John Riordan: Hartnett's hurlers back in a New York groove

For the first time since 2006, a full New York senior hurling team will assemble for a meaningful competitive fixture in the new year.

EMPIRE BUILDING: The development is a humble but significant milestone in the growth of the game in the Big Apple and in North America. Picture: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

As a measure of my wide-eyed emigré-returning-home-for-Christmas status after over 12 years in the US, my brother's idea for a Riordan family field trip to the Croke Park GAA Museum on Tuesday was greeted with earnest joy.

What a great idea. We all jumped in his car and made the short trip from The Liberties to Jones Road where we quickly morphed into useless tourists braced against the Solstice eve breeze without match-day stewards to guide us. A little lost on the wrong side of the stadium, we piled back into the car to get ourselves over to the Cusack Stand side where the museum is located. Normal people are Christmas shopping, I remarked, and here we are at HQ deep into December.

By happenstance, we were right on time to join a departing stadium tour and we were in the sort of mood to take them up on their offer to upgrade. It was the best decision of the day because we enjoyed the good fortune of having Annette Coyle as our tour guide. The Kildare woman knows the place inside out and delivers her gems with the wit of a seasoned GAA obsessive who hasn't missed an accessible All-Ireland football final since 1953 (apart from 2020 which should not blemish her six-decade achievement).

When we got out to the start of our adventure with Coyle, we were gathered in a barely organised semi-circle outside the minor dressing rooms. She almost immediately admitted to being a little starstruck by the sight of our fellow tourist, Neil Lennon, and the rest of us were happily surprised to be spending the next hour with the former Celtic manager and club captain, not to mention former Gaelic football teammate of Kieran McGeeney during their Armagh minor days.

He had played on the hallowed turf as a Hogan Cup player when attending St Michael's Grammar School before his other football career took off. When Coyle asked if it was ok to call him out, he politely leaned in. One of the half dozen English tourists joked gently that they were honoured to be in the presence of a Crewe Alexander legend. And Lennon told a great story about the humble chapel at the Nou Camp where he and Martin O’Neill took a moment to say a prayer before going out and earning a draw at Barcelona in the early 2000s.

As we ambled around the different sections of Croke Park, I learned a few new GAA folklore nuggets. Stop me if you knew this but it was I hadn’t been previously aware that there are 34 steps taking the players up to get their hands on whatever cup they're battling for that day; 32 counties plus New York and London. I didn't know about the Ali Tunnel by the Canal End, so named because the legendary boxer and Croke Park champion in his own right insisted on entering the opening ceremony of the 2003 Special Olympics because that was how he entered the ring in 1972.

Most embarrassing was my total ignorance that the full name of Hill 16 is "Dineen Hill 16". There was only cursory mention of Frank Dineen on Wikipedia when I double checked his first name and the year he helped the GAA purchase Croke Park. Without his 0% interest, pay-it-back-when-you-can loan in 1908, there is a strong chance the opportunity to own what was then a multi-purpose few acres of sports turf would have passed the still young Association by.

Our tour guide took us into the first of the two main dressing rooms, the one in which the team appearing earliest in the Irish alphabet is placed. The Ballygunner crest was still on the door since their defeat at the hands of Ballyhale last Sunday. Inside, the 34 county jerseys hung colourfully with pride of place offered to the four senior champions in hurling, football, campfire and Ladies football, Limerick, Kerry, Kilkenny and Meath.

On either side of the door, the New York and London jerseys got a little bit of extra special treatment. Coyle directed her attention to me, asking if New York would ever get a big day out at Croke Park at the business end of a senior championship season. Maybe not but I was happy to fill her in briefly about another sort of significant day happening at the very start of 2023.

For the first time since 2006, a full New York senior hurling team will assemble for a meaningful competitive fixture. It is a humble but significant milestone in the growth of the game in New York and North America, bolstered by the likes of Ballyheigue’s Richie Hartnett, his fellow Kerryman Eamon Fitzgerald and Fitzgerald’s predecessor in the role of New York Hurling Development Officer, Micky Quigg.

Hartnett moved to New York in 2008 and hit the ground running with a few senior championship medals as part of an Offaly side enjoying an unprecedented seven-in-a-row before more recently spearheading a revival of the Waterford representatives, taking on the helm after they rose to the senior ranks, finally winning the top prize this year in his third season as manager.

For the last few years, Hartnett has been part of push to get New York taking part in the Lory Meagher Cup. Hurling thoroughbreds like him watched everything that was happening for the football teams in the Tristate Area, the Tailteann Cup and the All-Ireland Junior Championship, for example. And instead of bemoaning the fact that hurling was being put on the back burner, they proactively brainstormed a strategy.

Backed by the County Board with Hartnett installed as the New York hurling committee chairperson, they sat down with the Connacht Council's hurling director, Damien Coleman at the start of this year to devise a plan.

"He's been great,” Hartnett said of Coleman when we spoke by phone the other week. “He's a great communicator and he loves New York. He's been out here multiple times over the years leading courses and updating our managers about the latest developments back home."

Coleman suggested the Connacht hurling League as an ideal stepping stone for Hartnett and his team, a stage from which to show the GAA they could travel and compete.

They'll enjoy the unique honour of being part of the first set of Inter County fixtures in 2023, their preliminary round game against Connacht neighbours and 2022 Lory Meagher finalists Longford who were drafted in to replace London.

That clash will be the second of a January 2 triple header at the University of Galway Connacht GAA Air Dome, flanked by the more familiar football-sounding rivalries of Leitrim v Mayo and Sligo v Roscommon. If they win, they'll extend their stay by almost a week through a semi-final against a Galway Development panel and either a final or a Shield Final on January 7.

"If we lose the first game, we're out so we obviously don't want that to happen. That's the only downfall of this format. Obviously, we've confident that we can get a result or at least give them a game but we definitely don't want the trip to be over after one game."

Two of their panellists grew up in the New York minor system, James Breen and Johnny Power, but there are plenty others like them who are capable of demonstrating the internal growth of the game in New York over the past decade. However, due to college commitments and scholarships in other codes, they can't train with the panel ahead of the trip, as much as they would love to.

Immigration status is no longer an inhibiting factor, points out Hartnett. Of the seven hurling teams taking part in the New York County Board, he estimates that no more than four are unable to travel due to visas being processed in the normal run of bureaucracy.

“Our plan is to go home, perform well and show our intent. Until we go home and prove how good we are, the level we're at, we can't even request to get another hurling team out here to play us. Maybe they'll make us do two Connacht Senior Leagues in a row before we can qualify for the Lory Meagher but look, it's the first competition we have been invited to at senior level since 2006. So it's a step in the right direction.” Fitzgerald, who joins Hartnett’s management team of Toby Kavanagh, Alan Gleeson and Sean Kelly, has provided a well-timed boost to the development of hurling in New York, bringing with him experiences gleaned during a stint on the Kerry County Board and at Tralee IT.

"I can't speak highly enough about the man,” said Hartnett. “He is absolutely amazing. I've been here a long time and I haven't seen hurling blitzes or competitions happening at the rate that they're happening since he came over. We went up to Rockland on a Thursday night maybe two months ago and there were maybe 120 kids out there playing hurling. It was just amazing to see that.

"Now it's up to us to go home in January and show that we can compete and hopefully win a couple of games."

@JohnWRiordan