Seamus Daly Cloyne & USA

Some Memories

After listening to Cloyne Glen game on Sunday morning 6:30 am my time I started reminiscing a bit. I have done a lot of that the last 35 years since I left Cloyne. Listening to the game was as though I had never left. I have kept up to date thanks to my dear mother and sister Liza who faithfully sent me Mondays Examiner for 30 years as well as giving me the rest of the story. God rest their souls as well as all the rest of the people I mention in my ramblings and have gone to meet their maker. Now with the internet and the excellent Cloyne GAA web site I get instant results.

I was thinking back to the time when Imokilly played the Glen in the county semi-final. I think Cloyne had 6 players on that team and could not beat them. Of course it took 3 goals near the end of the game by a player named Ring to beat us. I did not feel too bad because Christy was our idol and a good friend. Now over forty years later a team from the streets of Cloyne, won against the Glen when we were beaten. What a great display by the lads of to day.

Then I go back a few years to 1956 when we were unable to form a committee at the annual general meeting. Not much interest in hurling then. Of course times were bad and there was always fellows going to England. It took two meetings before we could select a committee. At the second general meeting, there was an attendance of 10 or 12 people. Everyone present was elected or co-opted on to the committee. Eamonn Driscoll was elected, Chairman, Paddy Cusack treasurer ,with no money in the funds, and I was elected Sec. We were too young to say no. The people I remember at the meeting included the following, some have been involved with the club up to the present time. Bunty, Willie John, Tom Shea, John Cahill, Tomas Sheehan, David Canavan. There may have been one or two others, Bunty might fill in the missing names. Maybe Paddy Connors, Tommy John, Donal Ring, Sonny Morgan. I know they were great supporters. We ran the club on 62 pounds that year. We had a B, grade hurling and a school shield team.

We had a hard time making any money. We ran a dance in Trabolgan, and lost money. The best way we found to raise money was to run a few concerts in the hall. Tomas Sheehan got some expense money to go to Cork and hire Dan Hobbs, Billa Connel and Chris Sheehan to provide some entertainment during the concert. We had some local people who would sing and dance to make up a program. One of those people was Mrs Considine who was always glad to help us out by singing some wonderful songs in her beautiful voice. Wouldn t she be a proud lady last Sunday seeing five grand -sons named O'Sullivan on the Cloyne team. Some of the other people who performed in the concerts included Pat Lawton, Mary Ellen Ahern grand mother of John, Bunty, Kitty, Mikey Pat, Philly Dorgan and several others. Jackie Farmers band with Tom Shea vocalist, would always play at the concerts at no cost. Our only expense was two pounds ten shillings for the Cork artistes so if we got a full hall we would make about seven or eight pounds.

We didn t have a set of jerseys until 1959. After winning the East Cork Junior in 58 we started to get more support and money and we were able to buy a set of jerseys We would go around to some of the old Cloyne players and borrow a jersey for a match, and return it on Monday morning. Nobody in the Club had a car so we had to get three taxis to transport the team. That meant getting eight or ten people into each car. Usually the taxi drivers did not get paid until we got a bit of cash. They never pressed us for money even though they were struggling too. Davy Shinnick, Tom Brien, and Teddy Motherway owned the cabs. One other stat about the club that year, not one person either on the team or officials ever went to any school except Cloyne Parish school.

Hurleys and balls were another problem. We would buy a few hurleys and one or two balls at a time.We would promise to pay the hurley maker at some future date.Sometimes we did, sometimes we didn t. We even spent six Saturdays digging out the root of a big ash tree to make hurleys. David Barry donated the ash tree to us. After six Saturdays the tree was still standing, but one night,thank god, there was a storm and the tree fell over. We brought the tree into Paddy Mac and he and Paddy Cusack made twenty or thirty hurleys out of the root. They didn t last long because we broke 15 of the hurleys in one match against the all blacks,Brooklodge. The Examiner had a special report on that match. The quality of the ash was terrible. All the work we put into digging the tree did not help us much, but we sure had a good laugh.We only had limited use of the hurling field. We paid ten pound a year and we made sure that was the first bill we paid because we were never sure if we would have the field the following year. What a marvelous job the present club has done, owning two fields, and having one of the top senior clubs in the County.A lot of this may not interest the younger people but it's amazing the connection between the team of to day and that lowly B grade team.

I mentioned Mrs Considine and Mary Ellen and how their grand sons are playing to day. You had Paddy Cusack. Three of to-days team are his grand sons. On the other side of the family was Michael Costine who was a tough corner back who rarely practiced. He had a team of a family to feed, and he drove lorry six days a week, loading bags of corn and beet by hand. He was in good shape physically and terrorized any corner forward who came up against him. The three Cusack's are also His grandsons. There was John Cahill who done a lot of the hard work in 56. Two of the present team team are his grandsons. Eamonn Driscolls nephew Liam is one of to-days players. I remember Sean Motherway cutting the grass for the club with a borrowed grass cutter, when we would get a championship game. I see where Deccie and Sean, his sons, were in the line-up. Christy Ring and Willie John are obviously connected and of course Bunty,Maurice and Phillip need no introduction. Bunty, has over 60 year with the club, and Willie John goes back to the thirties. Johnie Clifford played with us when he was 16 years old. Eight months later he died tragically in a drowning accident in England Other names include Tom Shea, his sons and grand-sons are ,or have been involved. David Canavan whose house was our club room in 56 has had a nephew play for Cloyne. David put in tremendous hours for the club. The Daly connection with the club is through Tomas. The club is his life, and he with the present slate of people in charge should have the support of every person in the village Who knows, the help you give the club to-day may mean a grand-son or son may keep the red and black flying fifty years from now.

Seamus Daly.

Formerly Of St.Colman’s Tce.Cloyne Co.Cork