Gifted teenagers too good to ignore

Munster SHC Semi-final: Keith Duggan talks to Limerick's young star Patrick Kirby, who has a date with Waterford before sitting his Leaving Certificate examination.

Patrick Kirby sits on a stone bench beside the hurling field in Kilmallock. He is 17, a regular Leaving Cert kid, blessed with country manners, keen opal eyes and a true gift for the native game.

Even though he leans towards casual under-statement, Kirby is prepared to admit this is a big week in his life. Tomorrow he will be numbered among the substitutes in Thurles for a Limerick senior championship match anxiously waiting for another chance to show his undoubted skill.

On Wednesday, he will address the concerns of his other calling, on the examination notice board in St Colman's College in Cork. English Paper One is up first.

As if lining up for the anthem alongside Ciarán Carey, the god of his childhood, is not poetry enough for any young soul.

On Monday, Kirby will make the short journey down to the Fermoy school with his friend and Limerick team-mate, Andrew O'Shaughnessy, whose prolific scoring feats rendered him the teen sensation of hurling all last summer. They have hurled together since they were 13 and boarded together for the last two years. They essentially live the same life.

Dave Keane, the Limerick manager, was not originally all that keen on the kids appearing in newsprint. Their lives, he pointed out, were already complicated enough. But Keane is as fair as they come and he approached both lads and told them if they wanted to sit down, it was fine and that he would be at hand to make sure they were comfortable.

O'Shaughnessy, uneasy about the superlative notices his play has drawn over the past 12 months, preferred to pass. Kirby, out of nothing more than politeness, you suspect, said that it was fine.

"I always had it in my mind to go to Colman's," he is explaining. "The boarding factor maybe stopped me at first - I wasn't sure about being away from the family from first year. I did the Junior Cert in the local school at Hospital and then thought about Colman's.

"Andrew told me what it was like down there and ah, it's been great, playing Harty Cup and just the school. People say it's not great for a young fella to be boarding but in my experience, it really has been. I've made friends for life out of it."

Kirby grew up in Knockainy; Mike Kirby's young fella. "'Tis just a small parish, 'tis about seven miles from here," Kirby murmurs.

"Blink and you'd be through it," teases Dave Keane.

His father hurled with the club and then threw his energies into his son's age group, taking them for training a couple of evenings every week. He is a child of the GAA's television revolution, with an abundance of games on each weekend and a marketing policy that infiltrated Knockainy, a pastoral landscape near the birthplace of de Valera. Kirby squints when he summons up his first transparent memory of big-time hurling.

"Ah, probably 1994. That All-Ireland. Just going up to Dublin for the weekend with the family and being in Croke Park. 'Twas heartbreaking the way we lost it at the end but sure hopefully, our day is not too far away."

1994. The year seems so recent, it comes as a jolt. Dave Keane smiles at the mention of it. But Kirby had just turned eight. Four years later, he was on the verge of Limerick under-age squads.

"It was at that point he met Andrew, whose home club is Kilmallock," Keane explains. "They played minor together and won an All-Ireland under-21 medal together last year, Limerick's third in a row.

"Andrew was the inspiration behind Kilmallock's first senior title in 24 years. At the age of 16, Patrick fired three points to lead Knockainy to the county Intermediate championship against Brian Begley's Mungret. The parish had been junior since politics was just a dream to Dev. This year, Patrick has played Harty Cup with St Colman's (the college won its third in a row), club minor and senior, Limerick under-21 and Limerick senior.

"The way it has been, the lads have had so much on their plates that we left them to concentrate on the Harty Cup and the under-21s," says Keane.

"We were conscious first of all that they were young and also of the fact that this is their important exam year. The Leaving Cert is still the most vital examination a young person can do.

"I think it is different for young hurlers in university because at least they are away from home and are not in such a high profile situation.

"So really, we were happy to let them persevere with the school side of things and they just trained with St Coman's during the week. And the other lads on our squad were happy to make that concession. Really, it's only in the last couple of weeks that they have trained more regularly with us so that they will feel a part of the thing."

Keane's philosophy regarding the teenagers is simple. They have been too good to ignore. As under-21 coach, he has a deep knowledge of both players' games and believes their hours together at St Colman's has helped them develop a telepathic intuition for each other's game.

"And from a Limerick hurling perspective, the great thing is they are forwards and the county has needed a few hurling forwards. I think the other players see the potential there and recognise what the lads have. And there is the added thing that when the boys are playing Harty Cup or under-21, they are constantly expected to deliver. Here, others can carry that burden and they can develop at their own pace."

Kirby was delighted to receive a call for senior trials last winter and professed himself shocked when he actually made the squad. Having O'Shaughnessy already there helped and quickly he learned to stop staring in awe at Carey, a man nearly twice his age and with a lot of living behind him.

He started in Limerick's first league game of the year, down in Cork. He drank it all in; the dank cellars of changing rooms in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, the claustrophobic tunnel that the players pass through, the field. Awaiting him in red was Cian O'Connor, also making his debut. A brief empathic smile and he was underway. Things went fairly well so Keane decided to move him over on the former All Star Wayne Sherlock.

"It was just great to be on the same field as a player like Wayne Sherlock, you know, a great player. It went all right for us. I was happy enough."

He stayed on in Cork and returned to St Colman's. Students there arise at eight a.m. for morning prayer. Classes from nine to one, then dinner and school again until 3.45 p.m. At four, hurling commences until 5.15 or 6 p.m. during Harty Cup season. Evening dinner is from 6.45 until 7.45 and then there is a study period until 9.15.

"The days of lights out are long gone," laughs the principal, John Hickson, a Kerry man who admits he will be glued to tomorrow's game. Although enthused at the idea of two Colman's boys wearing county colours at the senior grade, he admits to reservations.

"I don't want to contradict Dave Keane in any way but I suppose that in general, being involved in such a big game in the week leading up to the Leaving Cert is not ideal preparation for any pupil. But what I would say is that knowing both Patrick and Andrew, they are both very balanced young men and would not be inclined to let this go to their heads. They are really well brought up, hard working young fellas and I would expect them to be able to handle it."

As Kirby sees it, hurling is an escape.

"Like, I don't honestly know if I could concentrate on the books as well if the hurling was not there. I really don't see it as a pressure. I can switch off from hurling if I want but I really don't feel the need to. Hurling is what I love."

But hopping from the sound and beautiful fury of a championship Sunday in Thurles to the intense quiet of an exam hall in little more than 48 hours represents a dramatic change of environment. "'Twill be a bit different, all right," he laughs.

" Ah, I'm looking forward to both, I suppose. Probably the game a little bit more than the exams - hope the parents arelistening to that now. Ah, we won't get to fussed about it. Hopefully it will go all right."

Kirby is uncertain about what direction he wants to take next year. He says he will await the results and examine his options. All he knows is he wants the fabric of his life to revolve around the game. He has watched the sweeping revolution that has taken place in the past three or four years with some trepidation. Although he represents the future the GPA believe they are fighting for, he reckons he may be a conservative at heart.

"I think that the crowds dropping because of the qualifying system is worrying. Maybe the old way is better - you get your chance and if you lose, you are out. I think that appealed to a lot of people. And I wouldn't like to see it go too professional because you owe your club as well.

"Like, the club is everything. The spirit in Knockainy is brilliant. I just think that if the county scene went professional, it would be harder for clubs to survive and above all, the game needs clubs."

It is too early to say how long or great Kirby's Limerick career will be. Certainly the omens are with him but there are no guarantees.

The same goes for O'Shaughnessy. For youngsters, they are already well acquainted with the intense world of provincial celebrity. When Kirby is asked if the Limerick seniors take an interest in his juvenile career, he nods and says they often read about it in the papers. It is an unconscious remark and understandably so. Both his and O'Shaughnessy's names have featured in the sports pages of the Limerick Leader and the national newspapers on a regular basis.

"They never receive any special treatment here, nor would they want it," says Hickson. "They are just two normal young fellas who happen to excel at the game."

Last week, there was a Mass and a ceremony in St Colman's to mark the leaving of another year. The class of 2003 is historic in that they are the last of the boarders. From next September, St Colman's, founded in 1858 by Dr Croke, will be a day school.

"It's strange to think," says Kirby. "I suppose it's nice in a way to be the last ones. You'd have good crack in the evenings there. Like, there weren't too many of us in the end; we lived in just one section of the building. The rest of it was closed off. But there were lads from Cork, Waterford and all over. We always said we'd meet up on the field over the years. I hope that's the way it will be anyhow."