Cork GAA Jersey Wars: Cill na Martra v Mallow
Cork GAA Jersey Wars: Cill na Martra v Mallow.
WE want to know what your favourite GAA geansaí is.
From here until the end of August, your votes will decide the best design in our Cork GAA Jersey Wars competition.
Our resident jersey expert Denis Hurley compiled a list of 32 clubs, based on those involved in the senior tiers and a selection of wild cards. We put them in alphabetical order and paired them up and we're now down to the last 16 stage.
Full details of the competition are here.
Voting will run from 8am each day for 24 hours on the link below:
ACCORDING to Cill na Martra’s own history, the recorded victory of the club occurred in 1887, back when football was a 21-a-side game, as Ballinagree were beaten.
Initially, the jerseys worn were similar to Sarsfields, blue with a white hoop, and this was the kit used in Mid-Cork junior football final defeats in 1938, 1958 and 1964. However, with fellow Muskerry clubs Naomh Abán, Aghinagh, Clondrohid and Gleann na Laoi all having predominantly blue jerseys, it was decided in the late 1960s that Cill na Martra – generally styled as the anglicised ‘Kilnamartyra’ in newspaper reports at the time – would wear white jerseys with blue trim instead.
While the club did well in the GAA’s cultural competition Scór, on the field they were in the lower reaches in Muskerry but the late 1970s brought a resurgence with more success at underage levels feeding into a stronger junior team.
They reached the county on the latter occasion and, while they lost out to Carbery Rangers, restructuring of the intermediate grades meant that they were promoted, too.
With county minor C title wins in 1999 and 2004 providing strong players for adult level, Cill na Martra reached the IFC final in 2009 but were unlucky to lose out to Carbery. However, another minor win came in 2013 while there was a county U21B win in 2015, four years after defeat in the final.
The manager of that team, Caoimhín Ó Súilleabháin, had taken over the intermediate side and, at the outset of 2018, their record for the previous four years read semi-final, quarter-final replay, semi-final, semi-final. The pedigree was there, it was just a matter of taking the extra few steps to glory. Aiding them in terms of preparation was the fact victory in Division 2 of the county football league in 2017 had earned them a place in the top flight, with regular clashes against the top sides.
Ballinora, Glanworth (after a replay), Millstreet and Mitchelstown were all seen off as they reached the final, with Muskerry rivals Aghabullogue opposing them. While a bright Cill na Martra start was wiped out as they conceded a goal to fall 1-3 to 0-5 behind after 20 minutes, the response was strong as they reeled off 1-11 without reply, going on to triumph by 2-17 to 1-10.
Captain Graham Ó Mocháin delivered his entire speech as Gaeilge, while sponsors Cygnum were no doubt delighted with the exposure they received. The timber-frame construction firm still have their name emblazoned on the club’s jerseys.
While colour-clashes are rarer than when the shirt was mainly blue, they do occur, as against Bandon and Knocknagree in recent times. For such eventualities, there is a grey alternative jersey.
LAST month, Mallow stalwart Cian O’Riordan, who retired after the recent Bons Secours Hospital Cork Senior A Football Championship final, shared a letter on Twitter.
Honoured that the club’s committee had voted to bestow him with life membership, he wrote: “It’s a feeling I don’t think I will ever get over, putting on that Mallow jersey.” In O’Riordan’s career and lifetime, that jersey has been red and yellow and that has been the case ever since the club was founded in 1887.
A florid piece in the Tralee Liberator of August 14, 1934 stated: “If one walked into the GAA club-rooms today, one would see hanging on a line red and yellow jerseys of the victors of many a hard-fought hurling contest.”
At that stage, Mallow were an established senior hurling club following the 1923 intermediate championship win and they reached the senior semi-finals in 1926 before making the 1928 final, losing out to Éire Óg, though that year’s win over Blackrock was such a notable event that it inspired a song, When Mallow Beat Blackrock.
The semis were reached again in 1930, losing to Glen Rovers, and when the clubs were paired together in the 1931 first round, the night before the game the Mallow secretary received a telegram purporting to be from Cork County Board informing him that the game was off – the telegram was a hoax and the misinformation may have contributed to a 9-4 to 2-0 loss. They regraded in 1937 and while they won the intermediate again in 1959, their three-year senior stint was without success and dropped down again. It was a similar tale following the 1972 intermediate win, staying senior for five years but again deciding to regrade.
While the club reached the intermediate football final in 1924, they would have to wait until 1992 – three years after another final loss – to make it to the top flight. They qualified for the semi-finals in 2004 but just two years later were relegated after a four-team round-robin. There was an immediate return, winning the premier intermediate in 2007, only to experience the drop again in 2009.
After winning the second-tier championship again in 2017, Mallow were unlucky to be outside the top 12 ranks when the restructuring occurred at the end of 2019, but hopes will be high that they can make an assault on the senior A again this year.
Mallow share their colours with Éire Óg, who beat them in the 2020 senior A final in June, and there is a good reason for the similarity.
They gladly accepted and have had the colours since. The final meeting in Páirc Uí Chaoimh was the clubs’ second meeting of that championship, with Mallow having won the group-phase game last autumn. Éire Óg had worn a yellow alternative set that day and so Mallow obliged by doing the same for the final.
Currently, the club opt not to have a shirt sponsor.
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