County success sparks a chain reaction: 'People have been inspired by the Limerick hurlers’

Eoin O'Doherty of Mungret St Pauls during last year's Premier IHC final defeat. The city club are bidding to go one better against Cappamore on Sunday. Picture: Brendan Gleeson

Limerick hurling is enjoying a golden age, with all the attendant signs on show on Sunday in the Gaelic Grounds.

Those attending the county finals there can get their photograph taken with the Liam MacCarthy Cup, for instance.

The senior final between traditional powers Patrickswell and Kilmallock might draw the headlines, but the curtain-raiser may be more instructive when it comes to the trickle-down benefits to clubs of three senior All-Ireland titles in four years.

Mungret St Paul’s and Cappamore offer an interesting contrast for the case study. Mungret is on the edge of Limerick city while Cappamore, as chairman Daniel O’Donnell says, is a rural club.

“It can be hard to say if we’re getting a boost from the county seniors’ success, because as a rural club our numbers are what they are. In the last few years they’ve been pretty consistent. The odd year you might have 25, or as many as 29, in an age group, but on the other hand our U15 team this year only had 17 or 18 players available.

“But at the moment we have a lot of kids in our nursery programme, that’s been very successful, so on balance I’d say we’ve had more people coming in as Limerick have become more successful. It’s great for the kids to see it — we gave a long time in Limerick without an All-Ireland, and I was wondering if I’d ever see it.”

Brian O’Halloran, the Mungret chairman, reports a similar boost at underage level.

“We’re fortunate, we have a big catchment area. The success of Limerick has had an impact, certainly, but so has Covid, funnily enough. People have definitely been inspired by the Limerick hurlers’ success but also, once they were able to get out and about after the lockdown for activities, we had a lot of people coming here.

“We’re a well established club with good facilities and a good underage structure. We’ve seen the benefit of that in our underage and in our ladies section, but certainly success brings along extra people as well, no doubt about that. And we’ve benefited from that.”

O’Halloran points out that a club needs the capability to accommodate those extra people, however.

“Over the years we’ve been very fortunate with our underage structure in how well they’ve worked. On the intermediate team, three of the starters are under 18 years of age — they’re the product of our underage structures, along with another four or five who are also on the extended panel and who are around the same age.

“This year we’re seeing a significant benefit to the work being put in at underage level — and with our teams at underage being competitive with the likes of Na Piarsaigh and Kilmallock. It’s certainly served us well in recent years and we see that in the quality of the players that are coming through — and in how close they are as a unit as well. They’re a very close group of players.”

O’Donnell makes a similar point. “Once you have the building blocks in place you have a chance of succeeding, of accommodating the extra kids who want to copy the Limerick hurlers. And our nursery has been in place for a number of years.

“We also have three national schools in the parish, which is also a boost for us. When you have good numbers in the schools you’ll do well with your nursery.

“It’s been a very good year for the club in general. Our U19s were beaten last week in the semi-final of the county and overall we cater for age groups from U8 to our adult teams — our other adult team is our junior B team.

“We don’t have the numbers at present for a junior A team but hopefully as more young lads come through that might change, as the lads who are in underage now get older.”

Whether the county team is successful or not, some principles never change.

“It all comes down to the work of everybody in the club,” says O’Donnell.

“It’s not down to one person, or one group, but to the club as a whole.

“We only opened our second pitch last year and it’s been a great success — there’s no discrimination or difference between the girls and the boys, and it’s great to see the girls come in for their camogie training and games.

“We don’t have ladies football but the girls go to Pallasgreen for football, so they have that outlet.”

Mungret are also expanding, another sign of the GAA boom on Shannonside.

“A couple of years ago we bought land adjacent to the club with a view to centralising all our facilities on one site,” says O’Halloran.

“We have an ambitious plan to develop two new senior pitches, to relocate our hurling wall, develop an astro pitch and in time build a new clubhouse (for more see mungretstpauls.com).

“So it’s an exciting time on and off the field, there’s a great energy in the club. Of course, what would top it all of would be a win tomorrow in the county final and promotion to the senior ranks.”

Cappamore have other ideas, obviously enough.

“Everybody’s looking forward to the game,” says O’Donnell.

“It’s everyone’s wish and dream to see the club back up senior. We were there and got relegated, we got back in 2016, we got relegated again — but the current group put their shoulders to the wheel with the management team, and the whole parish is really looking forward to a great occasion.”

Mungret made the Premier intermediate final last year.

O’Halloran says: “Kildimo-Pallaskenry pipped us, and that hurt, because we believe we have a crop of young lads capable of hurling at the top table and who want to play at the top level. Like all clubs we want to be playing senior and taking on the top teams, because that’s where you improve.

“We’re glad to be in the final and hoping lady luck smiles on us more than last year. We always feel our club is at the heart of our community, not only from a playing point of view but as a resource for different community groups. Because of that, growing the club is not just for us, it’s for the entire community because we feel the GAA is the heart of the community.”