Billy Hennessy: When you play for the Barrs, it's all about winning counties

One of St Finbarr’s most underrated players sat out last season’s championship due to a knee injury.

Defender Billy Hennessy, one of the Barrs’ most consistent performers over the past decade or so, was a loss to the rearguard in 2024 as the Togher club fell at the semi-final stage to the reigning and eventual winners Castlehaven.

Hennessy, who turned 28 back in August, was captain of St Finbarr’s when they won the Co-Op SuperStores Premier SHC title in 2022.

This success with the big ball on Sunday evening is a sweet one for the Barrs. They beat Nemo Rangers 1-14 to 1-13 in the McCarthy Insurance Group Premier SFC decider at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

“It’s a great achievement, I think it’s one of the biggest achievements we’ve had in some time," Hennessy says to The Echo.

“I think this will rank up there with one of the best victories we’ve had. There’s a lot of history between the Barrs and Nemo. We didn’t talk about it though much before the game, but the fact that we’d never beaten them in a final, I think we’ve gotten that monkey off our back now finally at the fifth attempt. 

“Maybe the defeat three years ago to Nemo can be forgotten about, that doesn’t hurt so much today. Let’s forget about that now.” 

St Finbarr’s trailed by four points at one juncture in the opening 30 minutes, it was reduced to two points when the half-time whistle came around.

An improved performance after the break was so important for Brian Roche’s charges.

“I think we started well and Nemo came at us then. They got a great two-pointer at one crucial stage and the goal obviously was a bit of a sucker punch. It set us back a bit I think.

“We just reassessed in the dressing room at half-time. We were happy enough with being two points down. It was a one-score game.

“I don’t think we were out of the game or anything. I think we had a good platform to drive on in the second half. We had a great start to the second half. We dipped again and Nemo came at us. 

Maybe a bit of luck at the end, but you need that to win a county and we got there by a point.” 

Hennessy admits and naturally enough that it was a challenging 2024 for him given he had to watch the team from the sidelines due to the knee injury he had.

“It’s a great sense of satisfaction to be able to get back to this level and to get on to the team again and then to win a county championship.

“We were unlucky in the hurling in the semi-final, that hurt. We just kept going and we got a bit of luck today and we’re county football champions.

It’s a sweet feeling because you think of the tough moments. 

"You have your own job to do and that’s to get back from injury. I think I did that to the best of my ability to put myself in the best position to get back on to the team. I’m happy with that.

AIM HIGH

“When you play for St Finbarr’s, it’s all about winning county titles. If you don’t win counties, you aren’t good enough.

“We were good enough today. We will celebrate this one.”