Haven’s sweet success will shorten the winter, but they’re not finished just yet

THEY’VE waited ten years to get their hands on the Andy Scannell Cup so it’s no surprise it’s been on a tour this week. 

There was a hero's welcome in Union Hall on Sunday night. The cup, as is the ritual, was brought into Annie Mays in Skibbereen town on Monday, before heading back out to its new home for the winter. There’s even a trip across the county bounds planned this Friday for a club wedding in Killarney.

‘We’d great celebrations over the weekend, the only problem was we were running out of pubs!’ Haven boss James McCarthy joked.

They’ll enjoy this latest county senior football success in Castlehaven, and so they should.

Days like Sunday don’t come around too often.

For Haven, their last county senior title – on the adult men’s side, as the ladies won a senior B crown three weeks’ earlier and the U17 boys also brought silverware back west last month – was in 2013. Since then they lost finals in 2015 and 2020, as well as back-to-back semi-finals in ’21 and ’22. They were close, just not close enough. But this season, after a slow start in the championship, it clicked. 

A derby draw with 2016 champions Carbery Rangers in the group opener. An important win against Valley Rovers. Then an impressive victory over 2021 beaten finalists Clonakilty that suggested Haven were moving in the right direction. A quarter-final win against Ballincollig that included their best half of football this season. Against the Barrs in the semi, they were in control for long stretches; their best performance of the season. Finals are all about winning – and that’s what Castlehaven did, by beating the team that knows how to win finals, Nemo Rangers. This county title was hard-earned.

Castlehaven manager James McCarthy.

‘This one is special because of the journey we have been on over the last four years, with Covid in the middle of it, some great battles with the Barrs, making a final with Nemo and not winning it, so Sunday was the end of a four-year cycle for us,’ James McCarthy said.

He has now masterminded three county senior football final wins for his home club – one in each of the last three decades, 2003, 2012 and 2023. McCarthy broke his own rules by staying on as Haven boss for four years in this current stint. Usually, he stays for two seasons and then steps back. This time it was different. The players wanted him to stay on – and he couldn’t say no.

Now he has helped another generation of Castlehaven footballers win a county senior medal, and that’s the currency in Union Hall this week.

‘This win is special, it ranks up there with the best of them,’ the Haven boss says.

‘It’s difficult to compare one win against another. The 2003 win was very special because it was a young team, led by Niall Cahalane, and that team has given so much back to the club; that was a very special group of people. 

‘The 2012 win – and that followed on to 2013, too – was memorable as well, and most of that team are still involved with the club now. This current team is a mix of old and young, and I am so happy and delighted for the likes of Mark Collins, Brian Hurley, Michael Hurley, those lads, but there is a special group in the middle who hadn’t won a county medal. 

‘We are a bit like Kerry down here; if you don’t have a county medal going into the pub, it would be said “they were only handy”. But those fellas now have their county medal, and hopefully will drive on for more because we have a young team.’

The recent success of the club’s U17 footballers hasn’t gone unnoticed. They defeated Kilshannig 0-12 to 0-7 in the Rebel Óg Division 1 final; that was the second county title Castlehaven won this season, following the ladies’s Cork LGFA senior B success. All three county-winning captains – Mark Collins (senior), Siobhan Courtney (ladies) and Callum Moloney (U17) – were feted at the homecoming on Sunday.

The conveyor belt in Castlehaven is in good health as the U17s, captained by Callum Moloney, defeated Kilshannig by 0-12 to 0-7 in the recent Rebel Óg Division 1 final at Bishopstown. The team was: Liam Deasy; Aaron Buckley, Donal O'Callaghan, Seán Maguire; Ryan McCarthy, William O'Donovan (0-1), Donagh Courtney; Mark Crowley (0-1), Daniel Cleary (0-4); Cillian French, Danny O'Donovan (0-3), Callum Moloney; Eamonn O'Donovan, Eoin Maguire (0-2), Niall O'Callaghan. Subs: Dan McCarthy (0-1), James Maguire, Eoin Buckley, Conn Buckley, Lawerence Dahm, Seán O'Connell, Zack Crowley, Dylan O'Donoghue, Adam Limrick. Management: Martin Crowley, Anthony Walsh, Dan Hegarty, Mark Limrick, Stephen Connolly.
(Photo: @CastlehavenGAA on X)

‘We had three county cups in one place,’ James McCarthy notes, as the community came together to celebrate. The fans who ran on the Páirc Uí Chaoimh pitch on Sunday after the win against Nemo aren’t just supporters, he adds, they are family, friends and neighbours.

‘It was great to see old and young out enjoying themselves with smiles on their faces, and that is what sport is all about,’ he says.

‘This will tighten the bond even more, and there will be more young lads wearing the Haven jersey, coming back to the club of their parents. The Cahalanes, the Collins, the Maguires and these fellas, they might be living in a different parish but they never left Castlehaven. They might have been born in a different parish, but they are playing with their club. 

‘If you saw the enjoyment they have had the last few days, and what it means to their families, you understand the connection people have with this club and community.’

They’ve waited ten years to party like this, and they’ll enjoy this week – including the wedding of Richie Collins and Ashling Daly this weekend – before attention will turn to the Munster club quarter-final against Clare outfit Cratloe, and another chance to shorten this already-long winter. They’re not finished just yet.