Daniel Kearney of Sarsfields, 9, celebrates with players and supporters after their side's victory in the AIB GAA Hurling All-Ireland Senior Club Championship semi-final match between Sarsfields of Cork and Slaughtneil of Derry at Cedral St Conleth's Park in Newbridge, Kildare. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile.
By John Harrington
On the way back to Cork after their AIB All-Ireland Club SHC semi-final victory over Slaughtneil, the Sarsfields team bus stopped at the Killeshin Hotel in Portlaoise for a meal.
Club Chairperson, Keith Mulcahy, was the first back on to the bus after everyone had been fed and watered, which afforded him a few minutes to quietly reflect on what Sarsfields had just achieved.
Not just the act of beating Slaughtneil to qualify for an All-Ireland Final, but the journey they had all travelled together since Storm Babet destroyed the club’s grounds in Riverstown 14 months previously on October 14, last year.
The damage incurred that day by the club both financially and emotionally was significant. The former came to €1.5 Million euro, the latter is not so easy to quantify.
The Sarsfields hurlers have displayed tremendous character on the pitch in recent weeks but you’d have to say that the club’s officers and volunteers have been just as heroic off it over the last 14 months.
They’ve overcome huge stress and many logistical challenges to rebuild their club grounds, soon to renamed after club legend Teddy McCarthy who passed away last year, and still somehow managed to give their flagship team the support it needed to go further than it has ever gone before.
“When I got back on to the bus yesterday I just said to myself, 'My God, the last couple of months have just been a dream. Is it real? Are we actually going to Croke Park?'” says Mulcahy.
“I suppose going back to last October when our grounds were destroyed I never actually thought we'd get to where we are now.
“Obviously 2023 was a huge year for us, losing Teddy, winning the county final and then the flood. But this year, equally, has been a challenging one off the field because there's been delays with insurance and funding trying to get the place rebuilt.
“Thankfully we've a brilliant committee and there's superb people in the club who have worked so hard tirelessly to make sure that our senior team and all our teams in the club have been looked after in the sense that they had somewhere to train, somewhere to go to puck a ball.
“It's been a really, really long road for everybody but we're just really proud of everyone. Not just the team, it's everyone associated with the club.”
Sarsfields Hurling Club's pitch after being flooded by Storm Babet in October 2023.
The scale of destruction wrought on the club’s grounds by Storm Babet was huge.
The grass pitch was ruined and the astro-turf pitch fared no better. Floodlights, footpaths, walls, fencing, and tarmacadam all had to be replaced.
Trying to resolve the costs with their insurance company was a very laborious process that caused huge stress for all the club officers involved.
“To be honest, if the insurance company hadn't paid out we'd have found ourselves having to borrow the money which we didn't want to do obviously,” says Mulcahy.
“Micheal Martin is a big GAA man and came down and visited the site a couple of days after along with (Minister for Finance) Michael McGrath and Paudie O'Sullivan, our local TD, was very instrumental in everything really. Only for their support, really, we would have been in right trouble. They were fantastic.
“There's a couple of people in the club who were really heavily involved in the meetings with the insurance company and everything else and did great work.
“Our Treasurer, Mark Dineen, is only in since March. He's kind of new to the club but is a friend of John Crowley the senior team manager and he came in to help us out. He's an accountant and has done an absolutely incredible job.
“Our club secretary, Alan McNamara, was incredible too. The work that he has done has been immense in terms of getting everything sorted.
“It's been a huge body of work. The big thing about the GAA is that it's voluntary organisation. We all have families and jobs and you're giving your spare time to it but, look, we love it because we're club people.”
Sarsfields Hurling Club's pitch after being flooded by Storm Babet in October 2023.
Not having a home of their own obviously made life much more difficult for the club over the course of the last year when it came to their primary role – getting boots on pitches.
“It was particularly challenging for the senior team it was because they had to travel everywhere,” says Mulcahy. “We had to rent a pitch in Ballinacurra which is 20-odd kilometres away from our home ground.
“Other clubs around the place were very good to us. Our sister club, Glanmire were fantastic. They gave us the football pitch whenever we needed it for the juvenile teams.
“The local community school, Glanmire Community College, we used a pitch there as well. We had a training pitch we were lucky to share with the football club that's a couple of miles out the road.
“All the senior matches this year had to be away. We played what should have been our home games away from home and that was difficult.
“In times like that you manage. You just get on with it and, in fairness, lads didn't complain. It's great to have our own pitch open again. We're not 100 per cent finished. We're probably 90 per cent of the way there.
“We were able to get the pitch open the week before the county final and our seniors were training on it up until now. It was great to be home.”
Sarsfields Hurling Club's newly seeded pitch.
They would much preferred not to have faced the adversity that has come their way, but Mulcahy believes it has made them stronger as a club.
“It definitely has,” he says. “There's fractures in every club. Any who says everything is always rosy in the garden in their club isn't telling the truth, to be honest. There are always some fractures.
“But I can genuinely say since I came in as Chairperson, and I'm going into my fourth year now, there's a really good core of people who are willing to do whatever is needed.
“The people who look after our grounds, who sweep out the dressing-rooms, who do whatever maintenance is needed, who turn on the lights for teams that are training.
“There's a really tight bunch there who do all that work, and to walk around the field yesterday and see those people after the match looking so delighted was fantastic to see.”
Sarsfields players Shane O'Regan and Aaron Myres celebrate after their side's victory in the AIB GAA Hurling All-Ireland Senior Club Championship semi-final match between Sarsfields of Cork and Slaughtneil of Derry at Cedral St Conleth's Park in Newbridge, Kildare. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile.
Now that they’re in the All-Ireland Final they’ll be doing all the can to win it, but regardless of the result against Na Fianna on January 19, Sarsfields are winners.
They’ve come through the toughest episode in the club’s history stronger than ever and learned a lot about themselves along the way.
“The chance to play in an All-Ireland Final is what you dream about,” says Mulcahy. “It's why lads put on their club jersey. The next couple of weeks will be very exciting. We'll enjoy our Christmas knowing we have Croke Park to get to.
“Obviously there's a lot of planning involved for teams and supporters and we'll get cracking on that today. It's where you want to be. We're not going to worry about how much work we'll have to do or how many phone calls we'll have to make to get up there.
“We'll be there and we'll get our supporters there somehow and get behind the team and hopefully we can win it. The fact we're even there is special but it’s a final and anything can happen.
“We know Na Fianna are going to be very good, we know that. Obviously they have the advantage of being in Dublin, they're only across the road from Croke Park and have no travel or anything which is a big bonus for them.
“But we're well-seasoned in logistics by now, to be honest with you! We've learned a lot over the last 12 months and hopefully that will stand to us in the final."
