishopstown experienced the sharp end of that last year as, a week after the SHC final loss to Sarsfields, they fell against Carbery Rangers in the football.

Last weekend, that defeat was avenged to achieve a semi-final spot, and Crowley acknowledges the general mood is very good.

“There’s a great buzz around the place, and that buzz has only been improved by the senior footballers’ great win over Carbery Rangers last Sunday,” he said.

“We have seven dual players, and the football and hurling always go hand-in-hand, it’s a case of a rising tide lifting all boats. The senior hurlers will be playing Carrigtwohill in two weeks’ time and we recently won an U13 county hurling title, so it’s a great time to be from Bishopstown.”

The positive atmosphere is seen very much in the enthusiasm among the club’s younger players. Crowley is quick to pay tribute to the efforts of the county stars in helping out whenever they can to provide inspiration to the next generation.

“It’s fair to say that both Pa and Shane would be active with underage when we want them to be,” he said.

“They’ll appear at a training session on a Saturday morning or attend Cúl Camps during the summer. While their Cork commitments might mean that they’re not always available to the senior hurlers, they’re very accessible from the point of view of helping the club.”

Come next week, should Cork be victorious then the clubhouse will be the place to be.

“We’re planning, if everything goes as we hope, to have the Liam MacCarthy Cup in the club on Monday night,” Crowley said. “And if he’s there, I’m sure that there’ll be a lot of friends to greet him!”