UCC manager Tom Kingston honoured to keep Canon O'Brien's memory alive

Though the challenging weather conditions have resulted in a 24-hour postponement, the respect for the Canon O’Brien Cup meant that every effort was going to be made to play it.

UCC take on Cork at the Mardyke this evening (7pm) with the early-season game beneficial to both as bigger competitions come into view. For the College side’s manager, Tom Kingston, the fixture also serves to ensure that the memory of Fr Michael O’Brien and his coaching achievements live on in the newer generations who don the famous Skull and Crossbones.

“For UCC, it’s always an important fixture, for a number of reasons,” he says.

“It’s always our last fixture before we play in the Fitzgibbon Cup and it’s really important for us to honour what the Canon did for UCD.

“We feel really strongly about that and, over the duration of the competition, we’ve always spoken to the players about him before the games and explained to them.

“Some of these lads, to be fair, are young and wouldn’t know much about him but we’ve always explained what he did in hurling and what he did for UCC and for Cork. It was second to now, he was outstanding.

He won eight Fitzgibbon Cups in a row, nine out of 10, and that’s outside everything else. He won All-Irelands with Cork in every grade, he won county championships with clubs in every grade.

“It’s about honouring what this guy meant to the GAA.”

Kingston was on the Cork squad, managed by the Canon, that won the 1990 All-Ireland hurling title, while he also featured during the 1993 national league victory. The inter-county experience was just part of his hurling education under the Innishannon native’s tutelage.

“I played under him with Tracton when we won the intermediate county,” Kingston says, “and he coached me in Farranferris.

“I was very fortunate, I had him coaching me from the age of 14 up to 30. The teams I was with, he happened to be with them as well, which was pure good luck for me!”

SUPERB MOTIVATOR

Certainly, the Canon’s long list of honours relied on more than luck.

“He was a superb motivator,” Kingston says. “He was ahead of his time, most definitely, as regards motivation of players.

He knew how to motivate a particular player and to get the best out of him on the pitch. He was superb at that; it was one of his gifts.

“As I often say, he’d make an average player a good player, he’d make a good player a very good player and he’d make a very good player a great player.

“You don’t just coach four Harty Cup-winning teams in a row and two All-Ireland colleges; you don’t coach eight Fitzgibbon Cups and nine out of 10 winning teams; you don’t coach Cork seniors to two All-Irelands and Cork U21s and minors to a couple; not to mention all the clubs he won with.

“He had what it took.”

That longevity of the fixture since its inception in 2013 bears testimony to that, with Kingston highlighting the commitment to it by Cork as well as UCC.

“You’ve had Jimmy Barry-Murphy, my brother Kieran, John Meyler, Pat Ryan now – they’ve all made sure that the competition has been played,” he says.

“That’s a mark of respect to the Canon and UCC, obviously, at all costs will make sure that this game is played every year.”