Portroe
In this week's My Club feature, Tipperary senior footballer Kevin O'Halloran tells us all about the Portroe GAA club.
By John Harrington
The Portroe GAA club is located in an area of outstanding natural beauty on the shores of Lough Derg in North Tipperary.
Hurling has always traditionally been the club's primary sport, and their greatest day came in 2012 when they won their first ever North Tipperary Senior Championship. Despite relatively small resources, they are able to consistently punch above their weight because they are such a well-run club.
Former Tipperary hurling defender and manager, Liam Sheedy, is one of the club's most famous sons. Portroe has also produced current Tipperary hurling goalkeeper Darren Gleeson, while Kevin O'Halloran has exploded onto the scene with the Tipperary footballers in the last two years.
For more information on Portroe GAA and Camogie club, visit their Facebook page.
Q: Your club, Portroe, is in North Tipperary. It would have a relatively small catchment area, is that right?
A: Yeah, I'd say there's a population of around 1,000 people in Portroe. It's a lovely place, great scenery and loads of things to do up there. It's more of a hurling club than a football club, as such.
Q: Can you remember your first involvement with the club?
A: I remember my first time going up hurling would have been with the U-8s above in the Parish Hall in Portroe. It was all indoor ground hurling. It all started from there. At U-10 level we were indoor as well in the winter months and then we'd go down to the field and take it from there. I played from U-8 all the way up along.
Q: Did you have much success at underage level.
A: Yeah, I would have had a good bit of success underage. My first bit of success would have been with the U-10s winning the indoor hurling leagues. Then we won the Killaloe Tournament at U-12s and then I won my first football medal at U-12 level too when won the County 'C' Final. That would be a weak grade in Tipperary, but it was a huge thing for us to win it. Especially the fact that it was in football and it was my first proper medal.
Q: Portroe would be regarded as a hurling rather than football area. At what level do ye play senior football?
A: We actually don't play club football past U-21. It's kind of all hurling where we are.
Q: Can you declare so to play football for another club?
**A: **I could at a certain time of the month in February or March. I'd have to put in a transfer to play with another club.
Q: So would you consider playing football for a club like Shannon Rovers then?
A: I would have, but now Portroe are going to put a team into the Junior football championship this year for the first time in a long time.
Q: I presume that's on the back of your success with Tipperary?
A: It is yeah, and the fact that a fella from Cahir moved up to Port this year and he'd be big into his football. So I think that's another reason why we're doing it as well.
Kevin O'Halloran
Q: How have you become a senior inter-county footballer despite never playing senior club football?
A: Last year with the club I was playing U-21 football against Shannon Rovers and I just had a good game, I suppose. The fella that got me into the (Tipperary) U-21s, his son was actually manager of the U-21 team for Shannon Rovers. He asked why I wasn't in with the County U-21 footballers, and then I got a phone-call the following Tuesday evening from Joe Hannigan, he's involved with Friends of Tipperary Football.
He said, "Listen, any chance you'd come down to training in Thurles tonight with the county footballers? I'll collect you in Nenagh." I said, "Jesus, Joe, what time are they training?" And he said, "Half-seven." It was twenty to seven at this stage now, so I said, "Joe, I'm not going to make it down to Thurles, it's going to be 40 minutes to an hour before I'm down there."
He said, "Put me on to your father." So I put the father onto him and a minute later the father got off the phone and said, "Joe's picking you up in Nenagh in ten minutes." So I met Joe and went down and it was around a quarter to eight when I got down. I just went in and trained and it all took off from there then, really.
Q: Considering you play for a very hurling oriented club, how did you become such a good free-taker in football?
A: I played a lot of soccer underage coming up along with the local club Arra Rovers. I used to play in goals and it's just really from booting the ball down the field from playing in goals. And when I played football I used to just go out and practice a few frees and got a technique that suited me. I'm just lucky to find one that works for me.
Q: Was there anyone within the club that had a love for football who would have encouraged you?
A: Yeah, there's a few lads there. Michael Donnellan, we call him 'Twiggy', was the manager at U-12 when we won our first football medal. 'Twiggy' would be big into the football and he always told me to stick at it. I always liked football anyway from underage.
Q: Considering you come from a club with little football tradition, it's been an incredible couple of years for you as a footballer, getting to an All-Ireland U-21 Final and now a Munster Senior Final despite never playing senior club football.
**A: **It's been an absolute roller-coaster for me. And I hope it keeps going.
Q: You're obviously not the type to get too flustered on the pitch?
**A: **No. Ah, you learn to deal with it, you can't let it get to you. You have a task and you have to stick to it.
Kevin O'Halloran
Q: I suppose you have to be able to shut it all out when you're a free-taker?
A: Yeah, it's kind of like school. When you go in to do the Leaving Cert paper you've to block out everything that goes on around you. It's the same with football when you're taking a free, you just have to concentrate on the job you have in hand and get it done.
Q: Do you prefer football to hurling, or have you any preference?
A: No, I'd have no preference. I prepare as much for football as hurling, it's much of a muchness. I enjoy both of them a lot.
Q: You're not the only O'Halloran playing for Portroe...do you have a couple of brothers on the team?
**A: **No, they'd actually be uncles of mine! Noel is 43 and is still hurling senior for us in the club. Dermot, my other uncle is 34 this year and the two of them are in the full-back line. It's like Hell's Kitchen down there!
Q: Did you play on the Portroe hurling team that won the North Tipperary Final in 2012?
A: Yeah, that was my first year up senior.
Q: What age were you?
A: I was only 18. I was minor captain of the club at the time as well and we won the Minor 'B' Hurling North Championship a couple of weeks after as well so it was a huge year for the club. It was the first time we ever won the senior North Championship.
Q: Ye beat Toomevara in the North Final who would be one of the traditional powers of Tipperary club hurling, so that must have made it even more special?
A: Yeah, they would have been the Kingpins in North Tipperary for years. It was special mainly because we'd never won one before. We'd gotten to the Final in 2009 but Nenagh beat us. The same day we could have won it. So to win it in 2012 was huge for us. We're such a small club, but we've great heart. To win a North Final was huge, it meant everything to the club.
portroe
**Q: Portroe always seem to do well at the Kilmacud Sevens Tournament, so clearly there's a lot of natural talent in the club. **
A: The talent is there, it's just about getting lads to apply themselves when they go out on match-days. But, yeah, the sevens is a great thing and we always take it seriously in Portroe and have a good bit of success with it.
Q: I presume the Sheedy family have a big influence on the club?
A: Oh the Sheedys would be a huge influence on the club, especially John and Liam. Liam knows so much about GAA, and he brings it into club level and it's passed down through the ranks. It's great.
Q: Did Liam coach you much up through the grades?
A: Liam would have coached me the year we won the Senior North Championship in 2012. He was a selector with us and our trainer. He was just out of this World. He's an unreal coach, so he is.
Q: Did you father play for the club?
A: Yeah, my father played for the club. But he had to give up playing hurling from 19 to 29 because he had a heart condition, so he missed most of his peak years. My father would have been a big influence on me. I would have looked up to him when I was playing underage because he would have still being playing Junior with the club.
Q: Were you fanatical about Gaelic Games from a very young age?
A: Oh yeah, I just love the GAA. You have to just cherish every moment when you're playing. Especially when my father had to give up playing sport for 10 years. That makes you realise you have to cherish every game you play.
Q: Did you father get another diagnosis that allowed him to come back and play when he was 29?
**A: **Yeah, he got the all-clear to go back playing.
Q: What club would be Portroe’s biggest rivals? Ballina?
A: Ballina and Burgess would be our biggest rivals. There's fierce rivalry there. It can be hot and heavy at times.
Q: Have ye played a match yet this year in the North Championship?
A: One round of matches has been played but we have still to play. We're playing Ballina in the first round, but because of the football now (with Tipperary) that's been put back for a few weeks.
Q: That'll be a red-hot match when ye do play?
A: Yeah, it'll be red-hot. It's a straight knock-out this year, so lose and you're gone.
Q: Ballina are a club on the way up, so it'll be a serious test?
A: Yeah, Ballina are on the way up alright, in fairness to them. They came up from the intermediate a couple of years ago.
Portroe
Q: What sort of shape are Portroe in at the moment? Have ye lost some players in recent years? What's the age profile like now?
A: Yeah, a couple of lads have gone to America. Mike Sheedy has gone to America and would be a huge loss for us. Simon Kelly has gone to Canada so that's our centre-back and centre-forward gone. It's only in the last couple of years that we've been hit with people emigrating, and we can't really afford to lose anyone because we're a small club. We only have a panel of around 20, so it's hard to work of it as it is.
Q: Have ye had much underage success in recent years? Are there many young lads coming through to the senior team?
A: Yeah, last year our young lads were unlucky enough. They did well at U-16 and minor. They were up Minor 'A' last year which is a huge thing for us because they were our first ever Minor 'A' hurling in Portroe. They competed very well too, they were just a bit unlucky. We've got a couple of lads onto the senior team this year and we're bringing through two or three lads every year, so that's great. Once no-one else leaves the club, we'll be fine.
Q: It sounds like the club is well-run?
A: Oh, everything is just run to perfection in Port. It's unreal the things that people do for us as players. Every box is ticked and everyone in the parish involved in the GAA are brilliant. They're just so involved as a community in the GAA, it's just great.