Link with Nenagh CBS still burns bright
Kiladangan native and former Munster Championship winner with Waterford, Brian Flannery was on the first Nenagh CBS team to play in a Dr. Harty Cup Final in 1990. His ties to his alma mater remain strong as he made the trip from his home in Waterford with his son to Cappamore for Nenagh's recent Harty Cup semi-final win and here recounts his memories of playing in the famed competition.
As a kid growing up just outside Puckane, the Harty Cup wasn’t something particularly on your radar. You heard of it of course. But you felt it was something only available in some faraway land. Something that only ‘rich’ kids whose parents could afford to send them boarding to St. Flannan’s had need to reckon with. At that stage it wasn’t so much the ‘Holy Grail’ but more a fantasy, a dream buried so deep in your subconscious you rarely paid it much notion. It appeared so unrealistic that not even Dan Brown could script a plausible narrative placing Nenagh CBS and the Harty Cup together.
But things change. Along the way the ‘Brothers’ managed to win a ‘B’ All-Ireland in 1984 and with it came the ‘golden ticket’ to compete in the famed Harty Cup.
‘Holy Grail’ or ‘poison chalice’ you may ask? It did kind of feel like we had just gate crashed a wedding and everyone was looking at us thinking these guys just don’t belong here. We had the wrong haircuts and wrong clothes.
My first Harty Cup outing was more accident than design. I was in second year and told to bring gear with me by Mr. Coyne. Was I going to be the team mascot? It was a day away from school no need to overthink. Our opposition was one of the favourites, Midleton CBS. I got the call before games end to enter the fray, at centre-forward. There was a young journalist from the ‘Examiner’ taking shelter in our dugout and at the sight of my pending introduction asked the question as to how old I was? Quick as a flash “Twice his shoe size, 14” came the reply from fellow panellist Eamonn Gaynor. Hilarious.
Winning is a habit, a good habit. In 1990 the upstarts from Nenagh, the gate crashers, the uninvited guests were winning matches. We beat a fancied a Shannon Comprehensive in the semi-final to qualify for the Harty Cup final against …. yes of course it was St. Flannan’s of Ennis. The Clare side or more accurately the Clare based side, containing county minors from Clare, Limerick, Cork, and Tipperary. Included among them wearing 11 was a kid called Jamesie O’Connor (wonder what ever became of him?). Alas it was not to be for our side. The following year we exited at semi-final stage in a replay to North Monastery. My romance with the Harty Cup was brief but enjoyable.
More importantly Nenagh CBS’s dalliance with the Harty Cup has endured and hopefully this weekend will finally be consummated.
Although domiciled in the Sunny South East I made the trek to Cappamore for the semi-final versus Charleville CBS. On my way in I noticed our coach from the 80’s/90’s Mr. Martin Slattery was in attendance. Mr. Slattery was looking splendid as always, donning a burgundy red leather jacket, wool scarf, and peaked cap. Another father of fashion and former teammate (Waterford RTC) Donach O’Donnell was parading the side-line. Mercifully the match officials couldn’t ascertain O’Donnell’s robust protest in the second half, him with his thick Cork accent.
This is a fine team though. Young (Gavin) McGrath at corner back I suspect is from the Dromineer and tidy at that. Moneygall’s John Doughan was the stylist forward on our 1990 side and his son Eoghan has every bit of his father’s talent and more! By the way my last meeting with John Doughan ended with a fireside chat till dawn and severe hangover. The Toomevara contingent too can all hurl. I love the way the players rally to their talisman Darragh McCarthy. Few better at this level.
A big task this Saturday, it always is. Best of luck to players and management.
Refuse to lose!
Brian Flannery
Nenagh CBS (1987-1991)
(With sincere apologies to Ms Nelligan, my English teacher)