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.

The good people of Cill na Martra weren’t going to allow their Gaeltacht brethren from Termon in North Donegal and Laochra Loch Lao in West Belfast to drive six hours south only to take a left turn instead of right on the final stretch. Rolling down the hill into the village, the sight and sound of Comórtas Peile na Gaeltachta 2024 opened up in front of you.

The marquee, the masses dotted in and around it, the trad music, the chip van, the burger van, and whatever van you were having yourself. The instruction was to park in Davy McSweeney’s field. Davy, the same as his father when Comórtas last came to these shores in 2005, had offered up his field for parking.

“If we didn’t have that field, it would literally be impossible to host the Comórtas,” begins Gearoíd Ó hEalaithe. “It comes down to something like that because parking would be impossible without that field. You park in the field, literally walk across the road, and there you are greeted by this giant marquee that has a menu that is changing twice a day.

“Our plan was for people to be able to arrive in the morning, be able to stay all day, enjoy the services provided, and leave happy.”

We asked around for Ó hEalaithe’s title or role.

The instruction was to stick him down as Mr Cill na Martra and that’d cover it. The marquee, the three generators, the 40-foot refrigerated container, the 20-foot refrigerated container, and four refrigerated vans were all necessary because there is neither a restaurant nor a shop in Cill na Martra.

To avoid the travelling parties heading off to nearby Macroom and Baile Bhuirne to get fed and watered, the GAA grounds became a one-stop shop for everything, literally.

Local woman Kate O’Sullivan, the same as she did in 2005, looked after the food. Local man Micheál Lyons looked after the drink.

“We have all these skill-sets in the parish and it just made the whole weekend run so smoothly,” Ó hEalaithe added.

Accommodation was another beast altogether. Twenty-five travelling teams requiring a roof of some sort over their heads. No corner refused a bed. Chairman Niall Ó Cróinín housed the entire An Rinn team.

“They were out of the Comórtas before they got to my house,” Ó Cróinín laughs.

“They went straight to their match on Saturday, lost the match, and then stayed a couple of nights enjoying the festivities.

“It’s not a thing that you’d be worried about them wrecking your house. Because when we travel to the Comórtas, you respect whoever looks after you. It is always an enjoyable, respectful, and high-spirited weekend.”

It is a weekend best compared to a station in the house. The work that has been put on the long finger is moved to the top of the queue. In 2005 Cill na Martra built a stand that 18 years later enabled them to host their Munster intermediate quarter and semi-final last winter. For this second hosting, they finished and floodlit their second field that will enable Cill na Martra teams for the next 18 years and beyond to train unhindered through the winter. They renovated dressing-rooms. Installed a new boiler.

“It is exactly like the station in the house,” Ó Cróinín continued. “To host it, it is a once-in-a-generation thing.”

Beyond the home improvements and putting one's best foot forward, Comórtas Peile Na Gaeltachta carries an important role in spreading our native tongue. “I am teaching in Gaelscoil Mhuscraí in Blarney. We all want Gaeilge ar fud na háite. We want to expand it because it is our language.

“There is nothing parochial about it. The Gaeltacht communities are very welcoming, very open. To hear even around here people that mightn't have great Gaeilge, but they’ll use their cúpla focal, they’ll do their best for the weekend, and that’s fantastic. That’s as good as someone with a PhD speaking fluently. It’s having the goodwill and the want to do it.”

We belatedly come to the football. The football is far from the be-all-and-end-all of the weekend, rather another staple that binds these Gaeltacht villages and towns together. When the football was done, it was Chill Chartha collecting the Cup. For the already decorated Mark McHugh, adding this Comórtas medal carried special meaning.

“It is absolutely huge for us because of the year we have in the club, it is our 100th anniversary,” explained the 33-year-old former Donegal half-forward. “These weekends can be great craic, but we decided this year we’ll come down and we’ll give it a real go, just to give back to the club for what they have given us over our years.”

In his arms is baby Finn. Dancing around daddy is Noah and Ivy.

“It is great to have the family, my gang haven’t really seen Kilcar win anything. Winning will shorten the six-hour drive home. “And it’s a journey we’ll be making straight away because we have our day job waiting for us and they’ve school in the morning.”

As the McHugh’s and everyone else departed from McSweeney’s field, and as the television trucks packed up and pulled out, the locals were looking forward to throwing the feet up.

Given last year’s club campaign ran right through the All-Ireland final defeat in January, the past 12 months have been “the busiest in the club’s history”.

Last word to the chairman before we ourselves depart. “The locals who gave of their time will relax together, have a few drinks, and soak in that happy feeling of an extremely good weekend very well run and very well received.”