The Cork-Limerick border rivalry: 'A lot of houses have a green flag and a Cork flag outside the gate'
Rivals in sport, collaborators in business: Richard Allen of Allenweld, Cork, and Limerick man Kieran Hickey, Tecoled, Mallow, both part of the LINC Engineering Cluster based in Co Limerick and North Cork, do battle on the Cork/Limerick border outside Charleville. Picture: Brian Arthur
Any time Cork play Limerick the usually invisible border that divides the two counties becomes as clear as day.
The people work together, go to school together, and play together but when days like Sunday come around, there is a subtle change in mood and attitudes.
Aileen Browne is chairperson of Charleville GAA club, home of Darragh Fitzgibbon, but she is also a proud Limerick woman.
There’s no great mystery as to how she came to live in Charleville, it was just her local town.
“I’m from Rockhill, just over the border, but I’m living in Charleville now. Bruree would be my original parish. I grew up four miles outside of Charleville but we would have always supported Charleville as a child as my uncles and cousins with Alan Dennehy, the current captain of the club, being one of them.”
No better person to measure the atmosphere around the town then, how has it been?
“It’s electric; the atmosphere, the craic, the banter, and the colour around the town is unreal.
“There are as many green and white flags in the town as there are red and white flags. A lot of the businesses and a lot of the houses would have both flags up because there are such strong ties.”
With such a complex relationship, it would be unfair to ask where her loyalties lie. However...
“I’m supporting the club this weekend with Darragh as club triumphs county in the GAA, I think. I suppose there’ll be celebrations either way because if Limerick win they’re great to come into Charleville to celebrate and obviously if Cork win there will be big celebrations.”
Three miles out the road in Effin, Denis O’Donovan has strong memories of the support his club got from across the border when they won the Munster Intermediate Hurling title in 2011 and back-to-back Junior and Intermediate counties in 2010 and 2011.
“I was absolutely amazed with the amount of people from Charleville, Ballyhea, and Newtownshandrum who came to all those matches. We had great amicable support willing us over the line.”
Nicky Quaid will be in goals again this Sunday but he lined out at centre-back in those campaigns and his heroics mean a lot to the people of the area.
“We have had great hurlers in the past like Conor O’Donovan and Eamonn Rea who would have won All-Irelands but Nicky is the first player who was a sitting Effin player while doing all of this. The name ‘Effin’ is on the programme and it has made us about five foot taller when we go to matches.”
And how have the trips to Charleville been this week?
“There’s a current flowing that is untouchable, it’s just palpable. Unusually, Limerick are favourites and warm favourites at that as over the years Cork would have always had the edge. Talking to a few of the Limerick lads in there, Limerick are quietly confident but can’t be vocal about it because we know what Cork have done to us in the past.”
Five miles further out the road, Kilmallock chairman Steven Connery feels the magnitude of the occasion.
“The tension is definitely higher, the thought of the aftermath and of how we will handle victory or defeat!
“That’s what’s coming down the road because there’s a fierce rivalry between both. You’ve family on both sides of the border, Limerick people married to people from Cork, and there’s a fierce link there with people from Kilmallock and people in north Cork.
“There’s a cautious confidence there but we know what Cork have and going down through the years, Limerick would have gone in hoping they would win but the current crop of players instils a certain amount of confidence in the supporters, but you can’t take it for granted either. Cork will be going in with the same confidence that Limerick have.
“I’m sure that there will be fellas who will make a pleasurable trip to Charleville if Limerick win but if they don’t, they’ll be avoiding the area; it could mean a loss of business for a lot of the public houses in Charleville!”
Ten miles back to the west and Newtownshandrum chairman Brendan Mulcahy is basking in the glow of his clubmate Cormac O’Brien captaining the Cork U20s to All-Ireland glory and hoping Tim O’Mahony can follow his example at the weekend. For him, living on the border means living among people from both sides.
“Traditionally, Charleville CBS would have been where a lot of guys around here went to school. Back in my day, it was half Limerick and half Cork in the classroom. You’d know a lot of guys and we’d have played a lot of challenge games against Kilmallock and Bruree and these teams, so we’d have known one another quite well and obviously along the border the rivalry is always greater.
“You’d even see it driving around Newtown and Charleville, a lot of houses have a green flag and a Cork flag outside the gate. There’s obviously a lot of mixed families, shall we say, along the border and that adds to it as well.
“There’s been an awful lot of craic and slagging over it and it’s just more intense simply because of the familiarity between people.”
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