Dual drive carrying Kanturk on the long haul

Dual senior status - membership held by just four Cork clubs - was not sating. They want more.

Liam O'Keeffe of Kanturk drives forward against Glen Rovers. Picture: Jim Coughlan.

Aidan Walsh transferred club allegiance to An Ghaeltacht at the beginning of 2025. By his own admission, he should have transferred two years earlier. His partner, young son, and future was below in west Kerry.

What delayed the transfer was the drive and connection that sit as the bedrock of a Kanturk story that continues to demand fresh pages.

Aidan was 21 for the Cork junior football final win of 2011. A victory that finished a 42-year silverware famine. A victory that marked and sparked the beginning of a climb that continues to this day.

Aidan was a 23-year-old half-forward and provider of 1-1 for the 2013 IHC final win. He was ever-present as Kanturk climbed to Premier Senior in hurling and Senior A in football. He stockpiled county medals as if going out of fashion. He even pocketed an All-Ireland Club. And yet signing the transfer papers was still incredibly tough.

The drive was there to do more, to break further ground.

“Very difficult because of the connection I have with the club and the journey we’ve been on from when I started to now. It was very hard to leave,” Walsh told the BBC’s GAA Social podcast in May last year.

The Kanturk journey has continued without him. Dual senior status - membership held by just four Cork clubs - was in no way satisfactory or sating. Neither was a first Premier Senior hurling quarter-final appearance in 2024.

They want more.

It’s why the McLoughlin brothers, John and Lorcán, are still turning out in green and white. Ditto Lorcán O’Neill. Or ‘Figo’ as he is known locally. It’s why Darren Browne commutes from Dublin.

The drive Aidan mentioned on the GAA Social podcast is echoed by Donagh Duane, who was in charge for the 2018 All-Ireland intermediate club hurling success. He was also part of the sideline make-up for the 2021 Cork Senior A title.

“There’s a hunger there that they never seem to be satisfied with whatever happens in a given year. There’s never a thought in their mind that we have gone as far as we can. They always want to go a step further. They are one heck of an incredibly driven bunch,” said Duane.

Said drive is best captured by the McLoughlin brothers — 338 club championship appearances between a pair of siblings, 175 for John across 22 seasons. 163 for Lorcán across 21.

“I am biased but Lorcán has been one of the best-serving dual players in the history of the Cork county championship,” said Duane.

“He’s done everything for his club. He’s been so important, and still is as you saw with his two massive scores against Blackrock. Brilliant guy, brilliant speaker. A great leader.” 

Joining the top flight of Cork hurling in 2022, the role of the McLoughlin brothers and other members of the dressing-room’s experienced corner was to bring along the many emerging kids.

This shepherding of Brian O’Sullivan, Colin Walsh, Alan Walsh, Grantas Bucinskas, and more of their ilk has long ceased.

Physically, mentally, and every other way, they’ve come of age. A club that for a long time held a relaxed culture towards S&C and left players to their own gym devices brought in Mayo native Seán Murphy last November to oversee and drive this department.

“The physical strength is really coming out within the club because of the pot of players that have grown up over the last four, five years,” Duane continued.

“They're not young fellas anymore. They're men now, and they're confident playing in the grades they’re at. They've developed themselves, not only upstairs to be mentally ready, but to be physically ready for this level too.”

County champions Sars are Sunday’s opposition. It is only the second time in the club’s history they’ve reached the quarter-finals of the little All-Ireland. They’ve never reached the semi-final.

Irrespective of how Mallow pans out, they’ll shift focus to the following weekend’s Senior A football quarter-final against Kilshannig.

For the past three years, Kanturk have been knocked out by the eventual Senior A champions at either the quarter-final or semi-final juncture. All three went to extra-time. Two went to penalties. They refuse to make home in football’s second tier.

Twelve players start on both. The total crossover is 20-plus. Next to nobody holds single-code status up their direction.

What you see in other market-leading dual establishments of high-profile players prioritising one over the other is an alien concept in Kanturk. It wouldn’t even be entertained, never mind tolerated. This reality is part of their identity.

“It is always both. There is never a question of ‘Oh, I am going to concentrate on one code this year’. That has never ever been mentioned in Kanturk. There’s never been a player request to step back and just focus on one.

“Credit to the players, they are willing to put in the massive effort for both codes without any qualms or complaints. They just get on with it,” said Duane.

“They’re just such a competitive bunch. Year in, year out, we are always there in October. The amazing part is that their appetite has never dwindled. It's remarkable really and a great time for Kanturk supporters to be following them.”