Paul McCarthy was speaking of his immense pride at the growth of Ballyphehane GAA over the years when he was briefly interrupted by a shout from the busy road adjacent to their clubhouse.
After a quick glance, it becomes clear that the roar of “Up the Barrs!” must surely have come from the young fella wearing the famous blue and gold shorts of St Finbarr’s GAA, who are based a mere 1.6kms further down the road.
So, this is what it’s like living in the shadows of one of Cork’s, and Ireland’s, most elite GAA clubs.
“It’s more a friendly rivalry than anything else. They have their club, and we have our club,” explains McCarthy, who has served ‘The Hane’ in pretty much every capacity over the last 48 years, despite an approach from the Barrs during his early days as a goalkeeper.
“I grew up just over the road. I was going to a local school, and I was asked to play for them, but, nah. I couldn’t.
“Because this is our parish. This is where we come from, and these are our people, like.
“Of course, we want to beat them on the field but outside of that there’s no animosity,” he insisted.
But McCarthy is an exception rather than the rule as many others have opted to leave Ballyphehane in search of glory and perhaps intercounty recognition by joining one of the bigger clubs nearby.
And it’s not just the Barrs who have lured some of their young stars over the years with Colin Corkery initially representing Ballyphehane before heading to Nemo Rangers. And the rest is history.
“It’s like every small club will say about the big clubs, it’s hard to progress because the good players are taken at an early age,” continued McCarthy.
“There’s a lot of players that would’ve started here and ended up out in the Barrs or Nemo, but that’s the joys of it in the GAA and probably most sports, the bigger clubs have more attraction.
“But we survived, we kept going. There were times it was tough, but we just kept going and thankfully now we are beginning to see the rewards for that.
“We have a few from further afield at this stage ourselves but predominantly we’re local and most of the people involved in the running of the club are local. It’s more of a family effort than anything else.
“The whole ethos here is to try and keep Gaelic games going in our parish, and to provide games for the youth of our parish.
“We do that to the best of our ability. Maybe we might not always reach the heights that we want to, but we try. And we must be getting something right because our numbers are growing.”
The hard work done behind the scenes was spearheaded by Billy Twomey, known locally as Mr. Ballyphehane, before his untimely passing in June.
“A great man,” said McCarthy of Twomey, who served the club in every department since the 1960s, including playing an integral role in Ballyphehane winning the City Junior B Hurling Championship title in 1979.
“You could stay here all day and talk about him. He just gave his life to Ballyphehane.
“He got married and moved out of the parish, but he never really moved out of the parish because he spent nearly all his time here.
“If his wife wanted to see him, she would nearly have to visit down here. He just lived for Ballyphehane; he covered every capacity in the club.
“Billy would be selling club lottery tickets inside of the church, he was just…he had his family, but we were his family as well.”
Although Ballyphehane may still be struggling for massive playing numbers at underage level, they are on the rise elsewhere, having returned to minor action in 2023 after an eight-year hiatus while their hurling team have returned after a 13-year absence, thanks to Noel O’Callaghan and the county board assisting them in gaining use of Redmonds’ pitch, which will also be used for camogie.
The Green – their legendary home pitch which locals say they wouldn’t sell for €50million – may not be deemed suitable to host hurling games but it does cater for girls’ underage teams, a women’s junior and two male junior sides, one of whom recently made history.
Prior to their July triumph in the Confined Junior B FC final against Araglen – which sealed their place in the Junior A ranks for 2026 – and their Terence McSwiney Cup final win only a week later, this team’s journey began with them plying their trade at the Junior C grade as recently as 2022.
Their rise was rapid, but contained as much agony as it did ecstasy.
2022 saw them claim Junior C county honours against Freemount under the stewardship of Steven Buckle, as well as the Seandún JBFC crown after beating Douglas. Ecstasy indeed.
Then came the agony. In 2023, Buckle almost spearheaded back-to-back county wins – and promotions – but they would fall at the final hurdle to St Oliver Plunkett’s. A one-point defeat was hard to take.
A year later, 2024, with Paul Mullins in charge, brought similar hope and near-delivery. After negotiating a tough semi-final contest against Clann na nGael, Goleen stood in the way.
Determined to go one better this time around, some members of the squad decided to go for a swim and a sauna session the night before the match to loosen up. Unfortunately, the extra effort didn’t pay off.
Another narrow defeat to another West Cork outfit – this time after extra-time – meant Ballyphehane were forced to go again.
Now under the management of Colm Barry, they would again pass the test of Clann na nGael in the last-four, and they duly dispatched of Araglen in the decider.
The heartbreak of 2023 and ’24 was now put behind them.
For another long-time member, club chairman Timmy Walsh – who has seen the club go through all the ups and downs across his 60-year tenure, it was an occasion to remember. Walsh has spent 45-plus of those years as chairman.
For such a figurehead, it was a momentous day. “It was an enormous situation,” Walsh said.
“We were sponsored a double-decker bus for the supporters that day. They got 80 people – I don’t know how they got 80 people into the bus – but they got them into it anyway, and they went down to Mallow, and they had a great day out.
“When they came back, there was big celebrations. The lads came back here with the cup, and they marched up the road, up by the church, and up Pearse Road, up to Noel Murphy’s, the local pub.”
McCarthy also remembers the celebrations fondly.
“It was very special; in a way we had to pinch ourselves to see that it was true.
“We went many a year where we couldn’t even win a game out of the county Junior C, couldn’t win a game at all.
“One year we played Beara, and they hadn’t won a game for yonks, and they beat us and they said, ‘thanks be to god we met ye!’
“That would tell you where we were in the Junior C County so for us to be winning Junior B County confined is massive.”
Walsh was at pains to single out two individuals for their role in bringing back the good times to Ballyphehane in the last number of years.
Owen Sweeney and the aforementioned Paul Mullins may have a few miles on the clock themselves, but as Walsh calls them, they are the “new kids on the block”.
“Going back into the 2020s, the club ignited again… In the last four or five years, we have two lads I’d have to mention,” Walsh said.
“There’s Owen Sweeney, he’s a big driving force in the club, and so is Paul Mullins. I call them the new kids on the block.
“They are big assets to the club and they have driven it on relentlessly in the last four or five years, and that’s why we’re getting the success today.”
So what do Sweeney and Mullins have that embodies the spirit of ‘The Hane’?
It’s something that Walsh and McCarthy, among others, have shown over the years. Of course, Billy Twomey too.
“If you have heart, you can move mountains,” Walsh states.
“That’s what this club has. Total heart for the community, trying to get everybody involved in the area and outside the area as well.
“It’s all about people, it’s all about giving them something back.”
