Cill na Martra letter: Football is the staple that binds Gaeltacht villages and towns together

Comórtas Peile Na Gaeltachta carries an important role in spreading our native tongue.

Tue, 04 Jun, 2024 - 06:20

Eoghan Cormican

In my 11 years exiled in Cork city, I had paid only one previous visit to Cill na Martra. That wasn’t today or yesterday, though, and so Google Maps was fired up just before Macroom.

As the width of the roads thinned, so too did the coverage. Until there wasn’t a hint of 4G to be had. No fear, the good people of Cill na Martra had been busy. Every turn in the road was met with a homemade sign directing you to the weekend-long station in the house. There was even a picture of Mel Gibson, bedecked in blue and white face paint from that famous Braveheart battle and stuck onto a blue and white-painted timber pallet, nodding you further on the road.