Mikey Finn's world isn't black and white but his Midleton ambition is

The Cork minor and U20 All-Ireland winner is chasing is a first county senior medal with Midleton

Midleton midfielder Mikey Finn was diagnosed with colour blindness in primary school. Pic: Larry Cummins

Certain details are hazy and then there’s one detail that has hung around.

Midleton were playing a county championship game a few years back where Mikey Finn was the featured Magpie in the match programme.

Who Midleton were playing, where the game was played, or even the stage of championship are pieces of background information this writer cannot recall. What remains perfectly vivid, though, is the answer Finn gave for the player Q&A when asked to outline ‘one thing you may not know about me’.

His answer was that he is colour blind.

The immediate and incorrect assumption to make upon reading such is that Finn’s world is painted the two colours of the Midleton shirt he pulls on every other weekend - black and white.

Not so.

The 22-year-old midfielder, present at the media event ahead of this weekend’s Co-Op Superstores Cork hurling semi-finals, is happy to chat away about the diagnosis he received late in his primary school years.

Rather than a lens of limited colours, Finn’s colour blindness centres exclusively on his struggle to tell certain shades apart. Red and green. Pink and grey. Orange and yellow.

That’s where confusion can set in.

“Those are the three main ones I get mixed up with. I inherited it from my grandad in West Cork. It’s genetic,” explained the MTU Cork student.

“I didn't know I was colour blind until I was in sixth class. I went for a colour blind test, and my mother got a note home saying that your son is severely colour blind.” 

Midleton's Mikey Finn and Glen Rovers Adam Lynch who play in the semi final of the Co-Op Superstores Cork premier senior hurling championship this weekend. Picture; Eddie O'Hare

To simplify where the deficiency catches him in everyday life, Finn offers up the example of a Cork-Limerick match where he is spectating from the couch. In that instance, he cannot tell who’s who through the television screen. It doesn’t matter that one of them is his native county. He can’t untangle the red from the green and the green from the red.

“I can tell the colour difference between red and green when I'm playing on the pitch or if I’m in the stand, but when it’s on the TV, I can't tell at all.” 

Midfield on the Cork minor team that swept to All-Ireland honours in 2021, Galway were the last outfit they conquered before climbing the steps.

The same as the All-Ireland senior semi-final between the counties July gone, Galway swapped their traditional maroon strip for white jerseys. The change made Finn’s hour a great deal less troublesome. Trying to decipher between maroon and red in the middle of an All-Ireland final would have been an unwanted headache.

“My manager, Noel Furlong, actually checked with me before the game and was like, ‘Are you okay with the maroon and the red?' And I was like, ‘Yeah maybe’.

“It wasn't because of me that Galway wore white, they ended up wearing white anyway. The maroon would have been more difficult for me, especially with the sun that day.

“It doesn’t really throw up any other challenges out on the field. The sliotar being yellow is a big help. The white might blend in with the stands or something like that.” 

Outside the four white lines, it has minimal encroachment on his day-to-day existence. Jobs such as a pilot or joining An Garda Síochána are off limits because of his colour blindness. Not that the chemical engineering student was chasing a profession in either, mind you.

What he is chasing is a first county senior medal in black and white. 

What he is chasing this Sunday is seamless return to the championship arena after bypassing the quarters and further county final involvement at Glen Rovers’ expense.

Mikey Finn of Cork in action against Peter Cummins of Waterford during the 2021 Munster MHC final. Pic: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

Having joined Midleton's flagship side a year after the club’s most recent county success, in 2021, Finn’s experience has been final defeats in 2023 and ‘25, with a semi-final reserve sandwiched in between. All three came at the hands of Sars.

The ‘25 collision was the most one-sided of the three instalments. Midleton went into the concluding Sunday with one hand tied behind their back, given the injury-enforced absence of in-form Eoin Moloney and long-time leader of their attack, Conor Lehane.

“It was definitely a very tough challenge last year. To be fair, we didn't turn up on the day as a collective unit. We didn't do ourselves justice. We know that ourselves, so maybe that's the driving force as well behind this year and to get back into a county final,” continued the 2023 All-Ireland U20 winner.

Young cornerback Tom Dunlea and thriving corner-forward Paul Connaughton are two to have broken into the starting team this campaign. A quick glance at the intermediate side that has a county semi-final against Bandon 24 hours before the seniors throw-in at Páirc Uí Chaoimh shows plenty of recognisable names - Séadnaidh Smyth, Cárthaigh Cronin, Sam Quirke, and Luke O’Farrell to name but a few - also clamouring for inclusion in Padraig O’Shea’s line-up.

“The competition is just through the roof in training. It's such a healthy environment to be in when you have lads hopping off each other trying to get into the starting 15. Not alone the 15, but the matchday panel too. It's so competitive and that's all you can ask for, really.”