Bishopstown and the Cork GAA family comes together for Mick
Mick Cronin
On Thursday, November 18, Mick Cronin set off for work as a construction foreman, as he had done for most of his life. Thoughts of celebrating his 52nd birthday the next day were probably on his mind. The upcoming U16 Premier 2 football county final on the coming Sunday would have occupied his attention. Mick is a mentor and selector to the team with his friends Brian and Pat Cuthbert of Bishopstown GAA club; his son Sean the goalkeeper and captain of the group.
That the final was to be played on home turf in Bishopstown as part of a weekend festival of county finals would have added enjoyment to the occasion for Mick, a volunteer with the club for 13 years.
Hours later, Mick was rushed to Cork University Hospital after suffering a severe and life-changing fall. In the coming days, under the care of the medics in the hospital, Mick, his wife Karen, daughter Ailbhe and Sean would learn the extent of his injuries, resulting in a permanent lack of movement from the shoulders down.
Mick’s story is the story of many people and families across the country - a hard-working man whose main priorities in life are his family, work, volunteerism with the GAA, love of sport, and socialising with his friends.
From Kiskeam, close to the Cork-Kerry border, Mick’s first love is Gaelic football, but he’s a GAA stalwart, a Cork GAA supporter, a Liverpool FC devotee, a follower of Munster rugby, your typical sports-mad Irishman.
GAA clubs up and down the country know a Mick Cronin. The type of man to solve a problem with a drill, take the jerseys home and wash them, and have the lads out training early on a weekend morning or a stiff spring night. The man who’ll wander over to you in the club bar, pint in hand for the chat, hopping a ball about the fate of Manchester United or talking about the progress of a club or county team. Every club has a Mick Cronin.
Mick Cronin is lucky to have Bishopstown GAA club too.
Shortly after club members could digest the news of Mick’s accident, his friend Pat Cuthbert and his brother Brian, club chairman and former Cork senior football manager, and the club Secretary Alan O’ Sullivan contacted Karen. Shortly after, they set up the Mick Cronin Support Group. Under their stewardship, the committee membership read like a map of Mick’s life – close friends from Kerry, North-West Cork, Galway, and Chicago, where Mick had worked for a period in the mid-90s, playing a prominent role in Cú Chulainn’s hurling club.
The only stipulation from Mick and Karen was clear – the fundraiser should contain some form of event that involved the community coming together.
From here, it would be easy to dress up the rest of the story as the easy ascension to better days. But if life has taught Mick’s family and friends one lesson over the past few months, it’s that the pulse of every day doesn’t beat with any predictability. There have been tough, sometimes brutal days. But Mick has always had support – Nico, the Spanish nurse who volunteered overtime to look after Mick and speak to him about Spanish football. Francis and Carol (a Kiskeam native like Mick), the clinical nurse managers in CUH, made Karen feel at home every day when she came to be with Mick.
And the people of Bishopstown GAA club.
For all the peaks and troughs, and more to come, Bishopstown GAA has been at the shoulder of the Cronin family. The fundraiser idea from the support group - #matchesformick has been adopted and raised by the club’s people. Over two days, Thursday 17th and Friday 18th of March, Bishopstown GAA will host 14 other neighbouring clubs for a two-day marathon of matches supporting Mick. From as young as U6 to the senior men and women’s teams, boys and girls will face the opposition in hurling, football, and camogie matches from 9am to 8:30pm. Ballincollig, Ballinhassig, Ballinora, Ballygarvan, Blackrock, Carrigaline, Douglas, Glen Rovers, Keelnameela, Kiskeam, Nemo Rangers, St Catherine's, St Finbarr's and Valley Rovers – the list reads like a who’s who of Cork GAA, and all willing to put their shoulder to the wheel in support of a GAA man.
On Friday the 18th, family, friends and club members will come together in the clubhouse to share what Mick loves – the stories, the craic, the racing from Cheltenham and the opportunity to be together.
Perhaps Brian Cuthbert paints the most accurate picture of #matchesformick.
“A GAA club will often have a huge drive and desire to want to win competitions and trophies, but also clubs all over the country have a desire that they’ll be there for their members when they need them most. The good wishes we’ve got from other clubs, too, shows that, when it comes to it, the GAA is out on its own when it comes to supporting one another.
"In every club, you’re always going to meet a time when somebody needs some help. It now happens to be Bishopstown’s time that there’s a family in need of assistance.”
For the Cronin family, for Mick in his hospital bed, that assistance and kindness of so many has only bolstered the incredible mental strength he has shown to fight for a recovery that will include a stay in the National Rehabilitation Centre in Dun Laoghaire.
“We are so thankful for the support we have received from everyone in Bishopstown GAA club," says Karen. “Over the two days, there will be boys and girls from U6 upward, their parents, families committing their time to be in the club to volunteer, to play, to referee, to coach and mentor the teams, from all the 15 clubs, I don’t think there are words you could use to describe the gratitude we feel to every single one of them.
“The people on the pitch representing the club are the tip of the iceberg. The quiet, consistent help we’ve received from everyone in Bishopstown is what lies underneath at the heart of the club; the brilliant people all around in the background”.
When the club needed the people in the background, Mick Cronin was there, and when Mick Cronin and his family needed it the most, the GAA family has been there, at its best.
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