Shamrocks eager to hail another golden era

All-Ireland Club HC semi-final: Keith Duggantalks to some of the key figures behind Ballyhale's former years of dominance as the club prepares to face Toomevara today.

Ballyhale v Toomevara, Portlaoise, today, 1.0 (live TG4)

The Ballyhale men who banded together and formed a club famous for a dense, glittering period of hurling dominance will gather in O'Moore Park today to shout on the new generation. With names like Fennelly, Reid, Aylward and Holden gracing today's programme, it is not surprising the recent talk in Andy's Bar has turned to the similarities between the sumptuous Shamrocks teams that swept all before them in the 1980s and the current Kilkenny champions.

"It has come up in conversation once or twice," laughs Micheal Hoyne, one of the founding members of the club. "It would take a brave man to say which is the better. But I suppose people who remember those teams with the Fennellys would say the current team play in the same style, fast and open and good lively forwards and a fairly skilful brand of hurling. That was the type of game that just developed in the club naturally and you can see those traits in this team."

Ballyhale may not be as majestic as nearby Thomastown and, as a pleasant, traditional main street built up on the road that sweeps towards Waterford, it makes no great claims as a tourist stop-off. But there is no overlooking the contribution Ballyhale has made to the Marble county through the phenomenal rise of the Shamrocks from a fractured localised townland rivalry that was ended in the 1970s.

Before that, there were always good hurlers wandering through the village and it was a source of pride from 1922 on that all Kilkenny All-Ireland winning teams featured a player from the local townlands of Knocktopher, Ballyhale and Knockmoylan. But overall, the bright spots were so rare that qualifying for the under-14 county final in 1963 caused a local sensation.

Today, the club emblem bears the origins of those internecine divisions, with the capital letters KBK honouring the years before the 1970s when each area fielded distinct teams. It was when those steadfast but unremarkable trinity of clubs merged into the newly-minted Shamrocks that the south Kilkenny town would leave an indelible stamp on hurling.

"Club championships were nothing like as structured as they are today," says Hoyne. "There would have been a particularly keen rivalry between Ballyhale and Knocktopher. I suppose you could say it was almost a political divide between Fine Gael and Fianna Fail and people were quite entrenched in what they saw as their own patch. I remember playing for Knocktopher in a south junior final against Ballyhale. We won that game and there would still be a bit of bragging about it in the pub among fellas that would have played at that time. But the practice of fielding the one minor team between the three areas was always there, probably out of necessity apart from anything else.

"And I suppose people began to realise if we were to put our heads together, we might begin to do something. It caused a fair bit of friction too in the beginning but we saw the benefit of it soon enough."

Hoyne played on Ballyhale minor teams that featured in three consecutive county finals, losing just the middle match between 1965 and 1967. Further success followed at under-21 A grade championship in 1972, '73 and '74 (an unprecedented triumph in Kilkenny records which was only equalled and then bettered by the Ballyhale under-21 teams of 2003-'06). By then, the potency of a united senior club was apparent to everyone. Kevin Fennelly senior was one of the chief architects, along with Fr Anthony Heaslip, a member of the Carmelite Order in Knocktopher and a brother of Denis, who had won All-Ireland medals with Kilkenny.

In 1973, Ballyhale won the Kilkenny junior championship, they claimed the intermediate title the following year and within another four years, they were not only the dominant club in the county, they were on the threshold of national success, halted only by Blackrock of Cork in the All-Ireland final of 1978.

IN THE WAYof these things, Blackrock had in their ranks Frank Cummins, Ballyhale's most famous son who won seven All-Ireland medals with the county. He had hurled with Blackrock since work brought him to Cork.

"I marked him that day and my feeling was always that Frank's heart wasn't really in it," remembers Patrick Holden. "We had played on a minor championship team together, although Frank was gone from the parish well before the various teams joined up. But it was hard for him. We just shook hands afterwards and no comment was passed on the game."

But by then, Ballyhale were an irrepressible force and they returned to claim national glory by beating St Finbarr's in the All-Ireland final of 1981.

The most significant disappointment had occurred in 1975, when they contested their first senior county semi-final against the mighty James Stephens in Nowlan Park.

"We took them to three games and had our chances to win each of them but maybe not the know-how," admits Holden. "And it was a hell of a setback because we had been on this roll and it knocked us back so far it took us three years to return. I was 28 years of age when I got my first senior medal."

In retrospect, it might have been a valuable defeat. Frank Holohan believes now that losing to James Stephens steeled the ambition that delivered some nine county titles and three All-Irelands for the club between 1975 and 1991. It is a staggering record and Holohan doesn't hesitate when locating the force behind it.

"Well, hurling was the only real thing for us to as young fellas then. There weren't too many other distractions. The club was fortunate to have good, dedicated trainers like Tom Ryan around and it just so happened a good few boys were born in the area around the same time. And then you had Kevin senior, the father of the Fennellys. I can still see him standing at training, I don't think he ever missed it. You can imagine the talks he would be having with these seven sons down the dinner table. It was an incredible thing to have seven brothers playing on the one team and certainly for other teams who met Ballyhale, it must have been strange playing against the Fennellys and eight other players."

Holohan was from the Knocktopher side - his grandfather Dick was a TD for the area and captained Kilkenny to their last Leinster football success in 1911. He effectively left Ballyhale in 1974 when he joined the Army and headed for college in Galway and is now posted in Limerick. But he retains a strong connection with Ballyhale and reckons the old townland loyalties no longer exist in the imagination of the younger generations. By the time he finished up playing, after the 1991 club All-Ireland success, a decade of hurling excellence had banished any reservations about the union.

BUT THE GILDED YEARSstopped abruptly, with Birr ready to ransack Leinster for much of the next decade. "I suppose that team was pushing on a bit by the early 1990s," says Holohan. "Certainly, the combined age of the full-back line was over 100 during my last year. We all knew we had played through a rich patch and that that kind of success had to stop sometime. But even at the time, we felt it wouldn't be too long before a new crop of players came through."

It took patience. Patrick Holden had a premonition of another Ballyhale era while watching his son Pauric play in the Féile in Wexford eight years ago in a tournament that presaged the impact James "Cha" Fitzpatrick would have on Kilkenny hurling. As it happened, that Ballyhale team played Toomevara, the opposition this afternoon, in the final.

"They were just a very tight and skilful group of little hurlers. And they were that few years younger than Henry Shefflin, who everyone knew about. So there was going to be the makings of a good team there. The question was whether they would stick with it and in fairness they have turned into a very determined senior squad. And they have had their setbacks too but they have worked hard and play nice off-the-cuff, instinctive hurling."

TODAY'S SEMI-FINALmarks the first serious hurling match of the year. Both teams have trained through the abject misery of winter just trying to maintain the form that guided them through their respective provinces. They have followed different trajectories, with Toomevara requiring dramatic late victories to see them past Mullinahone in the Tipperary championship followed by more high-wire antics against Mount Sion and Erin's Own. Pat Herbert, their manager, opted to train through the long break mainly to try to preserve that feeling of being on a roll. Ballyhale were imperious in Leinster. As manager Maurice Aylward remarked: "We were flying when we finished. Getting back to where we were then, in a hurling sense, is the challenge now."

Semi-finals are perilous and this is a massive game for both clubs. For Toomevara it offers another opportunity to atone for a long history of close failures and they have had something of a destined look about them. For Ballyhale, though, it presents a gateway back to the marvellous successes the club achieved just a decade after its foundation and the promise of another gleaming era.

Family obsession

The connection between the current Ballyhale team and the 1978 vintage that won the club's first senior county championship and went on to contest the All-Ireland club final runs deep.

Denis Heaslip- captain and corner back in 1978. Uncle of Paul and Henry Shefflin.

Declan Connolly- captain and right wing back in 1978. Uncle of James Connolly, goalkeeper.

Johnny Walsh- Midfield in 1978. Father of Eamon Walsh, full back.

Seán Fennelly- Midfield in 1978. Uncle of Michael Fennelly jnr, midfield.

Michael Fennelly- Left wing forward in 1978. Father of Michael Fennelly jnr.

Patrick Holden- Centre half forward in 1978. Father of Pádraig.

Ger FennellyRight wing forward in 1978 - Father of Ger junior, substitute, uncle of Micheal Fennelly.

Liam Fennelly(full forward), Brendan Fennelly(left corner forward), Kevin Fennelly(right corner forward) - uncles of Ger junior and Michael junior.