Hurleys following in their grandfather's footsteps with double county wins
Shane, Ciara and Eimear Hurley presenting the Donal Hurley Cup - named after their grandfather - to Cork County Board chairperson Marc Sheehan in 2022.
Just over two years ago, the Donal Hurley Cup was inaugurated as the new trophy for the Cork Premier JFC.
Named in honour of a St Finbarr’s great who had died in January of 2022, it was fitting that the first edition of the new grade, the 2023 competition, was won the Togher club. At the function where Cork County Board chairperson Marc Sheehan took possession of the canister, the handover was made by Donal’s grandchildren Shane, Eimear and Ciara Hurley.
At the time, Shane was just coming off an excellent season after keeping goal as the Barrs won the Premier SHC for the first time in 29 years; in 2024, his sisters joined him in claiming county medals – and, in doing so, they paid tribute to a rare feat achieved by their grandfather.
In 1956, Donal helped the Barrs to win the county SFC, having been part of a county hurling-winning side the year before; however, as he was based in Dublin at the time while attending teacher-training college, he was eligible to play for Erin’s Hope and helped them to the SFC in the capital.
Nearly six decades on, a move to Dublin for Eimear as part of work with Bord Bia meant that she transferred to Cuala – she helped them to win the county Senior 2 camogie title and, in tandem with that, Ciara was part of the Barrs side that won the Cork senior championship for the first time since 2006.
“When I first moved up in 2023, I was looking for somewhere to train,” says Eimear, who helped Cork to win the intermediate All-Ireland in 2018, “and one of the girls here in work said, ‘Why don’t you come down to us in Cuala?’
“I trained with them for the summer and they were just so welcoming. I was eight weekends in a row travelling back to Cork for training and championship, but we were beaten in the quarter-final.
“Last December, I played for UCD in a challenge game against Cuala and I came across the girls again – they were just so nice and so welcoming.
Eimear’s move meant a bit of a change of landscape for her sister – Ciara, now 21, had joined the senior panel in 2020, taking the goalkeeping spot from her sibling, who was grateful of the opportunity to move out the field.
“We used to travel to training together and talk about what went on or discuss the team or stuff like that,” says Ciara, an All-Ireland intermediate winner with Cork this year.
“It was weird, not having that person to discuss nearly everything with. At the same time, it was bittersweet because I knew that she was enjoying Cuala so much – it wasn’t like she was not playing camogie.
“It took a while to get used to, but it was good all the same.”
The girls had won a county minor medal together in 2019 and there was huge potential in a senior team that was knocking on the door – in fact, Eimear was sure that that door would be opened in 2024.
“To be honest, when I made the decision back in January, I actually knew the girls were going to win,” she says.
“I had parted ways with it, I had made my decision and left it behind me.”
The prophecy proved to be true as wins over St Catherine’s, Éire Óg, Glen Rovers, Inniscarra and Cloughduv brought the Barrs to the county final against Sarsfields. A time for celebration, but the one kink was that the decider was set for Sunday, October 13 – the same day as Cuala’s county final against Erin’s Isle.
Unfortunately for the girls’ parents, Diarmuid and Colette, bilocation was not an option.
“For me, it was the semi-final when I knew – we had a nice draw and I knew we’d be over them,” Eimear says.
“I said at home, ‘You know that, if we’re in finals, they’ll be on the same day?’ and it was, ‘We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it’!
“In fairness to my parents, they came up for the semi-final for me and stayed in Cork then for the final.”
Another goalkeeping member of the family – the girls’ uncle Briain – underlined the historical parallels that were becoming stronger.
“Ciara, Shane and I have a group-chat with him,” Eimear says, “and he said that we’d have to follow in Grandad’s footsteps.
“Then, the closer the final came – you’re in a new county, a new club and don’t necessarily have a tie to it but suddenly it became more about a legacy, almost. As we got closer to the end, it was big.”
The Barrs’ final was first up, with a 2pm throw-in, followed by Cuala’s at 4pm.
“In fairness to Eimear, when she moved up, the Barrs were very supportive of her and were following her progress – every game, they’d be asking for updates,” Ciara says.
“When Eimear found out her game was on the same day, they were honestly disappointed because a lot of us would have made the journey up to support her.
“That was probably a disappointing factor but thankfully it all worked out in the end.
“She set up a group-chat with one of her friends in Bord Bia and she was on the ball with all the scores.”
Eimear herself wasn’t able to follow the Barrs’ famous victory in real-time, but thankfully things worked out.
“I had to switch off,” she says.
“We FaceTimed in the morning, before the games and I put my Barrs top on that morning but, once 12 o’clock, 1 o’clock came, that was it – into my Cuala gear, into my Cuala mindset.
“I think it was that I’d have carried extra pressure going in, knowing they’d won. I had no doubt that they would win, but if I knew for certain that it had happened it would have been at the back of my mind.
“After the final whistle went, it was lovely, you had friends and family of the players on the team coming over, but then I was anxious and I needed to know. One of the girls from work was there and I asked if I could borrow her phone and I rang Mom, just before the cup was being presented.
“I said, ‘Mom, we won – did ye?’ She said they did and I hung up. That was enough then to go back to my own celebrations!”
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