Love Denis O'Neill has for beloved Na Piarsaigh has never waned 

Unsung heroes are those individuals who make significant contributions to sports but often go unnoticed.

A catch-up with the former Na Piarsaigh chairman Denis O’Neill was not alone interesting, but more importantly, despite taking a back seat in his retirement his love for the Farranree club has never waned.

“I really started with Na Piarsaigh through my friendship with John Gardiner (snr) as we used to congregate in his house as the club had no facilities in the late '60s and this base was the hub for jerseys and everything associated with our club,” Denis said.

In typical O'Neill-style he described his own playing career.

“Ah sure I was never a great player as I was involved with the Junior B teams but the club mentors saw this and dragged me into administration from a young age.

I was on the minor committee at the age of 18 and running teams but it was great in that era as in the '60s we won three minor counties with some great teams."

In 1971, a good Na Piarsaigh side with Tony Hegarty were coming to the end of their great run as they had reached two senior county hurling semi-finals and were also a decent football side.

“We had a lull in 1971 as the players in that team were reaching the end of their careers and the underage conveyor belt had suddenly stopped failing to produce the type of players we needed to compete at the top level.” 

A man called Liam Connery was the guiding light as he founded the club and O’Neill believes the work he did over many years was incredible.

“Every drop of blood in his veins was purely Na Piarsaigh and I will be honest to say he was the man I looked up to and with men like Bill Clifford and Kieran Hourihane two school teachers in Scoil Ioasagin and Abie Allen we had men with conviction and loyalty.” 

In that era, there were plenty of young lads available in the community and Denis believes that was the secret to getting the show back on the road.

“In the '70s we started getting success again but for the Street Leagues were crucial in attracting players as men like Denis O’Sullivan, Denis Desmond and Kevin Barry making sure the operation was run without a hitch.” 

In the late '70s, Na Piarsaigh were assembling some serious talent and many of those Minor players went on to play at the top tier.

“At the start we had Roger Twohig and 'Fox' Sheehan were involved with Cork in the 1966 and 1969 Cork senior teams but the one player for me who helped bring us to the next level was Tony O’Sullivan.

Tony was simply a class hurler and helped put us on the map in the '80s but looking back in the '70s we had won four Féiles so we were bound to make a statement sooner than later.” 

BREAKTHROUGH

Na Piarsaigh reached the county final in 1987 but lost to Midleton 2-12 to 0-15 but three years later there was hysteria when they won their first senior county when defeating St Finbarr’s 2-7 to 1-8 after a replay.

“God when I look 1990 was something else winning our first county and thinking back the late Christy Coughlan bringing the cup home is a memory that will never leave me.” 

O’Neill believes the spirit that Coughlan played with was a joy to behold.

Christy epitomised everything that Na Piarsaigh stood for and watching him come through from underage level to senior he always played the game in a true resilient manner.” 

The relegation of Na Piarsaigh from the top tier of Cork hurling brought huge sadness to Denis.

“I remember walking out of the game when we lost to Charleville and there was tears in my eyes as I knew the club would have to work hard to regain this status.” 

For the past two years, Na Piarsaigh have been competing at Senior A level and the coaching staff of Seán Óg Ó hAilpín, John Gardiner, Christy Connery and Mark Mullins have been working hard to regain the top status.

“The lads are doing tremendous work but with so many players emigrating to America and Australia numbers have dwindled but they are giving their all.” 

On a final note, Denis would like to convey thanks to many people he worked with especially Dan Hickey who was secretary when he was chairman of the club in the early noughties.

“Na Piarsaigh have always had good volunteers and our present chairman Colin O’Sullivan and the various committees are doing fantastic work and I will always be proud to say that I am part of a great club.”