Dream realised as Clonmel Commercials wakes up in winter wonderland

Many a campaign was plotted in the front room of John and Maureen McNamara’s house on Shamrock Hill in Clonmel, many a victory celebrated, many a defeat mourned, many a cup of tea shared over the years on good footballing days and bad.

Yesterday in the front room was a time for satisfied reflection, to look back on a day they thought may never come.

It was the morning after the day before, and the night before, and all around Clonmel there were hoarse voices and the odd sore head, but those waking up to wonder if it was all a dream had no need to doubt.

After four previous Munster club final defeats stretching back to 1966, Commercials had reached the summit. Not only for the club and the town, but for the county who had never previously sent out a team to claim the provincial crown in football, albeit having seen near misses from the likes of Fethard, Moyle Rovers, Loughmore-Castleiney, as well as Commercials.

“They looked dead and buried and came back,” John McNamara said yesterday as he looked back on Sunday’s win against Nemo Rangers with friend and long-time fellow soldier on and off the field, Timmy Ryan.

“I didn’t even see the goal. They all stood up in front of me, but the roar went up and I said something must be after happening.”

Ryan takes up the story. “There was a pile of Nemo fellas in front of me. They were dumfounded. I thought when we went one point down we still might go up and get a point, then they went a second point up and I thought Mass was over at that stage.”

John Mc, as he’s known around town and in the wider GAA community, is now club president but has held numerous roles — former player, coach, selector, chairman, secretary, and whatever else needed to be done.

He played minor football for Commercials in 1952, 18 years after the club’s foundation, and both Timmy Ryan and Martin Quinlivan, father of goalscorer Michael and who played in goal when they were beaten by Dr Croke’s in a replayed final in 1990, spoke yesterday of how special it was to see John in Mallow, celebrating a piece of history. “He’s the man who kept the club going for years,” as Timmy puts it.

“If ever a man kept a club going, pretty much on his own, for years, it’s him,” Martin says. “It was great to see him and great to have him there.”

That decider 25 years ago still rankles with those involved at the time. “I remember Peter Kilkenny got a wonder score late on which put us a point ahead but they equalised. We had a half-chance in injury-time for a point and it just tailed wide. So it went to a replay and our free-taker Franny Kelly went off injured. We got a couple of long-range frees and didn’t convert them, although they weren’t gimmes, and then it went to extra-time and Cristóir McGrath got caught up in a tangle and was sent off, along with a sub from Dr Croke’s, and they went on to win it.”

Sunday’s climax was extra special, with his own son scoring the last-seconds winner, Seamus Darby style. “You go from dejection to elation to trepidation, because there’s still a minute on the clock and there’s a kick-out for them.”

But they saw it out and by Sunday night in Clonmel, “everyone was going around with smiles on their faces”. Not least John Mc and Timmy Ryan who, despite the passage of time, can still remember some of the bigger defeats as well as the great county final wins of bygone years. There was 1966 and their first Munster club final defeat to East Kerry, “above in the field”, as Timmy puts it; 1971 when they beat a Waterville team starring Mick O’Connell and Mick O’Dwyer in Waterville before losing to UCC in the final; 1990 and Dr Crokes; and 1994 and defeat to a Larry Tomkins-inspired Castlehaven.

“It was most disappointing,” John remembered yesterday, in relation to all those setbacks. “We had powerful teams.”

“We wouldn’t be too popular going back over the years,” Timmy adds, pointing out the difficulties faced by town clubs. “You could be playing for months and months and never be beaten. Then you’re beaten some Sunday and you run into a fella on Monday morning and he says, ‘What happened ye yesterday?’”

Sunday’s victory, however, was applauded throughout the county. “It was something else,” Timmy Ryan concludes. “I don’t know how you’d even put words to it. You’d be saying, ‘Would the day ever come?’”