Mick Hennessy hails Newcestown's ‘steely footballers’ and a Twitter feed like no other

The Newcestown social media admin needs a pay rise. That is, if they’re being paid at all under the current arrangements. Highly unlikely.

That’s the view of at least one supporter who told Mick Hennessy, their 2025 football coach, just how unique those score updates are on Twitter (X).

Scroll through the club’s feed and you’ll find nicknames flying everywhere – Hoover, Claw, Badger, Rabbit, Moose, Blue – with probably the rest of the animal kingdom, and colours of the rainbow not far behind. It’s chaotic, irreverent, and absolutely brilliant.

“I've never seen anything like it,” Hennessy laughs. “I actually love the Twitter. The amount of comments I get about the Twitter afterwards and they all say to me, ‘the Twitter account?!’ “Someone texted me one day after one match, ‘whoever does the Twitter account Mick, he deserves a raise.’ Because he says, it's brilliant. And it is brilliant.” 

That blend of humour and identity sums up the team in many ways. Hard-working but never joyless, serious, but never at the expense of what the GAA is all about. And the word “dogged” has followed Newcestown around for quite some time, an easy tag to hang from the outside. But Hennessy, who coached them to within extra-time of Nemo Ranges, sees something beyond it.

“No one wants it [the dogged tag], but they love it!” he laughs. “They love it deep down, they love it!

“The boys down below in Newcestown were A1, great to work with I have to say,” he remarks. “Steely, steely men.

“They're great men. I couldn't say anything nicer about all the lads. But what I do think that should be recognised is they're not just dogged. They are serious footballers. Like, you've seen Luke Meade this year, a fella who played half a year. He only played football championship.

“And look what he can do,” Hennessy explains. “Buckley showed the whole of the county what he can do, maybe [with] a few shackles off. And you look at Richard O’Sullivan, Colm O'Donovan, Gearóid O'Donovan.

I could go on, the whole team.

“There's just so many. They don't get recognised for how good they are. I found when I was with Fermoy, sometimes the dual clubs don't get recognised for how good they are. And I think they're good at both football and hurling, because I went to watch a couple of their hurling games as well.

“There's just a steeliness to them, for sure.” For Hennessy, it wasn’t just the football that impressed him, but the people behind it.

“It was a great year with them. They’re a great bunch of lads, actually. I really enjoyed it,” he says. “ [I would] stay out of the main window, and leave Jim O’Sullivan to do that! “I’d just do my bits behind the scenes. Jim's great, too, absolutely great.

“I just came into it, [and they said] we were going to win a county, and we kind of took it from there!” he laughs.

They came close too – close enough to show they can go toe-to-toe with anyone – even the county’s finest. And though they fell short against Nemo, it’s proof of how far they’ve come.

Since retiring from the Defence Forces, Hennessy took on the role of Development Co-ordinator for the northside, but he’s always been dabbling in the coaching.

“I would have trained Fermoy for four years,” he says. “We won the Premier Intermediate county in 2018. We went up senior for the first time in 50 years, I did four years with them.

“I did four years with Castletownroche, a year with Killavullen, a year at Mitchelstown. I did a year with Fermoy ladies, and I'm always training Fermoy underage teams. Currently, I'm training the U16s this year in Fermoy, and I'm staying again next year because my own fella is there.

“So pretty busy, this job suits my lifestyle!

“Sure, I love GAA. What would I be doing if I didn't have it?”