John Arnold: ‘It’s been some rollercoaster... but what a game and what a finish’

The first time I have a hazy memory of going to a Bride Rovers hurling game, I think, was either 1968 or 1969 when I was 11 or 12. That was a golden era for the Club; winning the East Cork Junior A Hurling Championship in two successive years. The Club hadn’t won the East Cork title since 1932. Our family wasn’t a big ‘sporting’ family on either the Arnold or Twomey side.

Bartlemy and Castlelyons were adjoining, so Mam and Dada would have known nearly every person in both places. Bride Rovers had been founded in 1928 and had a great first decade. 

The GAA in Castlelyons and Coolagown was very strong in the early 1900s, but then went through a ‘lean period’ -as most Clubs do. The arrival of Fr Seamus Corkery in Castlelyons in the 1950s saw a great revival -he was a great organiser and motivator.

As a small child, I was aware that the peerless Jamesy Kelleher of Cork and Dungourney fame was married to Auntie Ciss -my Twomey granny’s sister. When Uncles Dan and Sean and Jerome would call at home, they’d be talking about Ring and Donie Nealon and other great hurlers of the ’50s and ‘60s. As a youngster, I often saw an old man driving two monks in a beautiful vintage car, calling at home. The monks, I think were from Rochestown, and their driver was Larry Flaherty. Born in 1882 in Blackrock, the little fishing village’, Flaherty played for the Cork hurling team for 12 years, winning an All-Ireland medal in 1903- with Jamesy Kelleher a team-mate of his. We hadn’t much hurling in National School, but when I went to St Colman’s in 1969, I quickly knew what the phrase ‘hurling mad’ meant!

Around this time, Dave Ryan, who collected our churns of milk each day for the creamery in Castlelyons, used to take me in his jalopy of a car to under-14 matches. Dave and David John Barry from Rathcormac were ‘the Juvenile Club’. They organised training and matches and often took 15 or 16 players to a game in their own two cars! From an early age, the Club selectors at under 14 and under 16 spotted me- they knew, as I did, that I was worse than useless, but I was very enthusiastic!

In 1972, I started attending Club meetings and East Cork Board meetings. Soon I was Club Officer - I still am! Dave died in 1973, and David John two years later and I was devastated. They both, along with our present Club President Pat O Connor, took me not only to Bride Rovers games but to Cork matches -in faraway Limerick and Thurles and Waterford. So the seeds were sown. 

That love of place that is so inextricably mixed with love and passion for the local Club was nurtured in me. Luckily, later in life when I started ‘going out’ with Mary, her family accepted me despite me being more of a liability than an asset on a team.

My father-in-law, Jimmy Meade, was a great GAA man, and his six children all played hurling and football skilfully. He served as Vice Chairman of the Club for seven years. I remember well Sunday, August 10, 1997 when we defeated Fr O’Neills in the East Cork JH semi-final by 2 10 to 1 10 -we hadn’t been in the Final since 1973. I called up to the Meade home in Desert, Bartlemy, after the game, overjoyed with excitement. Jimmy Meade was gravely ill at the time. I went down to his room where he lay half asleep. I told him the great news of the game -he smiled and gave me the thumbs-up. He died a few days later.

Castlelyons beat us well in that East Cork Final in the month of October - 1 16 to 0 9. We were gutted, not just losing a ‘local derby’ but being well beaten. 

They say the darkest hour is before the dawn and so it was. In 1998, we won the East Cork and then the County. Five years later, in 2003 we won the Intermediate Title and five years later in 2008, got to the Cok Senior Hurling Final. Sars beat us by a point in that decider. Heartbreaking it was, but still beyond anyone’s wildest dreams to be in a Senior County Final.

Twenty-two years is a mighty long time, and since that 2003 Intermediate Final, we have tried might and main to get to an adult County Final again. There’s many a slip ‘tween cup and lip, and at Senior A level we’ve been in four losing semi-finals since 2021. Each new year brought new hope. Last December, when the 2025 Championship ‘Draws’ were made, we were grouped with Blarney, Courcey Rovers and Watergrasshill, very tough opposition - ‘the Group of Death’!

A good few years back, the GAA began what they called ‘The Social Initiative’ project, encouraging Clubs to provide contact and social outlets for those in communities that might not have such opportunities. Here in our parish, a vibrant group has developed which organises outings and trips on a monthly basis. This year, the Group planned a week-long trip to Greece. Bookings were taken in January for a proposed holiday in October. We decided to book. Little did we anticipate Bride Rovers progressing to a fifth County semi-final.

As the championship progressed, the holiday approached- yes a clash of events! So on Saturday, October 4, an excited group of 22 parishioners - and Rovers supporters, gathered in the lounge of the Hotel Minos in the little Greek coastal village of Tola. With modern technology, scart leads and other yokes, we were able to watch the semi-final v Carrigtwohill on a big TV set. I didn’t ate a bite all that day! We roared and shouted and urged and cajoled and cursed and sweated sitting, standing, kneeling and oft times praying. We won and had some party. Then we roared our neighbours to victory over Blarney in the second semi-final. Thus a Castlelyons versus Bride Rovers County Final was in the offing.

We came home the following Wednesday, a month ago yesterday. Since then, it’s been some roller coaster as a ‘Rio de Janeiro’ carnival-type atmosphere has enveloped the two parishes on the Banks of the Bride as both clubs readied for a major Final- the first such clash since 1997.

A week after coming home, I had a doctor’s appointment in Cork. We drove down Boreenamanna Road past a little house named ’Ripley’ where lived a great GAA man and a good friend of mine, Tadhgie Drinan. He died in January of last year, and we were away at the time. A dedicated Barrs man Tadhgie, was a great character and never forgot his North Cork birthplace, Ballyhea.

From there also came Jack Russell, who trained us to win that Intermediate Title in 2023. I wasn’t long home from Cork that day when Jack was on the phone with good wishes for the Final.

We were in Cork City early on the afternoon of Saturday, October 18 going to Páirc Uí Chaoimh for the Final when a yellow weather warning caused the game to be cancelled for a week. By now, the green, white and gold flags, buntings and signs were everywhere. I had no cows to milk so the talk was of hurling-morning, noon and night.

Most of the players on both teams had gone to secondary schools in Fermoy, so all were on first-name terms. Nine of the Castlelyons team had ancestors from Rathcormac, Bartlemy and Kildinan! 

They got to play the Final on October 25. It ended in a 14 points apiece draw. Twice, we had been up 7 points and were still 4 ahead in the closing minutes. Some said ‘ye left it after ye’ and ‘ye won’t get a second chance’.

So on Saturday last we set off early for Cork. Up beyond our Chapel Field, where many a Carnival Hurling game was played. Beyond the Church, where Fr Edmund Barry ‘the father of the GAA’ in the parish, is buried. Next, the Hall where the Club was reformed in 1964. Round the Cross, then for a brief stop where the Club was formed in the Band Room in 1928.

What a game and what a finish. We were down six points with seven minutes left. Two white flags, then a goal from Paddy O’Flynn, oh my heart! Cillian Tobin sent over a point from about a mile out -level! Then David Barry hit a sweet point and we held out for a famous, marvellous, nail-biting, outstanding, sporting win. I was down in Pynes field at the last training session on the Thursday night and the players were relaxed, laughing and so proud to be playing the game they love so well. Thanks, Dave Ryan and David John Barry for making a Bride Rover out of me all those years ago.