Still hooked: the Rockies and Barrs supporters connecting to their club around the world
Three-and-a-half year old Brendan Hatchell, son of Blackrock supporter Ruairi in Singapore.
Framed in a Zoom meeting screen, Adrian Coyne is sitting in front of a typical office setting, somewhere in downtown Vancouver.
A Blackrock supporter from Church Road, as a player he graduated through the academy to line out for the minors and U21s.
Days before the Rockies face old rivals the Barrs in the county final – their first meeting in the championship showpiece for four full decades – the 29-year-old is explaining where he met his friend from St Finbarr’s.
“I got roped back into the GAA over here,” Coyne says, “I knew a few lads from Carrigaline who were setting up a club so I’m playing both again now. Brian moved over this year and came along to training and he was wearing a Criost Rí training top so I went over to say hello.”
Brian Kerins – a first cousin of the Barrs’ football goalkeeper, John – joins the chat during his tea break on a building site, somewhere else in the city.
The pair are typical of the wild geese who now keep tabs on their clubs – and stay connected with families and communities – thanks to new technology.
When the goes live with exclusive coverage of the county final on Sunday, they’ll be among the thousands watching. But not together.
“100% I’ll get up this Sunday,” Kerins insists, despite the seven-hour time difference between Páirc Uí Chaoimh and Canada’s west coast. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.
“But I'm not sure I’d watch it with him. What if they lose?”
Coyne, an IT Risk consultant, has assessed that particular exposure too.
“Yeah, we might meet for a pint afterwards or a bit of breakfast,” he says.
“There’s a few other Blackrock lads involved so hopefully a few of us will watch it and there’ll be a bit of ball-hopping with Brian on the WhatsApp as well.”
In Abu Dhabi, the time difference is kinder and the Irish contingent there will gather to watch together.
“There's an Irish Pub over here, called Vickers, and they've signed up and are paying their €5 a month,” laughs Ian Power from his classroom in Abu Dhabi, “so they stream it for us.” The Deerpark native’s brother will have duties on the Barrs’ sideline, his father will watch from the stands as a member of the senior hurling committee, his mother made sure they went through the gate in Togher as kids in the first place.
The club has been a huge part of his life and his generation was nursed on stories of the famous Barrs-Rockies rivalry. But like anyone younger than 40, the sides have never met with the Sean Óg Murphy Cup on the line in their lifetime.
And the Blues hurlers haven’t been part of the hurling decider since 1993.
“I was two in 93,” he says. “I'd heard about it of course and then when I was playing you still had Mickey Ryan from the ‘93 team, still chugging along.
“Even football wise, when they won in 2018, you just see the videos and stuff of everyone going up Barracks Street and all that. That was the worst I've felt now since being away. And I know the hurling this weekend is going to be… I saw the videos of the club after they won the semi-final so I can only imagine if they win the final on Sunday.”
In New York, Cormac O’Keeffe is explaining where he’s from: “I'd say it's the only house in Rochestown with the green and gold flying out the window this week.”
The family moved from Willowbank, opposite the Rockies’ pitch, when the online ad sales executive was a child, but they made the trip back for training, games and to visit O’Keeffe’s grandmother who had the post office in the village.
“I think it's a huge part of the bond with my dad,” he says of his relationship with the club now, from thousands of miles away. “He goes to every single game. I get a photo of the team from the match programme before the ball’s thrown in. I get a text with the half-time score and I get a call at full-time. So I still feel connected through that and the club is very, very good on social media.
“So I'm always following the scores and the updates and I get the newsletter and more recently the Examiner coverage has allowed me to watch the game live as well. Which is amazing. It's been such a great addition especially over the last nine or 10 weeks having Michael's as well, it’s been hectic. Being able to watch both has given me something to do every week and keep me connected.”
Ruairi Hatchell’s been on the road a while. He left the country straight out of college and has made homes in Japan, Singapore, London and now Singapore again. He’s seen the way he stays linked to his club evolve over the years.
“When I moved to Asia in 2003 the only thing was Skype,” he says. “You’d be listening to Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh on the internet radio, listening to matches.
“So the streaming definitely makes you feel a lot closer to home. I was watching the lads the last day in the semi-final and my mother was in the stadium and she’d be texting me asking who scored that or who did so-and-so come on for?
“And I'm thousands of miles away and I'm able to tell her and it’s really good to be able to keep that connection with home as well.”
Hatchell, who is also deeply involved in the massive Singapore GAA club, will be hoping his Rockies can finish the job in the 60 minutes.
“The time difference is a nightmare for me,” he says, “I’m able to use the browser on my TV, so I’ll be on the couch but it’ll be 11 o’clock.
“The Imokilly game that was delayed because of the weather? I was up ‘til 2 o’clock in the morning because it went to extra time and penalties. So that was a rough one in work on Monday morning.”
Hatchell expects a good, hard game and with ‘plenty of hurlers’ on either side, we may get a shootout.
“I'm confident,” Brian Kerins says from a quiet corner of the construction site, meanwhile.
Adrian Coyne offers a diplomatic breakdown of how balanced the sides are in an answer, he eventually admits, is designed not to give the Barrs’ camp anything to wallpaper the dressingroom wall.
“It’ll be a very close one, but I think it’ll come down to the last couple of minutes,” Kerins concludes. “We’ll see.”
Watch St Finbarr's v Blackrock in the biggest day in Cork hurling from 1pm on Sunday. Our five-hour broadcast -- including the Premier IHC decider at 2pm -- is all part of the bundle available to existing Irish Examiner subscribers - a special price of €5 per month. The Cork hurling finals double bill is also available to pay-per-view customers on the day for €12.
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