Conor Cleary hopes Miltown Malbay will have something to sing about

Miltown Malbay is guaranteed to be cock-a-hoop next week when the Willie Clancy Festival throws in, but you might mistake it for starting early if hometown man Conor Cleary is part of a first Munster SHC-winning Clare side in 20 years this Sunday.

Cleary plays his club hurling with Kilmaley, just over a 20-minute drive towards Ennis but he’s aware of his unique situation being “not from a hurling stronghold” as Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh once famously put it.

I suppose I started off with Kilmaley when I was nine or 10 and I went to St Flannan’s then when I was 12. I was playing as much hurling as Tony Kelly and Jack Browne and those lads in school, I would have been pally with them.