In Cork Football: Game of my Life, Beara football great Ciarán O’Sullivan relives his greatest game – he picks Cork’s 1995 Munster football final win against the old enemy Kerry in Killarney
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I ALWAYS loved playing in Killarney. There’s something special about the place – the crowd were right in on top of you and the atmosphere was super.
It used to be a really special weekend for people, especially if you were coming away with a win. We did that in 1995, but I don’t think anyone thought we’d still be waiting in 2023 for the next one there.
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I went to boarding school Coláiste Íosagáin in Baile Bhúirne for five years and we had Paudie Herlihy and Mickey ‘Ned’ O’Sullivan coaching us, which was a good start! Historically, there would have been a good tradition of Beara lads going there – at one stage, before my time, a bus used to bring them back on the Sunday evenings. It used to be a teacher-training school and even after that, it was still a stepping-stone towards becoming a teacher.
The college had won the Corn na Mumhan seven times but, by the time I was finishing, it was in the process of closing down and the numbers were dwindling as there were no new students coming in. For the 1987-88 academic year – the year I left – we participated in the vocational schools competitions and won the All-Ireland. We beat Dungannon of Tyrone in the final, which was on in Croke Park, before the national league final. Peter Keane, who would go on to manage Kerry, was corner-forward on that team.
Íosagáin was a very strong GAA-playing school but basketball was a very close number two and, to me, the two complemented each other. John O’Driscoll from Ballingeary went there as well – he was a few years ahead of me – and he played basketball for Ireland; so did Aindrias Ó Súilleabháin, who was midfield with me that day in Croke Park.
As well as winning the All-Ireland, I was picked on the Cork vocational schools team that year and then I got on the Cork minor team. Unfortunately, we were beaten by Kerry by a point in 1988 and that set a pattern. In 1990, when I was on the U21 panel but not playing, we lost to them below in Tralee. My full year, U21, I was midfield and Kerry beat us in Páirc Uí Chaoimh on a ferocious night – the game should never have gone ahead, the pitch was in muck.
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I did however win an All-Ireland junior medal in 1990; we beat Warwickshire in the final in Páirc Uí Chaoimh. I was playing with guys that had good experience – John Caulfield, who was playing for Cork City at the time, was playing and he was as cute as a fox inside in the full-forward line. Mark Farr and Paul Coleman were on that team and would go on to play senior later in the decade – and Colm O’Neill and Paddy Hayes actually played in the Munster final win over Kerry in June before going on to feature in the All-Ireland senior final.
In 1991, I was in and out of training with the seniors but I wasn’t a part of any matchday squad. I was more involved in 1992 and would have played some league games. Urhan won the junior county that year after three famous days against Midleton below in Ballingeary, so that was another stepping stone.
If you’d told me then that I’d be playing in the All-Ireland senior final a year later, I’d have loved it but I mightn’t have believed it! All I wanted to do at the time was just be a part of it and claim a position if I could. With the school and the club, I was always a midfielder but, when I came in to Cork first, I was playing as a wing-forward. I’ll always put the success of my switch to wing-back down to Billy Morgan – I couldn’t say enough good about him as a manager, he was unbelievable.
My last game as a wing-forward was above in Kildare. I felt I was going okay – I kicked a point in the first half – but I was taken off at half-time. I said to myself, “This is it, this doesn’t look good,” but I got a phone-call from Billy the next day and that’s the type of manager he was. He told me to keep the head up, keep working, and something would happen for me.
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We went to open a pitch with Cork. I think it was in Aughrim, Co. Wicklow and we were staying overnight as we had a game arranged the next day too, but where that was, I’ve no idea. He handed me the number 5 jersey in the dressing room before the game and I was thinking, “Oh my God, here goes!” – and I hardly ever took it off again.
I really enjoyed the role. Obviously, I had to defend but I loved being able to drive forward as opposed to having to turn and go back. Of course, you were still up against the likes of Anthony Davis and Mick Slocum and these fellas, which was quite a challenge.
When I came into a dressing room full of fellas with All-Ireland medals, I tried not to take any notice – I just put my head down and worked hard. I respected them unbelievably because you had the likes of Teddy McCarthy, John Kerins and Mick McCarthy, God rest them, Niall Cahalane, Conor Counihan, John Cleary, Danny Culloty – you had all these lads and I was a young garsún coming in, but there were a few others. Don Davis, Colin Corkery and Joe Kavanagh, we all came in around the same time and Mark O’Connor wasn’t too much ahead of us.
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Billy had a great way of getting the best of you and you always knew that he had your back. He would tell you something straight out – it mightn’t be what you’d want to hear at times, but that was his way. He’d be very honest, very open and he’d back you to the hilt. That’s the way he was and is, so players had savage respect for him. He never plámásed you; if he had something to say, he’d say it. He was fiery, we all knew that; but if he did lose it and say something, 30 seconds later that was gone. He’d always be the first man to fight for you.
That first year that I was regular, 1993, we made it to the All-Ireland final but we lost to Derry. I’ll never forget it, the crowd started to come on the field and I ran off with John Kerins – he went straight for the corner of the Canal End and the Hogan Stand, where the old dressing rooms used to be and I shot off after him. I was devastated, obviously, but I would have met people that night and over the next few weeks who all said, “Don’t worry about it Ciarán, you’ve plenty of time ahead of you.” It doesn’t work that way, obviously.
You just have to get back on with it – I tried but I did my cruciate the following year, in an intermediate championship match for Urhan against the Barrs, about three weeks or a month before the Munster final. It was frustrating, of course, but I had no choice but to accept it and I worked exceptionally hard to come back again.
I was lucky in that everything went right and I was back training after six months. I went over to Lilleshall for a week for rehabilitation, which Cork County Board paid for. The late Dan Hoare was treasurer at the time; what a gentleman he was. During my rehab, I used to be up and down to the gym in Páirc Uí Chaoimh and the late Tommy Lynch looked after me – he would have the showers ready and the ice-packs. Tommy was unbelievable; oh my God, what a legend.
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The fact that I bounced back was part of the reason for the 1995 Munster final being so special. Of course, Killarney was close enough to us down in Beara anyway and I used to nearly find it more enjoyable playing there than in Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
We stayed the night that year, in the Castlerosse Hotel – other years, the team would travel on the day and, after I moved back to Urhan, I used to make my own way to Killarney. Staying the night allowed us to be together in the morning and plan for the game. I liked to keep my own preparations fairly straightforward; once I had all my gear in my bag, I was ready to go.
I think it was Billy O’Shea I was marking in 1995. As a wing-back, you were going out to mark a fella but you were trying to put your man on the back foot to a certain degree and have him chasing you. At the same time, you had to be conscious that Kerry were dangerous. They had some good forwards and the priority was obviously to defend but, any opportunity that opened up, you were encouraged to drive forward.
Even though we got a bad start on the day – they got a goal straightaway and we were under pressure – we got on top and we really finished strongly. I kicked two points that day; Don kicked three and I was slagging him that he kicked more that day than he did all year! It was a savage occasion and nip-and-tuck throughout the game. We really pushed on at the end to get the win and, any few Kerry lads that were still hanging on at that stage, it was the final nail for them. For me, it was a really memorable one.
I can’t really believe that it’s still Cork’s last win there. I’ve been at many a game there since supporting Cork and we’ve drawn there numerous times, including 2002, when I was still playing. We had a great chance in 2015, when I was a selector under Brian Cuthbert – time was up and Fionn Fitzgerald, the Kerry corner-back, kicked a huge point to level it. Prior to that, Conor Counihan’s team went close a couple of times but Colm Cooper scored equalising frees – and, without sounding biased, those frees might have been a bit dubious!
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I wasn’t involved in 2003 but Billy brought me back in 2004 and my last game was the defeat to Fermanagh in Croke Park in 2004. Does it bother me that I didn’t win an All-Ireland with Cork? Hand on my heart, I would have no regrets whatsoever.
At the time, you were gutted to lose two All-Irelands, of course you were – maybe more so in 1999 than 1993. Number one, I probably felt that we had a better chance of beating Meath, and also I was 29 years of age at the time and getting ready to move home. I knew that, from then on, it was going to become more challenging to be travelling up from Beara, though I still did it for a few more years.
It’s not something that stops me from going to sleep at night. I consider myself blessed to have met so many super people through football, the best of friends – within Cork and outside of the county too, Kerry and everywhere else. I was lucky enough that I travelled to Australia in 1999, with Joe, to play international rules.
We got a pile out of it and made friends for life.
- This is an excerpt from Denis Hurley’s latest book, Cork Football: Game of my Life
