A long-dead Cork priest... and a link to Limerick hurling stars

SCENE 1.

Date: Summer of 1890.

Location: Mallow sports field.

The game has just finished with the City side emerging as winners. These are desperate times for the Gaelic Athletic Association. It was always said that ‘sport and politics shouldn’t mix’ but unfortunately the ‘Parnell Split’ in Ireland divided not just the body politic but fractured communities and organisations.

The result here in Cork was that in sporting terms we had three separate and distinct County Boards! They were styled the Cork Board, the O’Connor, and O Brien Boards.

Today in Mallow was played the final game in the Championship between the O’Connor Board winners, St Finbarrs, and Bartlemy, the victors under the O’Brien Board.

Special trains brought thousands to Mallow for the game. As was normal at the time, the Bartlemy team under the leadership of their President, Fr Edmond Barry, PP, travelled to the venue in horse-drawn wagonettes which could take 16 passengers.

The finalists were the top teams in County Cork just a few years after the GAA was founded. The Bartlemy and Rathcormac clubs first competed in 1888 so to be in such a final two years later was amazing.

The Mallow game was low-scoring - back then a goal exceeded any number of points, so if one side scored six points and the opposition a goal, the goal-scorers were the winners!

After a fascinating and strenuous contest, the City side were the winners. As Fr Barry left the field with his men, John Woods, who played with Bartlemy spoke to him: “Aw, Father, it’s awful to lose after such a game.” Peter O’Keeffe, who often served as the Bartlemy Field Umpire, concurred: “Fr Barry, what can I say, we’ve often won games and lost others but we were the better team today but couldn’t just get that goal, a pity.”

The priest halted and looked at the two sad-faced men: “John, Peter - of course ’twould be great if we’d won, but two years ago, if I told ye, when we started the club, that we’d get to the County Final, well ye’d say I was mad. I am so proud of our 21 lads who started that game today and the five who came on. The Barrs are a great city team, we’ve only small numbers, but haven’t we come along way in a short time?”

The words of Fr. Barry cheered up John Woods and Peter O’Keeffe no end. He was right of course - small acorns produce mighty oaks.

Scene 2.

Date: May 24, 1900.

Location; Outside Bartlemy Church.

Fr Edmond Barry had died at his residence in Rathcormac two days earlier. After a Requiem High Mass in Rathcormac Church this morning, his mortal remains were being ‘shouldered’ the three miles up to Bartlemy - it was the pastor’s wish that he be buried within the church where his predecessor Fr Maurice Kennefick was also interred.

Rathcormac Church was packed and now here in Bartlemy hundreds had gathered to bid a tearful farewell.

Amongst the children awaiting the funereal procession were Mary Woods, daughter of local shopkeeper John, and James O’Keeffe, son of Peter, who farmed at Cronovan. John and Peter were great friends of Fr Barry through the hurling, and also aware of his work during the Land Wars when he fought for tenants’ rights.

No doubt the youngsters, Mary and James, would have heard the tales of local Gaelic glory back in the 1880s when Fr Barry was at the helm.

As pupils of the local National School, Patsy Barry would have imbued in them a love of place, and of hurling especially. Now, on this May day, these little children and so many others could feel the sadness and grief in the air as their relations, friends and neighbours sobbed openly when the coffin of the Parish Priest, borne shoulder-high, appeared on the road down from Bartlemy Cross.

For children like James and Mary it was a strange happening. They herd their parents tell of funerals to cemeteries and even burials in church yards, but inside a Church building was different.

In the months and years that followed, tales of ‘Fr Barry’s teams’ were told and retold. Many of the older generation were sad that no hurling or football club now existed in the parish - was the legacy of Fr Emond Barry fading?

It might have seemed so, but in the late 1920s the GAA was revived and set on a sound footing once more.

As James O’Keeffe and Mary Woods grew to adulthood, they heard the clash of the ash locally once more and smiled!

Scene: 3

Date: Sunday, July 24, 2023.

Location; ‘There are Many Rooms in My Father’s House’, John 14; 1-6.

There was no need for GAAGO in Heaven last Sunday - all the matches are seen for free via The Cloud!

So, the match was over and the McCarthy Cup presented and Limerick have completed a historic four-in-a-row.

The Bible tells us ‘the eye has not seen nor the ear heard’ about the glories that await those souls who get to make that eternal journey to heaven - so we have just to imagine what it’s like on the evening of a Hurling Final.

James O’Keeffe and Mary Woods were born in the 1890s, but in Heaven age is not counted by number of years or decades - it’s timeless. Fr Barry would, no doubt, have joined in the rejoicing after John Keenan’s final whistle.

“They also serve who only stand and wait,” opined Fr Barry, “a chain is only as good as its weakest link, so while in my time the first 21 were important, we always needed good men to come on, and John Kiely is thinking the same these days.”

Fr Barry leads a massive shout and round of applause as James O’Keeffe and Mary Woods join the angelic cohort.

Pride is one of the seven deadly sins, but pride in one’s achievements or those of family members is not sinful but laudable.

With tears of Joy streaming down his face, James begins: “Little did I think more than a century ago when I heard my father talk of the 1880 teams that here now, in 2023, his great-great-grandson would be an All-Ireland medal winner with Limerick - one of my daughters married and lived in Doon, County Limerick, and her grandson Barry Murphy won a medal today.”

Mary Woods was beaming too. “I married Davy Barry in Dungourney and one of our daughters married Garda Hugh Boylan. One of their sons, David, is a doctor based in Limerick and his son Conor came on today.”

Well, a heavenly chorus of For They Are Jolly Good Fellows was followed by an angelic rendition of Limerick You’re A Lady. Fr Barry smiled - probably thinking ’twould be nice for Cork to win an All-Ireland now and then, but credit where credit is due to Limerick in these heady days on Shannonside.

James O’Keeffe and Mary Woods recalled their youth in Bartlemy and the stories heard from their parents so many years ago.

Things may come and fashions go, yet the seeds sown by men like Fr Barry still bear fruit today - thank Heaven for that.