In school of ‘Rock, you gotta beware of the Blues

The current Blackrock tally of 33 titles would be considerably greater were it not for St Finbarr’s, the 25-time county champions.

RIVALRY: Shane O'Keeffe, Blackrock, Glenn O'Connor and Damien Cahalane, St. Finbarr's.

More than three decades later, the messages that were relayed to us as young Blackrock hurlers remain embedded in my mind.

Keeping two hands on the hurley and two eyes on the sliotar were the basics. Mastering the art of ground hurling was another important fundamental. Hooking and blocking vital too. But an essential requirement for anyone who wanted to excel with the club was a hatred of a thing known as the Barrs.

It was a relief to eventually learn that this mysterious entity was not an extraterrestrial beast from another galaxy that feasted on the blood and tears of anyone who hurled in the green and gold hoops. The object of the rancor was, in fact, a rival club from a few miles across the city.

For Blackrock members of a certain vintage, even mentioning the enemy was a loathsome chore. Eyes narrowed and faces contorted as the words were discharged through gritted teeth. Monikers such as ‘that shower’ were often used as alternatives, but regardless of the terminology, their existence was only ever acknowledged with utter contempt. The strength of feeling towards the Barrs was such that, for all we knew as impressionable colts, they could have been guilty of all manner of nefarious acts.

Once it had been established that this wasn’t actually an international arms dealer moonlighting as a suburban GAA club, we learned that their only crime was to have threatened Blackrock’s place atop the Cork Senior Hurling Championship roll of honour. The current tally of 33 titles would be considerably greater were it not for St Finbarr’s, the 25-time county champions.

In Blackrock, tales of the giants whose shoulders we hoped to stand on were a key component of education. There was never a shortage of real-life heroes to be inspired by on Saturdays over on Church Road. You may have spent the morning watching an impressive performance from He-Man at the expense of the vanquished Skeletor, but how many times did he lift the Seán Óg Murphy Cup on behalf of the proud people of Castle Grayskull?

The pursuit of that particular piece of silverware lit the blue touch paper under some titanic tussles between St Finbarr’s and Blackrock, most notably throughout the 1970s. According to folklore, spectators came in tens of thousands from all over the county and beyond to watch mythical creatures with names like McCarthy and Cummins produce hurling from the heavens. Every player was seven feet tall, points were struck from 200 yards and a few jaws were occasionally struck too.

We were raised on recollections of those epic contests, which transformed the Barrs-Rockies rivalry into one as big and as bitter as any in the GAA.

They were inseparable during that decade, facing each other nine times – including two semi-finals and three finals – in the championship. Nevertheless, a senior county decider involving the two clubs has never taken place during my lifetime – a fact that will finally expire, in my 39th year, next Sunday at Páirc Uí Chaoimh for an occasion that could breathe new life into a somewhat dormant conflict.

The game is sure to evoke plenty of nostalgia for members of both clubs who lived through the heyday of the rivalry. Yet for later generations – including the players who will determine the outcome of this weekend’s fixture – St Finbarr’s against Blackrock can be classed as a novel pairing in a game of this magnitude.

In Cork, the Barrs and Rockies (and Glen Rovers, the other member of the triumvirate of dominant city clubs) carved the past up between themselves, until other forces surfaced to demand a piece of the future. Since 1982, when a county final was last contested by Sunday’s finalists, clubs like Midleton, Na Piarsaigh, Erin’s Own, Sarsfields and Newtownshandrum have all claimed multiple titles.

With new threats emerging, the stranglehold of the traditional superpowers weakened and much of the heat was taken out of the old rivalries that had shaped the club hurling landscape on Leeside for so long.

This inevitably filtered down to cultivate a crop of Cold War kids on the juvenile scene. When hopes of underage success were usually being crushed by adversaries from elsewhere, it was difficult to find time for all the Barrs hostility that we had signed up for. Our earliest missions to the Planet Togher produced games that were no different to any other. Victories were to be savoured, but that had more to do with the promise of a crisps-and-rock-shandy win bonus than the identity of the opposition.

Being sent to a secondary school that attracted lads from both clubs had an impact too. Efforts to uphold the club constitution by treating the Barrs boys with disdain became increasingly futile upon discovering that, in addition to being the type of talented, hardy hurlers who you'd prefer to have on your side, they were a decent bunch of lads to boot. Having said that, soldiering alongside them in school matches took some getting used to. Watching a fellow Blackrock native set up a score for a St Finbarr’s man was akin to hearing Damon Albarn providing the vocals on Wonderwall.

Mustering up any genuine animosity towards the Barrs, while simultaneously fulfilling my religious duties as an orthodox Corkonian by worshipping at the altar of Our Lord and Saviour, Jimmy Barry-Murphy, was another perplexing paradox.

For now, it would seem slightly premature to hail Sunday’s game as a catalyst for a revival of the type of ferocious rivalry that illuminated a bygone era. However, the age profiles of both teams would suggest that they’re capable of contending for championship honours for several years to come.

The prospect of history repeating itself would certainly be welcomed by new Cork manager Pat Ryan, for no fewer than 10 men from the Barrs-Rockies production line played in the 1978 All-Ireland final against Kilkenny, when the Rebels claimed Liam MacCarthy for the third year in a row.

St Finbarr’s have been starved of a county final appearance since 1993, but anyone who has paid attention to the work being done at Neenan Park in recent years would have anticipated their imminent return to the summit of Cork hurling.

The Barrs are on the way back – of that there can be little doubt.

The hope in Blackrock is that their arrival will be delayed for at least another year.