Tremane’s Connacht title set template for small clubs

MULLINALAGHTA’S Leinster club football success over Kilmacud Crokes last December and their All-Ireland semi-final this weekend have caught the attention because of the size of their catchment area and low population base.

But it is not unprecedented for a club on that scale to reach a provincial semi-final.

In 1976, Roscommon club Tremane shocked the hurling world when they won their one and only Connacht title (in 1977), beating a Kiltormer team powered on by future All-Ireland winning Galway captain Conor Hayes.

Recalling their success, Tremane’s full-back that day, Seán Farrell, estimates that the area they drew their players from was no more than a square mile with no church, no public house or even a school (it had shut down in the 1960s) to serve the area. “There was a local ceili house that was the focal point on the community,” recalled Farrell.

Spirit

“On the day we played Kiltormer we had 17 players. On a good day, we might have 18 or 19. One of our players used to travel over for games from England where he was based.

“We had access to a local field but we wouldn’t even have had dressingrooms. There might have been much more than 50 households in an area of seven townlands but the hurling club generated great spirit.”

Even though Galway were not yet the dominant force they would become in the next decade, their strength was still evident.

“Back then the Connacht final was played in February, a few weeks before the All-Ireland semi-final. We trained very hard that winter for it. In other years we wouldn’t have trained at all because it was just accepted that the Galway clubs would win it.”

Tremane lost to Glen Rovers in the All-Ireland semi-final and came close to beating Castlegar three years later in the provincial final, prior to Castlegar’s All-Ireland win.