Shamrocks players celebrate with the Cup after winning the Waterford Junior Football Championship.
By John Harrington
They’re clearly a resilient bunch in Shamrocks GAA club in West Waterford.
For four years in a row they reached the County Junior Football Final and on all four occasions they were defeated.
Not many teams could swallow that sort of adversity and come back for more, but that’s precisely what Shamrocks did and they were finally rewarded for their persistence when they made it fifth time lucky by defeating St. Molleran’s in the 2022 Final two weekends ago.
The pain of the previous four years only made the achievement all the more satisfying.
“Absolutely, it means an awful lot,” says Shamrocks Chairperson, Dan Casey.
“It was fantastic to finally win it at the fifth time of asking. We're over the moon with it.
“It's been mainly the same bunch of lads who lost the four previous finals so it's great for them. A few lads went travelling this year so that required a few more of them on the panel to come in and really step up to the mark so that was great for them.
“A lot of the guys would be away at college in different parts of the country and it was a great effort from these lads over the last year and, indeed, the last number of years to continue committing to the club. They've shown tremendous dedication so it's great to see it rewarded now.
“As well as winning the county title they've also won five western championships in a row which is a fine achievement in its own right for the lads.
“Going back five years a lot of these lads weren't even on the adult panel so this year we had a nice mixture of young lads we've brought through and older guys who have been there for the past five years.”
A dual club, Shamrocks have competed strongly on both fronts this year.
They won Division 5 of the Waterford Senior Hurling League and also reached the Western Intermediate Final where they were beaten by a single point by Ballysaggart.
Huge work is also going in at underage level where they are amalgamated with Tallow to form Cois Bhride Juvenile GAA club.
The Cois Bhride team that won the Waterford Division 3 Minor Football Championship last week.
Just last week, Cois Bhride also lifted silverware by beating Ballyduff Upper in the Waterford Minor Div 3 Football Final.
“The club is in a great place right now,” says Casey. “We're putting a lot into the underage as well to bring them forward so we're building well for the future.
“There's always more to do with the underage and we're working hard on that to deliver quality coaching and work with our local primary school, Knockanore National School.
“We have lots of coaching going on in the school now and there's a plan in place to develop that. Our coaches are working well with the school and hopefully that will continue to grow so we can both help the school and the club will benefit going forward.”
A big weekend now beckons for Shamrocks. They play Limerick champions, Castlemahon in the AIB Munster Club Junior Football Quarter-Final, and afterwards they’ll be toasting some former heroes as well as the club’s current ones.
“We're really excited and looking forward to it and all the more so because what we also have this Saturday is a commemoration of the 1972 team that won the club's first ever Intermediate Hurling Championship,” says Casey.
“Our match against Castlemahon was due to be played on Sunday but we asked them could we play them early on the Saturday instead so we could get back to celebrate that social occasion in the Walter Raleigh Hotel on Saturday evening and thankfully they were agreeable to that.
“We hope to have two reasons to celebrate that night, but regardless, it's great that we will have a county cup there on Saturday night. Since we won the county final last week more and more people have being booking for that night.
“Some of the lads are also going to the primary school with the cup this week because last week they were on mid-term break so it's just a great time for what’s a really tight-knit rural community.”
