Ollie Moran and Paul Kelly: Cousins across the Limerick-Tipperary divide

Sons of Mullinahone sisters Mary and Biddy (nee Maher), Paul Kelly and Ollie Moran, and their brothers Eoin, James, and Niall, lit up many a Tipperary-Limerick championship duel on opposing sides

Ollie Moran and Paul Kelly pictured at Abbey Court Hotel, Nenagh. Picture: Brian Arthur

JF: How are your mothers?

OM: Both are in good form. They’re cut from the same cloth. All the sisters are. If we went to the Kellys or any of our cousins, the sandwiches and tarts would come out. They’re all super bakers, homekeepers. They’re always on the phone to each other.

I’d often talk to mam now that I’m older and it had been tough for her going to Limerick because they had been so tight at home. But a couple of hours after being in Mullinahone and it’s as if she never left. Mam is gone out of Mullinahone the guts of 50 years. It’s funny, but the home place is such a small house. Ten children.

PK: Four boys, six girls.

OM: But whenever we were there, we were fed and there was always room. We were blessed. And then to be meeting our cousins. Sure, that was our holiday. An hour and three quarters from Castleconnell. Terrible roads. Tipp town, Fethard.

JF: How was it for your parents when you were playing against each other?

PK: They were always proud of any of us hurling inter-county, the uncles particularly. When we met, there was a love divide. Biddy would always be shouting for Limerick, mam for Tipp.

In fairness, they always waited around for each other after matches. We would have always chatted after matches, gone out after matches. In the heat of battle, they’d always be hoping that their own do well naturally enough. Ollie in the ’07 final; deep down you’d be hoping Limerick would win. Family pride comes out at the end of the day.

OM: It was a massive source of pride because people in Ahane would be acutely aware of the Tipp connection well before there was county hurling. Eoin and Niall played a lot of under-age against each other, Eoin being in Kieran’s and Niall in Flannan’s, and then they played minor for Tipp and Limerick. People found it hard that we wanted Tipp to win after Limerick lost the quarter-final in ’01.

When the lads won the All-Ireland final that year, I remember we had a great night up in Nenagh a night or two after. Mam would prefer if Limerick won but, make no bones about it, when Limerick were bet, mam was blue and gold to the core. Growing up, Tipp probably resonated more with us than Limerick.

PK: Sure, you were always at Tipp matches in the early ’90s.

OM: We loved watching Tipp and dad (Ardfinnan man Pat Moran, cousin of Babs Keating) loved watching Tipp club matches, so it wasn’t unusual for us to be going to Thurles or Cloughjordan. We had that affinity but, once we played, Tipp was firmly put to one side. We’d go to watch Mullinahone games when we were down and they were a run-of-the-mill mediocre junior team. They didn’t have anyone of county standard so, to be fair to John Leahy, when he came along he was such a prodigy.

PK: You probably trained with Mullinahone?

OM: We did. We could spend two or three weeks there so we’d train with the boys. I think we togged out illegally, but were never brought on. I think Ricky Sheehan brought us just in case they were short.

JF: Coming from Mackey’s Ahane to Mullinahone, did you feel a sense of superiority?

OM: Ah, you would have had because we had good underage teams and were starting to come to prominence and winning divisional championships and getting to county A finals. Bear in mind, Paul and Eoin were a bit younger than James and myself. You knew Eoin and Niall were able to hurl, but they were a bit smaller. Our cousins, the Foxs, were four boys and were all of similar age. We’d go down, find a field, put down two bags and played for the day. We knew we could play and we knew the boys could too, but you never thought you’re at a certain level.

JF: Were there any stitches?

OM (smiles): What happened in the league match in 2004?

PK: I got sent off. I think I hit a flake off Niall. I put that down to your wedding the same weekend. I got two yellows below in the Gaelic Grounds and Niall was at the end of one of them.

OM: I was contemplating playing the match and I was kinda itching for it, but Pad Joe Whelahan said to forget about the match and concentrate on the wedding. Ye beat us well if I remember right. The two of them were probably out on the dance floor acting the maggot in the Dunraven Arms on the Friday evening. Ah, they were always the volatile side of each house.

I do remember four of us playing the 2001 Munster final. Grandad had died not too long before and the final hadn’t gone well for me. I got injured and Paul was the first fella over to commiserate and I was thinking: “Jesus, Paul, if it was any other circumstances.”

He was taking a Munster medal at our expense. But Paul’s first reaction after the final whistle was to say to me: “Grandad would have been proud.” And I never forgot that. To have that presence of mind was a lovely thing.

JF: Was it radio silence between yourselves before games?

PK: The only time we would get together were for family occasions. It might be a wedding or a funeral. There were never best wishes before or anything, it was just a case of may the best horse jump the fence on the day.

OM: We were more often than not in the losers’ enclosure, but we would often see the lads afterwards and Moll. The family were always there because it was a huge thing in their lives, and then everybody knew they were the aunts and uncles of the Kellys and the Morans.

PK: Going back to ’99 and we played a quarter-final in Cashel against Loughmore, I think ye drew with Toomevara in the Munster club the same October Bank Holiday weekend. We went to see them and we ended up staying and going out with James, Niall and Ollie afterwards.

OM: It was never a case of they were Tipp and we were Limerick. The family was so far ahead of that. I won’t say we had an inferiority complex at the time, but we were in the shadow of Tipp and they were the sworn enemy. So for the lads to come down and such high-profile players, young fellas were awestruck — ‘Jesus, Paul and Eoin Kelly were out with us and we had a great night out’. There were no airs or graces because it would have been knocked out of you in their house or our house.

We’d some great nights in Mullinahone too.

JF: Did you have any designs on your positions on the field playing together as kids?

PK: Eoin would always have fancied himself as a forward and Niall was the same.

OM: I was a goalie.

PK: I remember dad bringing me and Eoin to Cappawhite watching you play county U16 in goal.

JF: Where Eoin started too.

PK: When Ollie came on the scene, he was regarded as this great goalie.

OM: Tipp weren’t prominent in the mid-’80s and we’d be going down to Mullinahone and I remember my mother getting me a jersey like Noel Skehan’s and I idolised Noel Skehan. He was probably my favourite hurler, so whenever we were playing on the fields I was Noel Skehan. Nicky English was the top hurler.

PK: I was Pat Fox because we were both ciotógs. Sure, I remember Eoin going into a Limerick dressing room after James had played U21. It could have been ’94, and James gave Eoin a jersey, the Shaws one, and Eoin came out with it 10ft tall.

OM: My young lad was staying last week with James, who’s a selector with Clare, and he got to meet the two Galvins, Tony Kelly, John Conlon. James was the first; he played county minor, he played county U21. He’s nine years ahead of Niall, so he was paving the way for all of us. We, and probably the lads in Mullinahone, were seeing one of our own get to that level and it would have inspired you.

I’m not blowing up Paul or Eoin, but everyone knew from when they were eight or nine that they were going to be special.

PK: I don’t know about that, but ye played a league final in ’97 against Galway. Dad loaded us into the car and we went up to Nowlan Park to see our cousins playing. That interest was always there.

OM: While you weren’t in physical contact, you were always aware of what the cousins were doing, the progress they were making.

We were proud both our parents were Tipperary and we never considered it a burden. I won’t say we were beating our chests about it, but we knew Tipp were steeped in history. We always loved that Tipp connection.

JF: The trilogy in 2007 — how intense was that for you?

PK: I was injured and it was frustrating. When you’re involved in it, your attitude is different. Out of it, I was hoping Tipp would win so that I could get myself right for an All-Ireland quarter-final or semi-final. I ruptured my quad in a league quarter-final in Nowlan Park against Waterford and that finished me. It was one of the most frustrating injuries I ever had because I had come back and did it again.

I was 27, basically in my prime, and those were the games you want to be involved in. There was such a buzz at that time. Limerick supporters, they were electric. The buzz for the first replay in Thurles was unbelievable.

OM: We hadn’t beaten Tipp in a long time and they had that psychological edge over us. We got to a league final in ’06, came into Thurles favourites to beat them in Munster and Eoin did a number on us nearly on his own. We were beaten in 2001, ’02, ’04 in a qualifier, ’05, ’06. Tipp were stalling us all the time.

Bar 2002, they were never hammering us. All our focus that year was on Tipp. We were obsessed with the date, June 10. It was hardwired into everyone’s head. Being so close to the border, we knew Tipp weren’t as united as they could have been. If things weren’t rosy in the camp in Limerick, you were sure they’d get hammered; but with Tipp, they were still going to get a performance.

Tipp should have beaten us the first day, Damien Reale got sent off for a second yellow on Eoin.

PK: Was Eoin acting soft?

OM (laughs): I don’t think so. You’re telling us this now after all these years! In the replay, Tipp should have beaten us. Paul mentioned the Limerick crowd, they love playing Tipp. People have always said to me that there was nothing like Limerick-Tipp. Clare were rivals, but they wouldn’t have the same hardcore following as Tipp. When we got the draw after being six or seven points down, it felt like a win. The atmosphere in Thurles, there are certain things you will bring to your grave and there are privileges to playing inter-county because you’re in the thick of that and that day was one of them. The adrenaline, it was so gladiatorial. The third day, we finally got over the line. Tipp weren’t the force they were, they were only half-cooked. They were back to their best in ’09.

JF: Tipp revitalised themselves, but it coincided with Limerick’s in-house issues in the 2009 All-Ireland semi-final.

PK: It was one of those days that basically everything Tipp touched turned to gold. What was it, six goals we scored?

OM: 6-19 to 2-7.

JF: Were you aware of the unrest in Limerick at the time, as Ollie was of Tipp in ’07?

You hear the rumble and tumble. Beating Limerick, it was a relief. It meant we could compete with the great Kilkenny team in the final and we were unlucky not to win it.

OM: We were obviously in a bad state. Everyone knew there was disharmony and we knew we weren’t training well. What Justin (McCarthy) did with Waterford to be successful was never going to be successful with us because we were a different animal altogether. I remember being a sub that day and and seeing the physical conditioning of the Tipp subs. Two or three of us remarked how powerful they looked and they blew Limerick apart.

PK: But look at Limerick now. They’re
machines.