JOHN Corcoran was a man you couldn’t say no to. Just ask David Whyte. When Corcoran took over as Carbery GAA Chairman in 2013, he used his considerable influence to get more people involved in the board. A fellow St Mary’s man, David Whyte, was one of those.
Corcoran, the incomparable gentle giant who passed away suddenly in January 2016, once told this paper: ‘We are just the keepers of the flame. Hopefully it will be in a better place for the next generation.’
Even now, nine years after his death, Corcoran’s influence is still being felt.
‘John was a great friend of mine, he is an icon in Carbery GAA,’ says new Carbery chairman Whyte whose journey with the divisional board started when Corcoran was chairman (2013 to ’15). It was Corcoran who persuaded Whyte to become a club delegate for St Mary’s and now he has risen to the top job in the division. Somewhere, Corcoran is smiling. He got it right, again.
‘Everyone knew John – he was an important figure for St Mary’s and Carbery, and was recognised all over the county.
‘Without a doubt he played a big role in my GAA story, from playing with Mary’s to now being involved in the Carbery board. When John was chairman he asked me to become a club delegate, and that’s how it started, heading over to Dunmanway for the meetings along with Tom Doyle.’
The late John Corcoran who served as Carbery GAA chairman.
Whyte, like Corcoran and all previous Carbery chairmen, are the keepers of the flame – their job is to make sure the division is a better place for the next generation. It’s a role Whyte is relishing, having succeeded Aidan O’Rourke in the hot-seat. Whyte is ready for the challenges, having served his apprenticeship.
‘I feel the time is right to step up,’ he says.
‘I got fierce experience over the years, first as a delegate, then as development officer and then as vice-chairman.’
First, Whyte played. Next he refereed. And then he became involved in GAA administration. He feels he is primed for the next challenge.
‘I have been involved in the GAA since I was a young fella, and played up until my late 20s before taking up refereeing,’ he says.
‘I refereed for another 25 years, both at a local West Cork level and county level.
‘Once I hung up my boots, I got a grá for the administration side. When John Corcoran was chairman of the Carbery board, I became a St Mary’s delegate along with Tom Doyle, and we would represent the club at meetings.
‘In fairness to St Mary’s, the club has a great association with the Carbery board. We’ve had great men involved like John Corcoran, Tom Doyle, and also Danny Warren, who was a delegate from the Carbery board to the county board for a long number of years.’
Newly-elected Carbery chairman David Whyte makes a presentation to the outgoing chairman Aidan O'Rourke at the 2024 Carbery convention.
Now St Mary’s have another clubman at the helm of the Carbery board, and he stresses that he is keen to work with the clubs.
‘It’s not just David Whyte, it’s not just the CCC, all the clubs are very important in the running of Carbery GAA,’ he insists.
‘My role is to work closely with the clubs, and listen to the clubs, so they feel part of what we are all trying to do, which is to leave Carbery GAA in a better place.’
His day job as the South West Ireland Business Manager with Volac, selling agricultural products locally, means Whyte is on the ground every day, meeting people. He understands the importance of people in Carbery GAA – it’s the volunteers and players in every club who make the difference. And a progressive Carbery board is important, he adds.
‘No one person runs a board, and we have a very strong executive and a very strong CCC. In a board the size of Carbery you need a strong team and we are very lucky to have so many people willing to work hard for the best interest of Carbery GAA,’ says Whyte, who has the honour of being Carbery chairman as the board celebrates its centenary year.
‘This is a very important year, being the centenary year of the board. In 1925, the Carbery division was formed by forward-thinking men and here we are now, continuing that great work,’ Whyte says.
‘It’s a priority of mine that we celebrate this because, despite all our best intentions, I’m not sure any of us will be around for the next centenary. This is once-in-a-lifetime for all of us.
‘We all know that the GAA is the backbone of our rural and urban areas, and within the Carbery division we all know too how important football and hurling is locally and the role it plays in our everyday life. My aim is to keep the Carbery division strong in West Cork, keep football and hurling strong in West Cork, give players the opportunity to play because it’s very important for our young people to play sport, whichever sport that may be.
‘We want to maintain Carbery’s position as a strong division, we have won county titles in football and hurling, our clubs campaign at the highest levels, and we want to keep the Carbery flag flying as high as we can.’
This will be a year of celebration with the Carbery board planning a number of special events, including a Carbery Centenary Ball on November 29th in the Westlodge Hotel in Bantry, as well as a celebration of Carbery Scór, specially commissioned centenary medals for championship winners, and a club day in May when all 26 clubs in the division can tell their own stories.
New Carbery GAA Chairman David Whyte is a proud St Mary's clubman. (Photo: Martin Walsh)
Whyte also hopes that Carbery can press the green button on its plans to develop an all-weather facility in the division. This has been on the to-do list for a number of years, and Whyte is hopeful there will be white smoke soon. In recent seasons, Carbery championship games have been taken out of the division and played in Bishopstown’s 4G pitch. Just this week, Carbery suspended its U21 football championship games until August off the back of bad weather leading to unplayable pitches, meaning the competitions couldn’t meet their deadline. In his outgoing address as chairman in December, Aidan O’Rourke said: ‘We should be able to play games in our own division on our own 4G pitch, not traveling to Bishopstown in Cork to play them.’
Whyte agrees there is a need for Carbery GAA to have its own pitch within the division, a place to call home, and there are two different options currently being explored.
‘This has been a topic for a number of years and we can all understand the need for it,’ the new Carbery chairman says.
‘Given the unpredictable weather it could mean we have to postpone games at short notice, while the split-season has also had an impact too – look at the U21 championships, at A, B and C levels, that we have had to postpone this week. Because of the split-season we have a tight window to run games, and then we have all our West Cork finals to hold later in the year.
‘We have been talking to clubs about the need for an all-weather pitch in the division. A pitch development committee was set up in recent times and we are talking to different clubs about the possibility of working with them; they would have a second pitch where we, as a board, would come in and develop it into a sand-based or astroturf pitch.
‘Another area that we are exploring is the possibility of a green-field site. The costs would be big, but we are exploring all options to see what is the best way forward here – do we go with a club and develop a second pitch or do we go with a green-field site? All that is being debated at the moment, and we are hoping to move that forward this year.’
A decision on whether this proposed new pitch will be sand-based or astro-turf will also be made in the short term, and Whyte is hopeful there will be an update on this development this year, which would be fitting given the centenary celebrations – this project has the potential to safeguard the future of Carbery GAA and, as John Corcoran said, leave it in a better place for the next generation. David Whyte is the keeper of the flame now and he’s intent on honouring the great men who have gone before him by ensuring Carbery GAA will be in a strong position for the next generation.
