It's all relative as Knocknagree's family tree looks to grow upwards again

'It is like the miracle of the loaves and fishes' for tiny border club where 11 of the starting 15 are related to one another

Sat, 29 Oct, 2022 - 06:32

Eoghan Cormican

Three well-fed city clubs will make the short spin into Páirc Uí Chaoimh tomorrow afternoon.

St Michael’s, St Finbarr’s, and Nemo Rangers are three clubs on the southside of Cork city drawing from populous areas. They are three clubs with very healthy membership totals.

Completing tomorrow’s Páirc Uí Chaoimh double-header line-up is little Knocknagree way out on the Cork-Kerry border.

Knocknagree is a club not drawing from a populous area. Knocknagree’s 118-paid up members is a total four times smaller than St Michaels’ 500.

Knocknagree is a village without a shop or post office. Knocknagree is a village that was once home to more than 10 pubs (or so went the local information passed in our direction). Knocknagree is now a village of two pubs.

Knocknagree is a football team of brothers and cousins, several of whom grew up within 500 metres of each other.

But above all else, Knocknagree is a remarkable story.

Prior to 2015, the club hadn’t won a Duhallow junior football championship in 24 years. In 2017, they won the county. In February of the following year, they won the All-Ireland junior club. The year after that they won the county intermediate. The year after that they won the premier intermediate.

Tomorrow afternoon, after their long spin into Páirc Uí Chaoimh, Knocknagree will contest the Senior A football decider. Win that and they will have a seat at Cork football’s highest table.

“Definitely not,” replies team captain Fintan O’Connor when asked the only question being put to a Knocknagree footballer these days. That is; could they have envisaged being stood here on the precipice of top-flight football five years ago.

“When you think of senior football in Cork, you’re thinking of Nemo, the Barrs, Castlehaven – you’re looking up and seeing these massive clubs.

“For the players, it’s a dream that you’re never even considering. But the one person who has been driving it since we got together is John Fintan Daly. He never hid his ambition from us, that he wanted Knocknagree to reach our potential and to go as far as possible.

“That we’re 60 minutes away from becoming a premier senior club – to sit back and think about it, it’s mad.”

As well as captain, Fintan O’Connor is also the team’s top-scorer. His brother David is at midfield. Two more of their brothers, Timmy and Anthony, are on the panel. The four are first cousins of corner-forward Denis Rory O’Connor.

This quintet are second cousins of the Doyles, another set of O’Connors well represented on the starting team, and half-forward Gearoid Looney.

The two Doyles are goalkeeper Patrick and corner-back Michael. This second set of O’Connors are corner-back Gary, corner-forward Niall, and panellists Paul and Shane. This six, along with the aforementioned Looney, are first cousins.

If you’re not still with us, we don't blame you. The Knocknagree family tree is as long as their recent roll of honour. And we haven’t even covered half of it. Just know that 11 of the starting 15 typically put out by John Fintan Daly are related.

“After we won Cork, Munster, and All-Ireland junior titles, you might think that will be the pinnacle of a small club’s achievements. But we got straight back to work. There is great credit due to the players for keeping at it since 2017 and long before that,” Fintan O’Connor continued.

“The majority of this group are on the go for at least 10 years. All that plays into arriving on the big day.”

These big day successes have galvanised and lifted the community.

“We are a small area with a small population and small resources,” says manager John Fintan Daly. “The promotion and fundraising within the club is superb. We have one of the finest lotto set-ups in the county. We have a very good tidy towns, a very good community development. You can direct a lot of this back to our success in Croke Park. That’s a level most small clubs don’t get to.

“It pushed everyone to try and raise their game. It kicked people into action. Our performances on the field have helped towards creating a general positivity in the area.

“It is like the miracle of the loaves and fishes, our population being so small.”