Out on their own: How GAA brings our islands together

By Michael Moynihan

Brendan Murphy is playing a tune that every GAA chairman in Ireland can hum along to.

The playing field needed new nets, but a minor headache for most GAA clubs is the makings of a migraine for Bere Island.

“The other night, we had to get a teleporter in from Castletownbere to sort out our nets,” says Murphy.

“That had to come over on the ferry, and we were there until about half ten that night trying to fix it up.” They were in a rush for the All-Islands Football Championship, which throws in today. It’s the 20th year of the island championships, which Bere Island have hosted twice, and won outright in 2005.

“We’ve travelled to it every year, and it’s a great event,” says Murphy. “But there’s a lot of planning goes into it when you’re the hosts, obviously.”

And not a huge amount of people to draw on.

“There are almost 170 people living on Bere Island and Murphy says the population is elderly. There are promising signs, though: 17 kids go to the national school, but they held a Cúl Camp on the island this past summer: We had 500 kids at it, Jim Hanley ran it and it was a big success.”

They’ve also had some success in ladies football, Murphy adds.

“Lately we’ve had a women’s competition for the islands championship as well as a men’s championship, which is great. We have five teams in the women’s competition this year. Bere Island, Whiddy, Inishmaan, Inis Oírr and Aranmore from Donegal.

“Bere Island have won it three or four times already — they don’t play a lot of football but the girls have been together training for the last couple of months to prepare for it, so it’s good for them to fall in together and have the crack.

“We have two teams going into the men’s competition. At present we have Whiddy and Bofin and we hope Inishturk are coming. We’re not sure at this point whether the Aran Islands are coming, we’re awaiting confirmation on that — they’re playing championship in Galway — and while Clare Island would normally be here there was a bereavement up there recently.

“Bofin would have Ruarí Lavelle and Michael Day (of Galway), for instance. Whiddy would usually have Colm O’Driscoll, though he may not be there this weekend.

“That gives you an idea of the standard, it’s a good competitive competition.”

If Bere Island find numbers a challenge how are they fielding two teams this weekend?

“Numbers are a challenge to us but we have a lot of lads coming down for the weekend, so we’ll have more of a pick than usual.”

The influx of visitors is a boon and a challenge, of course. “All the houses are full on the island, the bed and breakfast, but we also have the army camp on the island for the weekend, so some of the visitors will be there. We had the draw last night and a bit of food, and this morning we’ll start.

“There’s a park run every Saturday morning on the island at 9.30am so we’ll start the competition after that. A round robin format, with the top two teams in the final.

“There’s a great buy-in from the entire island, people help out with teas and coffees and all that, as I say a lot of people come home for the weekend and meet up again, they mightn’t have seen each other for a while.

“My own lads are in college but they’re coming back, and they’re bringing a few pals, so the crowd grows, and if they enjoy their trip they’ll come back again.

“Twenty years ago, we went to the first one on Clare Island. There were three teams, and 16 people from Bere Island. In 2003, we went to the Aran Islands and 120 people from Bere Island went along.” The recession had an impact on the competition for a few years, naturally enough, but it’s survived and held its own. The benefits are clear to all.

“You couldn’t overestimate the value of it socially — I’ve been to all the islands around the coast now, and I wouldn’t have seen most of them if it wasn’t for the competition. We’d usually travel to the island where it’s on that Friday and come back on the Sunday — you’d make a weekend of it.

“As a club we’re close enough to extinction, to be honest, but we’re hanging in there.

“We’re the only island affiliated with the GAA on its own — the Aran Islands are combined, for instance — and we have two lads playing for us this weekend who are Scottish, their mother’s from Bere Island.

“They arrived on Thursday to play for us, in fairness. We have a Brazilian chap who falls in with us but he’s away fishing a lot of the time.

“But there’s great value to the competition because all the older people on the island get out to see a few games and to meet other people, there’s music in the pub afterwards, all of that.

“You’re meeting people from other islands and learning what they’re at to keep going.

“If we get any bit of fine weather it’s a great boost to everyone, and it helps us keep going until we get another couple of players.” With that, it was back to the work. The grass on the playing field was cut twice this week, while the nets were finally hung thanks to the teleporter. The clubhouse has been painted and the car park is open.

Not that the car park will be needed for everyone.

“Whiddy Island are coming by sea,” says Murphy.

“They’ll come up in two boats for the games. A bit different.” It could be the competition motto.