Football still the heartbeat of the Beara region
Urhan's Andrew O'Neill is tackled by Finbarr's Olan Murphy. Picture: Denis Boyle
BEARA football is interwoven into the fabric of Cork GAA since the division’s formation back in 1927.
Since then, six clubs, Castletownbere, Adrigole, Urhan, Garnish, Bere Island and Glengarriff have each represented one of the county’s most rural areas with distinction.
As well as that, a Beara divisional representative side has claimed six senior county titles along with a famous provincial success back in 1968.
So, it is fair to say that football was always King in Beara and remains so to this day. 1997 was the last time the Beara division lifted the Andy Scannell Cup.
Castletownbere claimed the old county intermediate A championship 11 years ago, Adrigole the junior A county equivalent in 2006 and Urhan in 1992.
There have been fleeting underage successes in the intervening time period, most recently Beara Community School winning the 2022 All-Ireland Senior D title and Beara’s U19 Premier 1 football championship triumph the same year.
At adult club level however, the cupboard has remained bare for far too long.
The Beara Peninsula, similar to other rural regions, has had to deal with the perennial challenge of their youngest and brightest moving to urban areas for study and work purposes. Naturally, that has complicated GAA clubs’ training regimes.
Three of Beara’s clubs have bucked the trend over the past twelve months and made inroads into their respective county championships.
It hasn’t been all plain sailing in 2023. The decision to pull Beara from the Bon Secours Cork Premier SFC Divisional/Colleges section came as a major disappointment earlier in the summer.
Thankfully, the region’s clubs showed why there is plenty of footballing talent capable of challenging for silverware.
Urhan missed out on a Cork JAFC county final appearance following a narrow semi-final loss to Kilmurry in 2022. Twelve months on and Martin McCarthy and James Healy’s side continued their upward curve by qualifying for a third consecutive last-four encounter.
St Finbarr’s may have ended Urhan’s hopes at the penultimate stage of the newly introduced Premier JCFC, but the core of a strong panel that includes Alan Elphick, Ciarán O’Sullivan, Ben Sullivan, Phillip O’Shea, Conchubar Harrington, Vincent Lehane and Conor Lowney looks primed for another title-tilt next year.
“I suppose that this is our fifth championship game this year, the most we have played in a number of years,” Urhan co-manager James Healy said.
“Progress has been huge and the age profile of the squad is quite good. The main thing now is that the group sticks together. Hopefully, there are better things to come.”
Tim O’Sullivan’s Adrigole were one match away from reaching this season’s Bon Secours Intermediate AFC county decider.
A stirring second-half comeback forced extra-time in their entertaining semi-final clash with Mitchelstown. Cathail O’Mahony, Mark Keane and Sean Walsh helped inspire a narrow 0-14 to 0-12 success and third intermediate decider in four years.
As for their opponents, wins over Gabriel Rangers, Glenville and St Vincent’s plus a gutsy display before going down to Mitchelstown bodes well for Urhan’s future prospects.
Castletownbere’s hopes of reaching a Bon Secours Premier IFC county decider were dashed in the second half of an incident-ridden semi-final loss to Cill na Martra.
Having topped their group on maximum points, Morgan O’Sullivan’s outfit had a penalty awarded and then overruled before being reduced to 13 players in five chaotic second-half minutes.
Cill na Martra went on to win 2-12 to 1-7, but a Castletownbere team that finished with twelve players will be desperate to atone next time out.
"We will have to dust ourselves down ahead of next season," Castletownbere mentor Ian Murphy said. "To be fair to the lads, they have given a huge commitment. It just didn’t happen today for us so we will learn from it and move on."
It will be a disappointing end to the year without a Beara county football final representative.
Yet the strides made by Adrigole, Castletownbere and Urhan over the past 12 months suggests brighter days ahead for a rural area where football is still king.
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