MANY Cork football followers will be familiar with Clonakilty’s proud position in the history of football in Cork.
Nine times county senior champions, twice intermediate champions, once junior champions, the club with the longest unbroken senior football record in the championship dating back to 1932, backboning the Cork team that won the Sam Maguire Cup for the first time in 1945. Those are but the crowning points of the many honours the club has accrued in both codes during its proud history – but how many of you know about Clon’s Deasy Cup success in 1930?
When the South West Board was set up in 1925, Clon was only an average junior team in both codes. Towards the end of the 1920s, the club began to assemble a handy junior football team and actually opted for the intermediate grade in 1928 but were out of their depth. Trained by Pat ‘Postboy’ O’Brien, whose playing career lasted from 1907 to 1929, and captained by Dan O’Donovan, affectionately known as Dan ‘Taylor,’ they were unfortunate to lose the 1929 South West junior football final to Bandon by a single point.
Coming on to the team in 1929 was a young teenager named John Crowley, known as ‘Shutter’ because of the eyepatch he wore over one blind eye. Nine years older than his young brother, the legendary Tadhgo, Crowley’s playing career lasted until 1952, during which he won seven county senior football medals. That Clon junior team was to become known in Clonakilty GAA history as ‘Dan Tayor’s Fifteen.’ That Bandon team went on to capture the county title, so Clon must have realised they weren’t too far off winning titles again.
The biggest employer in Clonakilty at the time was Deasy’s Brewery, with many GAA players involved. Deasy’s Brewery had been established around 1768 by Timothy Deasy. The brewery brewed porter, stout and later, ale and won many awards for its products. In 1893, they won first prize at the Chicago World Fair for their famous porter, ‘The Clonakilty Wrestler,’ pronounced ‘The Wrastler.’
Deasy’s was at the peak of its fame about 1930, one of the owners being TJ Canty, a very prominent personality involved in many organisations in the town, including the GAA club. In 1929, possibly realising that the club had a football team on the rise, Deasy’s decided to present a perpetual cup and a set of silver medals to promote football between the clubs in West and South Cork.
The clubs who entered the tournament in 1929 were Valley Rovers v Bandon, Baltimore v Skibbereen, Clonakilty v Barryroe, Leap/Myross v Ardfield, Rosscarbery a bye. The first round saw wins for Bandon, Skibbereen, Clonakilty and Leap/Myross. In the only second round game, Bandon beat Rosscarbery but Ross lodged an objection and Bandon counter-objected. A replay was ordered but Bandon failed to turn up. Eventually, it was Bandon who advanced to a semi-final meeting with Leap/Myross. Clonakilty were due to meet Skibbereen in one semi-final, but the Skibb men failed to turn up and Clon got a walkover into the final. However, the other semi-final, Bandon v Leap/Myross, was held up because of Bandon’s involvement in both the football and hurling county junior championships, both of which they eventually won the following season.
Bandon beat Leap/Myross to qualify for the tournament final and this time it was Clon’s involvement in the South West and county football championships in 1930 that held up the final. The game was originally fixed for St Patrick’s weekend in 1930, but was not played until November. By then Clon had been nominated to represent the division in the county junior championship and had qualified for the county final.
Jimmy O'Regan (right) presented the Deasy Cup to Clonakilty GAA Chairman Denis O'Sullivan, in the present of special guest Seán Óg Ó hAilpín, at the club’s recent dinner dance.
In 1930, Clon had been strengthened by the addition of a few new top-class players. Legendary Cork and Blackrock hurler, Big Jim Hurley, had thrown in his lot in football with his native Clon. Seán Griffin, the top-scoring forward on the team, arrived as a teacher from Tralee and the small but lightning-fast Jack Finnegan was an engineer from Galway. Matt Greene, a tireless midfielder, was a Garda from Wexford, while three students from nearby Darrara College also lined out with the side. Local star, Jer ‘Gull’ Leahy was the hero when Dohenys were beaten, 2-5 to 0-2, in the West Cork final in Clonakilty, on November 16th, the first football championship won by the club since 1913.
The following Sunday, on the crest of a wave, Clon took on Bandon in the final of the Deasy Cup in the Showgrounds in Clonakilty. It was the 1929 county champions against the 1930 county finalists, with a lot of pride at stake. The result was a tempestuous clash with scores at a premium in front of a large crowd.
Bandon looked the better team for much of the game but their forwards were unable to beat the mighty Big Jim Hurley in the solid Clon defence. It was Clon in front by 0-2 to 0-1 at half time, with Jack Finnegan outstanding in attack. Bandon did most of the pressing in the second half but were repeatedly repelled. When a Clon player went down injured, some spectators invaded the pitch, followed by fisticuffs, but the game resumed. Five minutes from time Seán Griffin scored the vital goal for Clon but Bandon objected to the score and refused to finish the game. The referee awarded the game to Clonakilty on a score of 1-2 to 0-1.
The Deasy Cup was presented to captain Dan ‘Taylor’ O’Donovan and the brass band led a parade through the streets of the town with the captain being shouldered high in possession of the Deasy Cup.
The team was billed to play the county final the following Sunday against Ballincollig but because Jim Hurley was playing in the Sigerson Cup with UCC, the game was postponed to December 14th. In the final in Kinsale, Clon won the county title on a score of 2-3 to nil to complete a wonderful season.
The team went on to win the intermediate county title the following year, 1931, and during the next eight years they contested seven county senior finals, losing six before finally capturing the elusive first senior title against Beara in Skibbereen in 1939. That historic day there were four survivors from Dan Taylor’s Fifteen involved, Pat ‘Pakie’ Nyhan (captain), Seán Griffin, John ‘Shutter Crowley and Jer ‘Gull’ Leahy.
The Deasy Cup was never played for again. It remained in the possession of Dan O’Donovan for many years and the recent minder of the cup was his nephew, Jimmy O’Regan, who played senior with Clon in the 1960s. At the recent club dinner, Jimmy O’Regan presented the cup to the chairman of the Clonakilty club, Denis O’Sullivan, and it is now proudly on display in the glass trophy cabinet in the foyer of the GAA Pavilion. It is the silver symbol of Clonakilty’s emergence as a serious football power in Cork.
The team that won the Deasy Cup contained Dan ‘Taylor’ O’Donovan (captain), Johnny Harte (goalkeeper), Big Jim Hurley, Con ‘Sam’ Collins, Oliver Mason, Mick Lillis, Jer ‘Gull’ Leahy, Matt Greene, Jack Finnegan, Seán Griffin N.T., Dan Hurley ‘Gray’, Jimmy O’Sullivan, Paddy Whelan and John ‘Shutter’ Crowley. Other members of Dan ‘Taylor’s’ Fifteen included brothers Cha ‘Dempsey’ and Paddy McCarthy, Tim O’Donovan, Mick Hussey, Mick Bateman, Natt Sutton, Pat ‘Pakie’ Nyhan N.T., Jack O’Connor and Tadhg Deasy.
