A quiet hero who hurled well
Tubbercurry’s Mark Burke, who turns 40 this year, has spent half his life hurling for Sligo. He talks about his dedication, how Sligo’s hurling skills are improving and why he treasures the county medals won with his club
ONE of the most important things in life and in sport is a positive attitude. Mark Burke, for years a quiet hurling hero for Sligo, has not lost any of his positivity for sport. The 39-year-old, who ended up one of Sligo hurling’s longest-serving players, has played outfield as a shrewd defender and in recent campaigns has become a reliable goalkeeper.
He can still enthuse about the game that has been such a feature of his life. You might think that after 21 seasons playing for Sligo, the Tubbercurry man’s interest in sport would be waning. Never.
The spark for Mark’s interest in hurling came from his father, Mick, who was originally from Tipperary. Mick hurled for Connacht and his children took up the sport with similar enthusiasm.
“If your parents are from a hurling stronghold, it’s in your blood I guess to try to play a bit of hurling,” Mark observed.
Mark and his brother Jarlath hurled their way through the underage grades for Sligo. Mark broke onto the Sligo Senior team in 1999, during his Leaving Cert year.
Although his first season consisted of National Hurling League games, the second season saw him start in the county’s championship line-up. Previously regarded as a dominating centre-back, in the last few years he has traded the outfield position for a place between the posts. Goalkeeping is, according to Mark, “easier on the body”
“The body is telling me to stop now at this stage,” Mark confessed, adding that he won’t be joining up with Sligo’s Senior panel in 2021 (which is his 40th year).
“At this stage, it is more the body that is telling me to stop rather than the age on the birth cert.”
The hurler, who turns 40 next October, has also played Gaelic football and Junior soccer, while he also enjoys golf.
One thing that has changed, according to Mark, is the skill level of Sligo’s next generation of hurlers.
“They’re way ahead of where we were at that age 20 years ago, young players coming up now. Their skill level would be a lot better than my age group.”
He was twice a Nicky Rackard Cup winner with Sligo. In 2008 he played a key role at centre-back and 11 years later he was the winning team’s goalkeeper.
Mark has also been involved on the sideline – he was part of Sligo’s management team in 2018 when they won the Lory Meagher Cup (the team’s joint-managers at the time were Darragh Cox and Daithí Hand).
For that final against Lancashire
“They’re way ahead of where we were at that age 20 years ago, young players coming up now. Their skill level would be a lot better than my age group.”
he made a brief cameo late in the second-half, coming on to help shore up the defence in the closing stages. He was also part of the panel that won last year’s Allianz Hurling League Division 3B title.
DESPITE his generally positive attitude, he calls a negative moment from the Nicky Rackard Cup final from two years ago when Sligo beat Armagh at Croke Park. “In the first-half I made a bad mistake for one of the [Armagh] goals. So that was a big moment and you can feel bad in yourself, but at the end of the day you still have a match to play and just try to forget about it and move on to the next ball.”
That is exactly what he did, making some vital stops and telling puckouts in the second-half as the team went on to win by a single point.
“It was always great to joke about when you have the win at the end of the day, but if things went the other way, I’m sure it would have stung for a long time.” However, even though intercounty triumphs are nice, for Mark “it always goes back to the club.” Winning county championships his friends at Tubbercurry GAA Club are what stay with him.
“Some of these victories will stay as long in the memory as any of those county days.”
Mark’s dedication to and enjoyment playing with his clubmates is apparent in how he speaks of them. He joined Tubbercurry’s Senior hurling team in the late 1990s, halfway through their winning streak of 10 successive county titles (1995-2004). “Tubbercurry haven’t had a Senior [hurling] team in the last number of years. So that would be a low point,” said Mark. Like many hurling clubs in a Gaelic football-dominated county, they are suffering from a lack of numbers.
But this has not stopped Mark playing the game he loves. “I’m hurling with another club in south Sligo, Tourlestrane, for the last few years.” Of course, it is not just hurling that Mark can play. He has represented his club in Gaelic football for over 20 years also, helping the club to championship success in 2014, before stepping back. 2013 saw Mark’s tactical abilities get international recognition, when he was ranked the world’s number one in Premier League Fantasy Football. As Mark explained, this certainly earned him a “bit of notoriety” within the locality.
He still hurls and plays golf, though he’s no longer playing three matches at weekends, like he did regularly. But how does Mark keep himself occupied when there are no sports to be played?
He fills his spare time with a job as a paralegal. “I went to college in Galway for five years. Enjoyed that immensely, Galway’s a great city,” he stated.
This dedicated, skilful performer from a hurling household has certainly made a difference for both club and county. Thanks, Mark.