KILLINAN END - Small clubs coming to the fore

Among the earliest memories this mind can summon is that of togging out by the side of a hurling field devoid of dressing-rooms. The progress that came in the GAA post-1980 with regard to its built environment was remarkable. Perhaps it was the shadow of Centenary Year looming that started much of it and maybe generated a confidence in local communities that always had a struggle economically and socially down the years. Every parish can point to its history of pitches which were made available over the years before the modern era when clubs began to set down roots.

Watching the Laochra Gael episode of Liam Sheedy brought to mind the old pitch in Portroe with its slope. Not a ground to which many teams often went given its peripheral location but when you think back on it you wonder at how much progress has been made there. You also must wonder at the terrific teams and hurlers produced over the earlier years on a pitch less than ideal. For Paddy Leahy and those charged with distributing Blue and Gold jerseys down the years, Portroe was a long road from Boherlahan or Thurles. But saying that brilliant hurlers did not come from such humble backgrounds is an entirely different matter. These days facilities tend to reflect the quality of the people produced a bit better.

Around 1980 grounds like Nenagh, Borrisokane, Cloughjordan and Roscrea had proper dressing-rooms. In the current day they would be considered primitive but for their time they were as good as it got. One of the notable things about dressing-rooms from those days was how crowded they always were – they were not designed for the sort of numbers they were required to cater for very often. Notable among these were the dressing-rooms at Lacken Park in Newport which looked terrific as they were embedded in the very entrance to the ground. However, they too were tight for space to put it mildly. In a very real sense the change in dressing-rooms and facilities have reflected the conditions people have become accustomed to at home or in accommodation encountered on holidays.

The same might be said of conditions within grounds. Newport officially opened its ground back in 1950 when Tipp played Limerick in a tournament. It was nearly half a century later before a stand and new dressing rooms were constructed. Even those celebrations reflected new standards with four county teams playing in a tournament, with even further development since. At this stage most grounds have some version of a stand whatever size of crowd might be catered for.

Another thing this revolution has created is a decentralisation of matches. Dolla is now a ground with a remarkable amount of games. This venue was ahead of its time with an indoor handball alley being one of the leading such venues when it opened in 1980. Time was when Nenagh and Cloughjordan naturally hoovered up matches especially North Finals and bigger games. Roscrea has even hosted an All-Ireland Senior semi-final in its time but was not exactly a central venue in the context of North Tipperary. Some twenty years on from that the playing grounds in Dolla were transformed and now are of central value to North Tipperary GAA.

The fine facilities in Borrisoleigh, Toomevara - and going back a long time - in Moneygall too are admirable. There were some days back in late 1993 when Toomevara hosted and beat Patrickswell and St Finbarr’s on their home patch in the Munster championship. What a tribute that was to local endeavour. Tribute must be paid too to Burgess who were one of the early movers in the modern development of the GAA’s built heritage. Long before many they had a very cleverly constructed handball alley and dressing-rooms with a stand built into the entire structure. Their neighbours in Ballina were early innovators too and had a pitch worthy of many North Tipp championship games over 40 years ago.

In the late 1970s, Ballinahinch purchased a plot of land at Shallee and were visited by newly appointed Ard Stiuirthoir of the GAA, Liam Mulvihill who took a walk around what was essentially just a field at the time. A few years later, in April 1984, Borris-Ileigh and Patrickswell met in an innovative challenge match to officially open the pitch and dressing-rooms. This recalled their Munster championship meeting of the previous November in Kilmallock when Borris prevailed by a point. A big day in a small parish and quite the landmark for any club.

Liam Sheedy’s achievements were truly a representation of what small clubs are about. The delayed inter-county career which held its own with any while it lasted and the scenes in Portroe when the Frank McGrath Cup home. The absolute significance of that might be lost on a national audience. It remains the greatest hurling competition in Ireland outside of county championships. Nowhere have you a divisional senior championship both as strong and as broadly disputed as this one. Facing the hill in Portroe back in the day you would have got long odds on such a humble club ever being top of that illustrious pile in North Tipp. Happy were they all together on that night for sure.