Ain’t no mountain high enough for Ballygiblin supporters
THIS WEEK 21 YEARS AGO
There is scarcely a quarter mile of road around Mitchelstown that isn’t adorned in white and red at this point, as Ballygiblin approach their debut
in the AIB All-Ireland Junior Hurling Club Championship final. And as the hurlers are doing their community, family and friends proud, the opposite is no less true.
Support has been witnessed written in the
sand in Lanzarote, and tied to telephone poles on every road. Posters, flags, bunting and much more imaginative things have been strung from roofs, garlanded across windows and draped around garden gates.
Though we’re open to correction, as far as The Avondhu can ascertain, the highest show of support so far is 918 metres above sea level, a flag atop Galtymore. Micheál O’Rourke didn’t just hang it from the highest mountain in the range through - he also ran up there with it!
“I do mountain running, and I was going up the Galtees and I said I’d take up the flag for a laugh. I go up there most weeks, and I said I’d bring up the flag that day. I thought it looking down on the Skeheenarinky side would be nice bit of gentle banter, stir the pot a bit!”
Micheál did a tidy job in bitterly cold weather, zip-tying the flag to a pole, but in the intervening time it’s been tied securely to the main cross. The runner says to get up and back via the Black Road takes an hour and twenty minutes. The Avondhu will take his word on this!
Sons Liam and Jack both go to school in Ballygiblin NS, and they’ll all be heading to the match Saturday week, as will mechanic Liam O’Gorman, the man responsible for the ‘ dolled-up’ BMW 3 Series spotted about Mitchelstown.
“I did another car in 2018, a Toyota Avensis, and that’s since been scrapped. I had this the last few months, and it’s driving and all. I bought it to sell, but as long as Ballygiblin are going it can’t be sold!”
The former Ballygiblin NS student did the job with a panel-beater friend over two nights, and the car is only moved when there’s no one about - so you’ll have to keep your eyes peeled to witness the spectacle.
Ballygiblin NS students have put on a real supporters show for the last while, with a special song, themed lunches and a mascot amongst the huge variety of supportive messages. Pupil Áine Clifford celebrated the birth of a new calf last Saturday by christening the creature ‘Ballygiblin’, and young Tadhg O’Callaghan got a birthday cake and a new number 6 jersey, to emulate his hero Mark - not Roy - Keane.
Many supporters of Ballygiblin GAA through Facebook, Twitter and YouTube will have enjoyed the online reviews of young Glenahulla NS student Michael Murphy. The budding sports journalist, who is only in 5th class, has the sport in the blood, as his grandfather, Jim Murphy, was a forward and free taker for the championship winning 1963 Ballygiblin side. Michael’s father, also named Jim, told how the young analyst got started.
“He did one preview of the final against Skeheenarinky, and within a morning he’d hundreds of views! He wants to be a sports journalist, and we were messing that Paudie Palmer would be out of a job with him around!”
Michael’s YouTube handle is Murf 2 and the young hurler, while not analysing from the sidelines, plays for the Ballygiblin U12s, as does his friend Fionn Moher, who also has a grandfather from the 1963 team. Ballygiblin Church have invoked the spirit of the victory over 50 years ago, with a display inside the church paying homage to the men. Jim says that the memories of that team were a huge deal when he was young.
“My father was on the team that won the first ever trophy that Ballygiblin won. He played a prominent role then. It was always a big thing for us growing up, the 1963 team was always huge to us. We never thought we’d be where we are now - it’s amazing to think we’re going to Croke Park.”
His grandfather can’t get out to the matches anymore, so young Michael has honed his skills analysing and retelling how the match went for him, a skill that is standing to him and his online sucess today.
The manifest ways in which Ballygiblin supporters have stood by their team are too varied and numerous to mention, but suffice to say, they have been successful so far, and we’re confident they will continue to do the job! Just one step away from being All-Ireland junior club champions - Mooncoin from Kilkenny however stand in the way.
A survey by St Fanahans’s LCA class in January 2001 found Mitchelstown to be in ‘the dark ages’ in terms of human rights for wheelchair users. Amongst the things a wheelchair user couldn’t do in the town, were visit an ATM at either AIB or BOI, go into the bank, go to the toilet in a pub, or visit a doctor or priest due to steep kerbs and most oddly, wheelchair parking spaces designated on sloping ground. The report by the students was damning: ‘The message we got is loud and clear. Who cares!’
Hi ho, hi ho - there were grand dreams of a mining boom of zinc, as Amcorp identified a number of townlands in Fermoy as potentially rich in the valuable metal. Elsewhere, a public meeting in the town courthouse with the county council was due, to discuss the implementation of an ‘ Image Improvement Plan’ for Fermoy.
A ‘brutal’ attack took place in Clogheen on a Polish man, where three men attacked him with a baseball bat and knuckledusters, in what was believed to be a case of mistaken identity.
Ballyduff Credit Union was due to be officially opened, having welcomed customers for the preceding two months. The CU had almost £8M in savings in the region in 2001.
Conna Flower Club celebrated 20 ‘blooming’ years in The Midleton Park Hotel. Their membership of almost 80 every year since its inception, held true to its motto, ‘Friendship through Flowers’.
In Mitchelstown, a small notice advertised self-defence classes for ladies, with instructor Eddie O’Donnell.
This week 41 years ago Ronald Reagan was inaugurated as the 40th president of the United States and the ‘stars and stripes’ flew in Ballyporeen. Unrelated to the presidential victory, Ballyporeen/Skeheenarinky GAA held a victory social in Kilcoran Lodge Hotel. The U16 stars, that took both hurling and football titles in 2000, were presented with their medals by Micheal O Muircheartaigh. Mr O Muircheartaigh also recited a poem, penned by local Willie Lynch.
Former Olympian Ronnie Delaney was on his way to Fermoy to open the sports complex in Fermoy Youth Centre.
Glocca Maura was lit up, at long last, as after years of lobbying 18 street lights were erected at the dangerous junction.
Riordan’s SuperValu in Fermoy were running a competition for Valentine’s Day – for a hot-air ballooning trip in Prague. Meanwhile, in Ryan’s Centra, one could get 6 cans of Carling for £5 - a price we won’t see again in our lifetime!
Danny Keane in Waterpark, Fermoy, displayed his own ‘feet of flames’, telling readers about his 18 Munster titles, three All-Irelands, and two championship medals for Irish dancing. The thirteen-year old spent a lot of time in the Booley House, Ballyduff set dancing.
For the first time, third level courses in Agriculture and Horticulture were available through the CAO process - the courses had been upgraded from Teagasc courses and brought agricultural training into the mainstream education system.
Kilworth Arts Centre looked forward to a visit from The Fureys, while Lismore Drama Society were hard at work for ‘My Fair Lady’, with Caroline O’Connor in the role of the Cockney Eliza. Shanballymore celebrated the massive hit that was Cinderella, the title role taken by Rosaleen O’Regan, her prince being Lorena Lynch. Joining them on stage were ugly sisters Kevin Linehan and Dan O’Regan, with their wicked stepmother Pauline Sutton.
Anglesboro Hall committee were celebrating 21 years since the opening of the facility, with a report that opened with what sounded like a call to arms! - ‘A place to meet, to organise, and to rally.’ The Liam Lynch Memorial Band were one group to make use of the hall, and the proposed cable car from Anglesboro to the top of Temple Hill was still on the agenda.
In Castletownroche, however, it was a different story as the Welcome Home Festival Committee meeting was abandoned, due to a ‘lack of interest’. Six people showed up, with at least 20 needed to run the event and the committee singled out the failure of local publicans to be supportive, with the exception of Mick Twohig.
A (presumably) tongue-in-cheek letter to The Avondhu deplored the ‘modern woman’, but blamed the men for letting them loose: it is ‘men themselves, weak kneed as they are, who must shoulder the blame when they don’t tame the shrews.’
Mitchelstown Celtic were the 2000-2001 Avondhu Shield champions, defeating Kilbehenny FC 4-1. Ballygiblin GAA’s minors (a little-known team, you may have heard of them?!) took the county semi-final over Donoughmore; and Anglesboro NS, for the second time, captured the South Limerick Roinn B Football Championship with victory over Glenroe NS.