'Promotion would be huge for the club and the next generation': Castlelyons' Niall O'Leary on joining the elite

A win for Castlelyons against Bride Rovers on Saturday will see the East Cork unit reach the top division of Cork hurling

Niall O'Leary at training ahead of their Cork SAHC final. Picture: Dan Linehan

Coming up from Cork City, the quickest route to Castlelyons is through Rathcormac. Through one finalist to reach the other.

On the Tuesday evening the Castlelyons camp invited us up for a cup of tea and chat, traffic was slow through Rathcormac. Partially blocking one lane was the teleporter and its team of volunteers hanging Bride Rovers flags from every available pole.

The teleporter was stationed on the far side of the road to Barry’s Bar when we crept out beside it and continued the last few kilometres to our destination. A favourite local haunt, Barry’s Bar is symbolic of the ties that bond in Saturday’s Senior A decider.

Once run by Vera Barry, it is her son, Colm, now on the taps. Colm and his late mother are uncle and granny respectively to Castlelyons goalkeeper and full-back Jack and Colm Barry.

“There's connections everywhere,” begins Castlelyons boss Mike Spillane of two clubs that are no more than a five-minute drive apart.

“Jack and Colm, their grandmother had the pub in Rathcormac and that is where their father grew up. So they are steeped deep in enemy territory.” 

By the time we had finished our conversation with the 33-year-old Castlelyons manager, all players had packed up and poured home for the evening. Club PRO Kieran McGann, whose son Ciarán is part of the management set-up, put in a phone call to Niall O’Leary to see was he far gone over the road.

Alan Fenton of Castlelyons and Conleith Ryan of Bride Rovers pose ahead of Saturday. Picture: Jim Coughlan

The Cork senior, most obligingly, turned the car around and landed back up to the pitch for a few words. Still in his training gear and sporting a pair of Birkenstock clogs underfoot, the PE and History teacher at St Colman’s Fermoy regaled with his own Bride Rovers connections.

“Our new deputy principal in school, Pa O’Driscoll, is a big Bride Rovers clubman, he is the chairperson over there.

“Shane O'Connor, their wing-back, would have been in school with me. I'd have been very friendly with him. The Roche brothers, I obviously have a good relationship with them from being in with Cork.

“It is a strange one alright, the proximity between the two of us. But when you look back at our Premier Intermediate final in 2023, no distance between ourselves and Kilworth either, and a big crossover of lads that went to school together.” 

That Premier Intermediate final represented their third such appearance in the third-tier decider in four years. The outlier season - 2022 - saw them fall a step earlier.

The concern and the consensus was that Castlelyons had wasted their prime years trying to escape Premier Intermediate status, that there would be contentment with Senior A clothes rather than any realistic chasing of a fresher look from the Premier Senior wardrobe.

There didn’t seem much contentment with hanging around the second tier when leading Glen Rovers by 1-16 to 2-12 nine minutes from the end of last year’s county semi-final.

No one frightened more the eventual champions than them. And as recently as two weeks ago, it was they who ousted 2025 favourites Blarney.

Blarney's Shane Barrett shoots from Castlelyons' Niall O'Leary during the Cork SAHC semi-final at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh. Picture: Eddie O'Hare

“We have 30 lads here training most nights and every fella believes we could be playing Premier Senior. Whether it is a bit mad of us, I don't know, but it is always a good thing to have in a team the belief that they can play at the top level,” the 27-year-old Cork corner-back continued.

“It would be a dream to go up. It has been so long, 2009, since we were up at that level. It would be huge for the club, huge for the next generation. I was at that age when I saw the likes of Timmy McCarthy and Ciarán McGann playing senior for Castlelyons. It would do wonders for the younger members of the club.” 

We’ll finish with Mike. He started the 2020 county final defeat to Blarney and came on as a sub in the ‘21 final heartbreak against Courcey Rovers. Subsequent medical advice brought a premature end to his playing days.

The older brother of Colm and Anthony migrated immediately onto the sideline. His title grew each year. Selector last season under Noel Furlong, when the latter was appointed Cork U20 boss for 2025, Spillane moved up to manager, with Furlong moving sideways into a more coaching-focused involvement once the inter-county campaign was done.

“It was difficult having to stop when I did because a lot of people were saying externally this team could be finished after losing those two county finals. You probably felt there was a downward trend coming that you couldn’t help reverse, but when Noel came in in 2023, it was a new lease of life and a different way of thinking.

“It really galvanised the lads to jump on.” 

The Castlelyons players have spent their lives driving through Rathcormac. The job on Saturday is to jump over the neighbours so as to join the elite.