'We have our own heroes now': Hanlon feeling the Buttevant buzz 

The club’s current healthy status was best illustrated by the tuxes and glitz and film reels of tinseltown done local at the Charleville Park Hotel.

Mark Lenahan, Buttevant, about to strike for goal, watched by Ian Keatley of Ahane. Pic: Dan Linehan

Joey Hanlon has been to Hollywood and won an Oscar. Next stop is Mallow and Munster junior silverware.

Derry Girls successfully tackled, now onto the Ballymacelligott boys. The latest shout of lights, camera, action for this thriving pocket of North Cork.

Buttevant GAA club brought Hollywood to the Charleville Park Hotel on the second last Saturday of November. 

Their junior footballers had overcome Ahane in the provincial semi-final earlier the same day. Mucky togs were swapped for pristine tuxes. From the Kildorrery field to the red carpet.

Close on 800 people packed into the Charleville Park Hotel for the club’s Hollywood Awards night. 

The event first and foremost served as a fundraiser for their plans to construct a new gym and astroturf training area. To qualify for grants to drive the project, the club themselves need to pull together the bones of €100,000.

Boosting Buttevant coffers was the functional side of the night. The fun side was the adjudication of the seven short films starring every last man, woman, and child in the town.

Junior boss Joey Hanlon was part of the Derry Girls line-up, cast in the Tommy Tiernan father role of Gerry. Joey’s winning year continued. Derry Girls took best movie. The comedic touch, clearly, as well as the Midas touch.

“Oh stop, I’d say it was a sympathy vote that won it for us,” Hanlon laughed down the phone earlier this week.

It is not their plans to transform the club grounds that speaks to Buttevant traveling in the right direction. Neither is it a first adult county title in 99 years or a first-ever Munster final appearance this Saturday lunchtime.

The club’s current healthy status was best illustrated by the tuxes and glitz and film reels of tinseltown done local.

“An unbelievable night. I am not a Buttevant man. I am originally from Foynes, a St Senan’s man, the same club as my coach Ian Ryan. I never thought when I came here first that we would see a night like that because support for the GAA club wouldn’t have been great,” Hanlon explained.

“It wasn’t a negative thing, but there just wasn’t much support. But there must have been 800 people at the event, and they all dressed up to the nines. People that never darkened the football pitch got involved in this fundraiser. We were after beating Ahane, so there was a great energy about the place.

“I could never have imagined that we’d have a night like that. Hopefully we will have many more.” 

The new gym is the centrepiece of the redevelopment. They hope to have it built and operational within the next two years. Hanlon was also at the head of the junior footballers, back in 2017, when a makeshift gym was first cobbled together in the club.

“There were old dressing-rooms behind the hall. There was water flying in, and they were only ever being used by people changing for plays and stuff. I asked the then chairman Tadhg Donovan if we could break down the walls in the dressing-rooms, which we did, and we made a decent enough gym that has been the foundation of everything, really, in terms of lads adopting a strength and conditioning culture.

“It was bog standard, but players had their own gym. This new gym is moving with the times.” 

The club’s juvenile wing was more hurtling than moving at the same time as they were hauling barbells and benches in behind the hall.

Two years earlier in 2015, the club annexed nine Rebel Óg titles in one season. There were county football wins at U14, U15, and minor.

“There was a time there where young lads were getting six and seven medals at the end-of-year function. But it has taken a long time for these players to evolve and get a bit of success at adult level.

“For the current underage players, they see the adult team doing well. They are their heroes, as opposed to them looking outside to other places. We have our own heroes now. The foundations are fantastic at the minute,” Hanlon, whose sons David and Conor line out in attack, continued.

Conor Hanlon regrets a missed goal opportunity for Buttevant in the McCarthy Insurance Group PJFC semi-final against Canovee in

For too many years, Buttevant lined out in the shadow of their more illustrious neighbours. 

Situated between Mallow and Ballyhea, both are senior clubs in football and hurling respectively. Further down the N20 is Charleville, another top-tier hurling club.

Intermediate status achieved and the opportunity to become only the fourth Cork club over the past 20 years - after Kilmurry (2024), Knocknagree (2017), and Canovee (2007) - to taste Munster Club JFC success, Buttevant’s presence is felt and is fattening.

“For the first time in a long time, and this goes for everybody involved, we can go down the town and our chests are out. People that don’t know about the game or go to games, they are wishing us well and they know it is going in the right direction.

“For many years it was the same old people doing the same thing year in year out because no one else was willing to take on the roles, but now there are new faces every year and our underage numbers are really healthy compared to other clubs around us, so we hope this success will keep kids there and not go to other sports.

“There is a real, real pride about the whole thing; the fundraising, our run, the underage going well. Pride is the word.”