Castlehaven still managing to bring it all back home in defiance of the odds
People leave but the players still return to play for the west Cork side, writes KEITH DUGGAN
Castlehaven will never be known as a “super-club” and if only the players living in the village showed up for training, manager James McCarthy would have to devise drills for five. It is the oldest west of Ireland story: people leave because they cannot stay. In one of the two local schools, the enrolment book for new boys contained just one fresh name.
There are no more than 1,200 people in the parish and yet somehow, the west Cork men have navigated a path back to their fourth Munster final in just over 20 years
Castlehaven are one of the great, quiet stories of the GAA. There is something beyond logic and romance which compels men like Mick Maguire, the former Cork goalkeeper, to drive his sons on 60 mile each-way trips just so they can train with the Castlehaven under-14 and under-16 teams respectively.
“It’s hard to explain it when you are in the middle of it,” says McCarthy.
“It is kind of a natural thing . . . we expect fellas who grew up here to come back and to bring their kids along to play with the club. I suppose the main reason is the spirit in the parish. At the start of the year we wouldn’t bring the city lads down but from the start of the championship, they have all been down here twice a week.”
Journey from London
Two of the Cahalane boys have been making the journey from London to play with the team. The easier option – transferring – is rarely considered.
The magical thing for Castlehaven is that they can’t quite identify why they care about the local team so much. There is little doubt that their first county title in 1989, when they became the very first rural club in Cork to make the grade, has given subsequent teams a sense of tradition to maintain. And this is fishing territory: rising tides and all that.
Skibbereen, neighbours and fierce rivals during decades when nobody else paid much heed to what either club got up to, weren’t long getting in on the act. They duly claimed a county championship in 1992 and went on to win the club All-Ireland the following March.
So when the clubs clashed in the final of the 1994 Cork championship, the gorgeous west suddenly appeared to be the improbable epicentre of football. Twenty thousand people showed up to see the teams play out a draw. Twenty three thousand showed up for the replay with Albert Reynolds, who was taoiseach at the time, among their number.
“I was still in the panel then,” says McCarthy, who describes his playing life as one of those who “held onto Larry Tompkins’s shoestrings”.
“I don’t think you will ever see days like those again. It was an intense rivalry because of where both clubs had come from in the previous few years. But the enthusiasm from the teams and the supporters was something else.
