We had to bring on a 61-year-old to make up the numbers... Redmonds chairman explains why one of Cork's oldest clubs is going out of existence

ONE of Cork’s oldest and most GAA decorated clubs, Redmonds will cease to exist as a unit of the Association on September 29.

The club that won four All-Ireland senior hurling titles representing the county in the years 1892, 1900, 1901, 1915 and 1917 took the decision at an EGM earlier in the week and, according to chairman Mick O’Shea, there is no way back.

“Yes, that is the case, our club will be no more after September 29 and, whilst it was a heartbreaking decision for us to make, we had to be realistic in making it," he told the Echo.

“There are a number of reasons why this is so, number one being the lack of players.

“The lack of customers attending our bar facilities on Tower Street is another so generating finance has become an almost impossible task.

“Our playing pitches too are too far away, it’s four miles from the club premises to the playing fields in Lehenaghmore and that’s a major factor too in forcing us to take this course of action." 

Being surrounded by far more prominent clubs with a greater attraction for players is another reason for the club’s demise, he said.

“Yes, that’s a big thing too, you have Nemo and the Barrs and parents will bring their children to those clubs rather than coming to us.

“We found ourselves in the situation recently that we could not field teams. We had to give Rathpeacon a walkover in the Sean McCarthy Cup, a competition for Junior C teams because we just could not put out a team.

“In another instance, we had to bring on a 61-year-old to make up numbers. The problem was that all our players are soccer players as well and when that season began the first priority was to the clubs they were attached to." 

The club has not made the decision lightly, according to Mr O’Shea, one of its greatest and long-serving members.

“This was coming for a while, two or three years I’d say. It has been a nightmare trying to field teams so it wasn’t today or yesterday we decided on this course of action.

“On a personal level, it’s desperately sad. I have been involved with the club for 60 years, going back to 1958.

“There are others too, Ita O’Mahony, Paddy O’Shea and Edwin Callanan. Down the years we had some great people in this club, people like Tadgh Drinan but, unfortunately, the end is coming for us now and a great Cork GAA institution will be no more.’’