‘Young men will praise new heroes of the game,
This one’s endurance, that one’s flying feet;
How will they know how strong you were and fleet,
You, who once were a storm wind and flame?
They will forget your name.’
THE Diarmuid Ó Mathúna club of Castletownkenneigh are making doubly sure that their old heroes will never suffer the same fate as the old hurlers in Samuel Letts’ poem because a short time ago they launched their history book on the first 50 years of their club, 1968 to 2018. Recently, the author of that book, Séamus Coakley, secretary of the club for 20 years and also chairman, was the main organiser of the reunion of the 1974 junior B hurling team that won the club’s first-ever championship in 1974, 50 years ago.
Of the 23 players on that panel, 18 were present in the Castletown hall, three having passed away and two unavoidably absent. Also present were players of this year’s junior A team that won the Flyer Nyhan Cup, two successful Mathúna teams bridging a gap of 50 years. The trailblazers and the present proud wearers of the blue and gold jerseys.
Fifty years is a long time in the life of any mortal but for the old hurlers of Diarmuid Ó Mathúna GAA Club the memories, the stories, the comradeship of 1974 seemed as fresh as yesterday when they got together to celebrate and to remember the first-ever hurling championship won by the fledgling club.
To say that the 1974 junior B hurling team were just hurlers on the pitch would be a great understatement as that team was composed of men who not only shared in the founding of the club in 1968 but who were instrumental in providing the fine facilities now enjoyed by the club. Not only was the chat about the 1974 campaign but also about those tough, pioneering years when everybody was expected to put a shoulder to the wheel to guarantee not only success on the playing pitches but also the mere survival of the club itself.
‘Many people think that the club just sprouted up like a mushroom in 1968 but nothing could be further from the truth,’ said Tom Brady, a player on the 1974 team and chairman as well in ’74.
‘It took a huge amount of work to start the club and especially just to survive in those early years. Carbery Milk Products was being built at the time and St Mary’s were playing Bandon in the junior hurling championship. Florrie O’Driscoll, God rest him, asked myself and Jim Nyhan to tog out for Mary’s, there were the two of us from one end of the parish and Séamus McCarthy and Joe Walsh, who went on to become the Minister for Agriculture, from the other end. It was after that the idea of having our own team began to grow in Castletown.’
Enjoying the Mathúnas reunion were Tom Nyhan and his granddaughter Molly Nyhan.
One of the first achievements was to take over the old school that had just closed down and to turn it into a thriving community hall. As vice-chairman, Pat O’Driscoll said, ‘The achievement of the 1974 team was a massive boost to the whole community. Talking to parents lately, you couldn’t have better than the facilities we have here in this club. On a fine summer’s evening you can bring your kids down to the pitch and let them enjoy themselves. It was the lads of the early years, the men of 1974, who laid the foundations and they fully deserve to be honoured here today. There is no better place to be had than the Castletown community hall.’
Having been founded in 1968, it took the club six years to taste success on the pitch and that was understandable when one takes into account that many of the players on the winning 1974 junior team had never played football or hurling before joining the club. One of the greatest club servants in those years, a real warrior on the 1974 team and for many years afterwards, was Den Nyhan, one of six brothers who played on the winning team. A feared hurler, tough as nails and a marvellous leader on the pitch, Den not only gave many years as a player on the pitch but later as coach and trainer of many Mathúna teams for years afterwards.
‘I was a selector as well as a player on that team, as were all the selectors as well as the club chairman Tom Brady,’ Den explained.
‘It was all hands to the wheel in those early days. It’s worth remembering that many of us had never played football or hurling before. Never played with any other club, never wore any jersey except Mathúna’. We were formed in 1968, stuck together, trained in farmers’ fields – we got a great band of lads together. Of course, we got a couple to come back to us, like Con Warren from up the country. They provided the experience.
‘I had a long career as a player and selector and I’ll always be grateful to my family. I was supposed to be a full-time farmer, but it was more like a full-time GAA man. My mother and father looked after us, myself and my brothers, whenever we were injured or something. They always rallied round to get us over the line.’
Every winning team has a secret or two behind the victory that they are slow to reveal but midfielder, Barry Crowley, rated by all as the man-of-the-match in the historic final against Barryroe, let one out of the bag when he revealed, ‘I must mention the famous ‘Nyhan Rub’ that we got in the dressing room. Now, I never knew what was in it but I do know that you were fine and high on the way out!’
The man who provided the badly-needed experience on the team was the other midfielder, Con Warren, who was working in Wicklow at the time but threw in his lot with his native place, not an easy task.
Barry Crowley, Seamus Coakley and Tim Foley at the reunion.
‘I remember hitching a spin from Dublin to Cork to play games. After the game I would get a spin back to the train station, take the train to Dublin and then hitch a spin back to Wicklow at midnight or one o’clock,’ he recalled.
‘There was no social media or mobile phones in those days and the secretary, Séamus, (Coakley, corner back on the team) would notify us of matches by post card. My friends in Wicklow would be wondering how our match went and they would tune in to Seán Óg Ó Ceallacháin on the radio every Sunday night to get all the club results. In truth, we didn’t have any formal training or strength or conditioning like teams now. We trained mostly on our own but there was a fierce passion among the players, a fierce loyalty to the club. There was great pride in the jersey and it’s marvellous to see that pride alive and well 50 years later, here today.’
Former chairman and well-known referee Tim Foley was instrumental in buying the land for the new pitch and developing the community hall. He recalled all that great voluntary work by members of the community.
‘When I took over as chairman, we bought and developed the pitch, developed the hall, then the handball alley,’ Foley explained.
‘It was all voluntary work, people as old as I am now could be seen plastering the walls here. Here I would pay special tribute to the O’Callaghan family, to Kate and Jim, they were fantastic. Selling tickets, travelling the highways and the byways. John Murphy paid for everything, he was an outstanding treasurer.’
The winning of the Flyer Nyhan junior A hurling cup has a special place in the history of the Mathúna club, as the famed freedom fighter had special connections with the area. They have won that cup on six occasions, the latest this season.
The pride in the small rural club could be clearly felt when Tom Brady stated, ‘I remember one thing Frank Murphy, the county secretary, said when he addressed the people of the country at the graveside of Flyer Nyhan in Ballymoney cemetery a few years back. He said that Diarmuid Ó Mathúnas was the last club in Cork to be named after a freedom fighter, we can always be proud of that.’
