Ballinhassig and football: Tangled up in blue with its proud hurling alter ego
Ballinhassig celebrate capturing their second SE JAFC title. Picture: Howard Crowdy
As this is a story about a club famed for its hurling making a Cork county football final, it makes sense for events with the small ball to be the genesis of a change of fortune, and attitude with the bigger one.
To make sense of it all, we have to take a step back first.
In 1989, Ballinhassig re-graded from intermediate to junior hurling with the hope of a quick return due to exciting talent coming through.
As so often is the case, however, the junior county proved to be the toughest of all tests as the club existed in a state of limbo, unable to escape, lost in dreams of the glory days of the 1970s when one junior and two intermediate hurling counties were annexed in five years. The county finals of 1995 and 2000 were lost to Killeagh and Nemo Rangers respectively before, finally, we escaped to victory in 2002.
A promotion to hurling’s senior ranks followed in 2005 as the ghost of the 70’s was finally laid to rest as the Blues established themselves in Cork’s top tier. This success was built on the back of an assembly line of good minor teams from 1994 on, who also proved adept at football as they claimed south-east minor titles in 1994 and 2000.
Where before, senior hurling was a flirtatious experience, this time Ballinhassig confirmed themselves as more than able, winning back-to-back league titles in 2007 and 2008 becoming the only club in the history of Cork hurling to bring a senior title west of the Viaduct.
While all that was happening, football was just there, loitering in the background as a necessary, occasional distraction. Commitment was total for the 60 minutes of a game, but apart from that it just meandered gently as the Owenabue from the Half-Way to the village.
There was a Junior B title sometime in the mid-2000s, and we reached the ‘A’ final in 2009 when we lost out to Ballygarvan. The loss sparked no real existential crisis as most of us were happy enough to let our fellow parishioners plough the football furrow. There were plenty of capable footballers and while plenty of dedicated members were happy to throw their hat in the ring to help, it just all lacked a bit of vision.
The catalyst for the transformation was born out of the unexpected trauma of hurling relegation in 2011. There are two types of relegation. There’s the inevitable type that makes real to a club what it already knew deep in its heart, and then there’s the one that comes out of nowhere and leaves you on the flat of your back, gasping for air and grasping for what you felt entitled to. Ours fell into the latter category, and the winter of 2011 looked set to be a long one, full of discontent. The AGM came and went with most of the interest in the top hurling job, but significantly, as is his way, Fintan O’Leary stepped quietly and calmly into the role of Junior ‘A’ football manager.
O’Leary hails from Kilmeen/Kilbree and arrived in Ballinhassig in 1970s, setting up home in the Rising Sun with his wife, Noelle. He has two sons, David and Fintan junior, both stalwarts of the club. While most of us were lost in the dread of winter, Fintan added Brendan Keohane, who played for Clonakilty in the 1983 and 1985 county finals, and Willie Coleman, my father, to his ticket.
Then, as Christmas approached, we all received a text message that there would be junior football training on the last Sunday of November. Thirteen of us turned up Sunday morning and after that, it captured the imagination of the players and gave us all something positive to focus on, an outlet outside of the hurling pressure cooker. The numbers grew week on week and as 2011 gave way to 2012 we had a bit of spirit, momentum and plenty of direction.
2012 was everything that 2011 wasn’t in Ballinhassig. We couldn’t stop winning as we looked to put right what had happened the year before. We returned to senior hurling after beating Bandon in the Premier IHC final, we beat Kinsale in the South-East Junior ‘A’ hurling final, there was a Junior ‘B’ football divisional win as well, and then there was the divisional Junior ‘A’ football odyssey that Fintan had planned for us. We progressed steadily, training when we got the chance and we made it to the final against Tracton, who always seemed to have our number in big football games.
We were three points up with time up in the final in Belgooly when George Jagoe cracked home an equalising goal that meant we had to do it all over again Wednesday night. We’d left our best football behind us in the drawn game, but we found a way to force extra-time before Michael Sheehan struck for a golden goal to give us our first ever South East title.
It may have been a long way from Broadway, but the delirium that followed the win was as intoxicating a drug as I have ever experienced. By the time we made it back to the Sportsman’s Rest it was late, though outside hurling forces still managed to curtail our celebrations, not that we needed any stimulants. I was back living at home as I trained for a change in vocation and one of my happiest memories ever will always be myself and my father drinking tea in the kitchen long into the night, basking in the glow of unexpected glory.
There was a club wedding that Friday before we took on Kilmurry in Brinny the following day. We lost by four points in the end, but when they went on to lose the county final after a replay against Rockchapel, we began to understand that we were a bit better than we thought we were.
What made the 2012 breakthrough even more important was that it showed that the club took both codes seriously. We had already lost a couple of talented footballers to our neighbouring clubs and if this trickle became a stream, a part of our identity was in danger of flowing away with it.
Ballinhassig followed up 2012 with another title in 2015 before Ballyclough clipped their wings in the county and in 2019 they did it again only for Kilshannig to stop them in their tracks.
Which brings us to this weekend. A rising tide lifts all boats and there’s no doubt that it helps that this year’s hurling management team was the football management team in 2019. Cathal Daly, Paul O’Rourke, Mark O’Mahony, Sean Casey and Hugh Murphy have added a bit of extra nous and the wins against Tadhg Mac Cárthaigh’s and the one-point victory over Douglas in the semi-final were exactly the type of games we were losing in previous attempts.
Those on the outside may always perceive us as a hurling club, but those of us on the inside know where we come from, where we are going and what it all means to us.
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