KILLINAN END - A border between potential and success

Travelling for that most Irish of reasons – to a funeral in the town – it was difficult not to encounter a statue of a man called Father William Casey in the middle of the town of Abbeyfeale. This Limerick/Kerry border town ‘Mainstir na Féile’ is on the banks of the Feale river which rises in Cork and meanders through Abbeyfeale on its way to North Kerry.

The river’s name has left its mark. When North Kerry men, Tim Kennelly and Jimmy Deenihan, captained Kerry to All-Ireland victory in 1979 and 1981 respectively it was as a consequence of Feale Rangers winning the County Senior title in Kerry the previous year. This divisional team includes Listowel Emmets (Kennelly’s club), Finuge (Deenihan, Paul Galvin, Eamon Fitzmaurice among others) as well as Duagh, the club of Anthony Maher - Kerry midfielder of recent years. Duagh is just a short spin across the border from Abbeyfeale, and if you turn in another direction before you leave the bounds of Limerick you will find yourself in the village of Athea, home of Con Colbert, one of sixteen executed in the wake of the 1916 Rising.

Maybe there was something in the air around here as the man who gave his name to the GAA club, Father Casey, was quite the firebrand back in the day as well. Perhaps it was unavoidable given that he was born in 1840 and grew up under the shadow of the Famine and all the political agitation that stemmed from that catastrophe. Maybe his native place in Limerick, Kilbehenny – a little hamlet squeezed between South Tipperary and North Cork, fuelled his sense of marginalisation as well. Whatever confluence of circumstances informed his character they certainly amounted to a potent and motivational cocktail.

When he was ordained in 1868 the Fenian movement was at its height and land agitation was beginning to take on a more organised form. That’s not to even mention the Home Rule movement – the two would become inextricably linked. However, inevitably perhaps, given the geographical remove from seats of power, his direct focus was on the Land League and opposition to the Landlordism that was held responsible for the land system governing the conditions for the Famine. When people were operating on small often unproductive parcels of land, the potato with its robustness and nutritional value was often the only show in town. When that was undermined disaster struck.

Father Casey, like many of his contemporaries understood the significance of the land question and he is maybe unusual in GAA nomenclature. Often GAA clubs have taken the names of those who have embraced more direct action - Na Piarsaigh, Fenians, Austin Stacks to name just a few. Father Casey’s emphasis was on social revolution and by all accounts he raised the consciousness of a parish.

The epitaph on his monument in the town centre suggests that he was essentially responsible for building modern foundations of the parish of Abbeyfeale. He was appointed there as curate in 1871 and remained in the parish until his death in 1907. Not only was he there during a time of immense political agitation but he was also there as a central figure in the establishment of the GAA in the town in 1884.

The GAA club in Abbeyfeale as maybe befits a parish on the border with County Kerry is predominantly a football club. This club is so close to the county border that the actual GAA pitch is in Kerry. It led to an interesting example of cross-pollination between the counties. Philip Danaher, a native of Abbeyfeale, played Minor football for Limerick in 1982. A year later he had Kerry selectors picking him up at St Munchin’s school in Limerick for training with Kerry’s Minors – he was now affiliated to Duagh across the border. He lined out without success at midfield for Kerry’s Minors in 1983 against Cork in the Munster championship. By 1989 he had transferred back to Abbeyfeale – “otherwise they would kill me”. The curious thing about this story is that Danaher had made his debut for the Irish rugby team a year earlier and would be the regular full-back until 1995. When Father Casey’s won the Limerick Intermediate football championship in 1991 Danaher was a key man to the point that Limerick manager John O’Keeffe came knocking. The rugby international played in the 1991 Munster Final against the Kingdom. Another Irish rugby player of the time, Noel Mannion, played inter-county for Galway around the same time. Different times.

The Father Casey’s club won the County Senior title in 2000 for the first time in 53 years and repeated the trick in 2006. The future looks promising too with five County Minor football titles won in recent years. If the organisational capacity of the club’s founder lives on there is plenty of potential still in Abbeyfeale.