OH, FOR THE LOVE OF CAID!
TADHG EVANS MADE THE LONG TRIP TO MAYO FOR COMÓRTAS PEILE NA GAELTACHTA, BUT THE KERRY TEAMS MADE THE JOURNEY WORTHWHILE.
WE’RE in Ballintubber, County Mayo, but only the absence of a Béal Bán sea gale distinguishes this Saturday afternoon from the typical Páirc Caide Ghallarais experience.
It’s Comórtas Peile na Gaeltachta 2017, and Lios Póil’s footballers are benefiting from the support of a stand holding the same faces, voices, and wisecracks you encounter every weekend in Baile na nGall or Páirc Seán Baróid.
With his own club scheduled to play Belmullet on the same field later on, An Ghaeltacht supporter Gearóid Ó Cinnéide has called in early to encourage the neighbouring parish. The Kerry lads have plenty of loose change to spare over their Belfast opponents, and complacency has started to gnaw at what had been a perfect performance. With his team five points to the good, Adrian Ó Raoil jabs at a 45 but doesn’t find the O’Neill’s sweet spot, and the ball hooks from goal like a shopping bag caught in a headwind.
“Go bhfóire Dia sna flaithis” (May God in the Heavens help us) Ó Cinnéide roars with the subtlety of a pneumatic drill, his expletives wresting giggles from all within earshot. Unduly worried that he might have upset the stand’s Lios Póil contingent, he turns to supporter Donncha ‘Bán’ Ó Súilleabháin and reassures him with a genuine “Ach tá sibh ag imirt go maith. Oh tá go deimhin, ambaiste.”
Unoffended by Ó’Cinnéide’s outburst, Lios Póil’s players persist and build a lead sufficiently comfortable to allow for the kind of spraoi that’s as associable with the comórtas as the football itself.
With a tick under five minutes remaining, the club’s 59-year-old selector Gabriel Ó Cathasaigh changes into a green and yellow jersey and calls full-forward Deaglán Ó Súilleabháin in for his tea. Wearing an ordinary pair of shoes, Ó Cathasaigh jogs into a playing role for the first time in years, and his steps seem to conduct the orchestra of flabbergasted faces in the stand.
Those closing minutes won’t feature in a countdown of the great club-man’s best performances, but speaking to The Kerryman afterwards, he insists there was a serious side to the unexpected switch.
“It wasn’t planned at all, to be honest, but I think it was necessary. We’re very low on substitutes, and I wanted to spare fellas seeing as we might have to play three matches in three days.
“I didn’t have boots, but I had a solid pair of shoes, so I went for it. It was an unusual move, but I think it was the right one.”
Ó Cathasaigh’s point about Lios Póil’s lack of numbers is proven precise the very next day. The Kerry team falls to Donegal’s Naomh Náille, with the Ulster outfit’s sizeable panel proving key once the Junior semi-final is forced into extra time. But “Football has never been the Comortás’ sole concern,” Ó Cathasaigh reminds The Kerryman, determined not to let disappointment rule his thoughts.
“You never enjoy losing, but we gave it our best against a very strong team. I’m proud of the effort, and I was equally proud to hear the lads encouraging and instructing each other in Irish. We’re one of only a few bilingual clubs in the country, and you can sometimes forget how special that makes us.
“This is an important competition for many reasons, and not all of them are to do with football. There were thousands above in the main field in Tuar Mhic Eadaigh [ Toormakeady] using Irish with people from entirely different parts of the country; it boosts the language, and it’s an important outlet for Gaeltacht regions. Corca Dhuibhne will host it in two years’ time after a long break, and that will provide the West Kerry clubs with a chance to hold a massive competition that will bring people from all over to our part of the world.”
A Kerry team hasn’t won the Senior competition since 1999, a truth Cumann Caide na Gaeltachta finds inconvenient.
Their semi-final wrestle with Waterford’s Rinn Ó gCuanach dances to a backing track of Padraig Ó Sé commentary, the Dún Chaoin man standing at the side-door of his radio road-caster, peering down at the field like a perched owl who’s heard a mouse scuttling through a nearby bush.
His Irish is so soothing you’d wonder if it might be the ticket to world peace, but he’s probably just as happy using it to announce An Ghaeltacht as one-point winners of a pulsating semi-final. A half-day later, the westernmost club in Ireland dismantles Cork’s Cill na Marta in a one-sided final; it’s been the perfect bank holiday weekend for Ó Sé and his compatriots.
“It’s not the first time I’ve commentated on An Ghaeltacht winning a competition, but this is special,” he says. “We hadn’t won it with 18 years, and it was time to put that right. This is a medal none of these lads had -- not even Marc Ó Sé had won a Comórtas.”
“I remember going to the Comórtas when it was on in Gallaras for the first time back in 1985, so I’ve been involved for many years in one way or another. It was special to commentate on my own club winning a competition I’ve grown up with, and it was made even more special by the fact that my two sons, Tomás and Óigí [Padraig Óg], were playing.”
“Corn an Aire” is back in Corca Dhuibhne for the first time in almost 20 years, and the Comórtas itself will return to the peninsula in 2019 after a 29-year absence.
But, with football hurtling towards a future in which it’s professional in all but name, are competitions like the Comórtas doomed to drift into irrelevance?
“Yerra of course not,” Padraig says. “I’ve made friends from all over the country through this thing, we all have, friends you mightn’t meet from one end of the year to the other. The social side is just as important as the sporting side.
“This isn’t just about football, far from it. It’s about culture, language, friendships, and craic. Everyone involved loves the Comórtas Peile, and that’s what will ensure its survival.
“I can’t wait to welcome friends from all over the country to Gallaras when the Comórtas returns home in 2019 in good health. And, please God, this young An Ghaeltacht team will be going for three-in-a-row!”
IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT FOOTBALL, IT’S ABOUT CULTURE, LANGUAGE, FRIENDSHIPS AND CRAIC.