Jimmy Barry-Murphy praises patience and detail in Barrs' history book 

Few voices capture the St Finbarr’s soul quite like the great Jimmy Barry-Murphy. And as the club’s new history book Gallant Old Blues has now hit the shelves, that soul is all there, recorded in the pages put together by Plunkett Carter and Mick Finn.

“The lads did incredible work,” Barry-Murphy begins. “There's a huge amount of detail that has to go into that, and an awful lot of patience.

“I suppose the big fear and all these things that you might leave somebody out, and then you'd be in big trouble!” he laughs. “But it's nice given that we're going into our 150th year next year to acknowledge the year with the book this year.

“It's lovely for people who follow us, and our members and people away as well from home, that they have something to look back on. Even a lot of our families who are gone before us, that it's a reference point for all their involvement over the years in so many families.” 

Few clubs can match the Barrs’ roll of honour in either code, let alone both. For JBM, looking through the book brings its own memories.

“I suppose from a selfish point of view, you look back to my own time, in the late 70s early 80s when I suppose, I was lucky to be part of a couple of great teams with great players,” he remarks. “And we were involved in several club championships both in hurling and football, through that period.

“I suppose the highlight of all that really was the year we got to both club finals, in hurling and football which was extraordinary really, when you think back on it.

“I often think – I can't even remember how difficult it was – it didn't seem difficult because we were going from game to game, just a succession of game on game.

“Even though we lost the hurling to Shamrocks Ballyhale in a great final, we won the football so that was some consolation. It's hard to imagine now a team getting to both club finals.” 

That perspective still impacts how he views today’s Barrs, and the challenge that modern Cork football poses.

“I said this before the county final, but it's so hard to win a county in Cork. I mean the campaign we had this year, Clonakilty, Carrigaline, Carbery Rangers, then we had to play Castlehaven, Ballincollig in the semi-final and then Nemo.

“It's very, very tough and every game is difficult. It's a very, very high standard.

“It's very competitive and you know, people often think you should be winning more counties but they're very difficult to win.

“And when you meet teams like Castlehaven and Nemo, and their pedigree in semi-finals and finals, it's so hard to get there and I'm thrilled to be there.

“We're just very proud of our own people, and it's nice to have that in record form. I'm sure people get a great kick out of looking at it over Christmas and sending it abroad to reference their families' involvement over so many years.”