Dave Barry on the hardest thing in Irish sport: 'You didn’t want to let anybody down by not playing'

Dave Barry enjoyed the kind of career that small kids dream of - winning All-Irelands for Cork and scoring against Bayern Munich for Cork City

Dave Barry in action for Cork City against Limerick at Turners Cross in 1993. Barry also played inter-county football with Cork.

Dave Barry enjoyed the kind of career that small kids dream of. From winning All-Irelands for Cork to scoring against Bayern Munich for Cork City, Barry’s smooth skills and cleverness in possession lit up two different sports for over a decade. Those playing days were so busy, his notion of the hardest thing in Irish sport is no surprise.

“Injuries,” says Barry.

“At the moment, in lockdown, we’re all dealing with what’s been taken away from us, all of the things we can’t do.

“And in sport that’s what injury does. It stops you from doing the one thing that you want to do. In your playing days all you want is to be out on the pitch and performing, and with an injury you can’t do that.”

Barry’s twin-track career in soccer and Gaelic football was uniquely rewarding, but it was also demanding.

“I played soccer all the way up as a kid, and when Cork City was formed in 1984 I was happy to see if I could get involved.

“I was playing Munster Senior League but I wanted to see if I could play at that level, and there hadn’t been any League of Ireland team in Cork for a few years at that point.

“And of course in my first game for City, against Dundalk, I broke my leg.

“The ‘Barrs were playing in the county final four weeks later against Imokilly, and I remember having to go down to Páirc Uí Chaoimh to watch the game with my leg in plaster, from my hip down to my ankle.

“The ‘Barrs lost so that would have weighed heavily on me. So did coming out of the Páirc and getting a few looks because I’d broken my leg playing soccer, but it could have happened training with the ‘Barrs just as easily.”

True enough. Gaelic football could be just as punishing.

“Once before playing championship for the ‘Barrs I got an infection in my foot. My girlfriend, now my wife, brought me to hospital, and I thought it would just be a case of getting a couple of antibiotics and away with me.

“No, the doctor didn’t like the look of the infection and wanted me to stay in hospital and to put me on a drip. I came up with a story — I had my father’s car and I said I had to drop it home, so I escaped.

I was on a double dose of antibiotics all that week but I ended up playing in the game, down in Rosscarbery.

“The foot wasn’t great at all. I had it strapped and could barely get it into the boot, and as we were going out Pat Lougheed, who was with the team, said, ‘what about the frees?’

“I said I couldn’t take them, and he said ‘but the sore foot is your left, you kick with your right’, and I said, ‘all my weight is on my left foot when I’m kicking’.

“I went in corner-forward and we went well in the game, I was able to come off in the second half. But that was very much my feeling — I didn’t want to let fellas down. To play the game and to give it a go. Everyone who played, at any level, will know that feeling, that you want to get out and play.

“That’s a big part of it. Dealing with injuries as a player is hard enough, but you were also dealing with the feeling that you didn’t want to let anybody down by not playing in a game because of injuries.”

In 1988, Barry’s knee flared up before the Munster football final and had to be drained before the game to allow him to play.

“I wanted to be out there — again, I said I’d give it a go, though I had to come off in the second half.

“A player will always want to play, we all know that. Particularly for a big game, a player will say to himself, ‘I’ll be grand, it’ll loosen out’.

“If a player is facing into a cup final or an All-Ireland, even if they’re bandaged up for the week beforehand, they’ll convince themselves it’ll be alright.

“And that’s where the medics come in, making a decision. I had to tell players myself when I managed Cork City that they couldn’t play, that they weren’t able to, because of injury.

“I told them straight out they weren’t right. Because I played myself I also sympathised, but it wouldn’t have been fair to the other lads either if someone wasn’t fit.

“The other thing is that it’s very noticeable now, players have to be 100% for every game they play because they’re all played at full tilt.

If a player is even slightly injured or unfit you notice it immediately.