Limerick’s loss was Tipperary’s gain

This Sunday’s Munster Final will once again be an occasion of contrasting emotions for former Tipperary defender CONOR O’DONOVAN as his adopted county take on his native Limerick as LIAM HOGAN found out when chatting with the two-time All-Ireland winning defender

It was a phone-call to the late Nenagh Eire Og stalwart Rory Flannery that was a turning point in Conor O’Donovan’s hurling career.

The Limerick native had taken up employment with Allied Irish Bank in Nenagh in 1980 and with no motorways at the time and the 80-kilometre journey back and forth to his club Effin in West Limerick, it was not convenient, so he decided to throw in his lot with Eire Og, the club of his uncle Terry Moloney who won a North senior title in 1964.

“Rory Flannery was married to Mary Stokes, my first cousin and he put me in contact with Billy Flannery who was a selector with the club at the time. One thing led to another,” said Conor who recalls the time with such clarity.

Conor had played minor and junior hurling with Effin up to then. The club lacked numbers and joined up with neighbours Ballyagran in the Minor hurling championship and reached the 1977 county final only to suffer a two-point defeat to a strong Ballybrown side who had Ollie O’Connor, Terrance Kenny, and Joe Mann on their team.

“After the final we separated and we had no minor team in Effin and apart from a few league games there was the Junior Hurling championship until the Autumn. So, I decided to switch clubs,” O’Donovan revealed.

Conor’s first appearance in a sky blue jersey was in March 1981 when Nenagh took on Portroe in the North Under 21 Hurling Championship. Nenagh won and went on to win North and County honours, a feat repeated in 1982.

Meanwhile Conor was still hurling inter-county with his native Limerick and was on their under 21 team beaten by Cork in 1981 but surprisingly failed to make the team the following year, and this is where Tipperary saw their opportunity

“In 1982 I was wondering if I would get another call to the Limerick under 21 panel when to my surprise, in early April, I read in the paper about Limerick defeating Clare in the first round. Tipperary were due to meet he winners,” O’Donovan recalls.

“Two or three days after that game the late Tommy Mulcahy (a selector with Tipperary under 21 team) approached me to know If I was interested in joining the Tipp squad. This came as a surprise because twelve of the Tipp team won an All-Ireland Under 21 the previous year when Limerick beat us.”

Tipperary made amends as they beat Limerick and Clare to win Munster before defeating Down in the All-Ireland semi-final but lost to Galway in the decider.

His performances with club and county drew the attention of the senior selectors and he was approached by Len Gaynor to join the Tipp seniors in the autumn of 1984 in preparation for the National League. Unfortunately, the recurrence of a groin injury hampered Conor’s progress and he failed to line out for either the 1984 or 1985 Munster finals but was on the managements radar.

The legendary Tony Wall took over the Tipp team in 1986 and Conor’s injury problems were easing and after a few challenge games things seemed bright but a shoulder injury ten days before the championship clash with Clare brought an end to his season as Tipp bowed out of the championship in Ennis.

Michael ‘Babs’ Keating took over the following year and Tipp’s fortunes began to rise as did Conor O’Donovan’s fitness as both entered a great period for Tipp hurling which would last into the rarely 1990s.

His first championship game was against Kerry in 1987 which began the incredible journey, which culminated back in the Kingdom later that summer when they defeated Cork to win the Munster title for the first time in sixteen years.

“It’s a game that doesn’t come any bigger apart from an All-Ireland final,” O’Donovan said.

“I had John Heffernan, another Nenagh man, playing alongside me in the full backline. Seamus Gibson is playing corner back and Ken Hogan behind me in goal.

“It was a cauldron that day. I would say Nicky English’s goal was a moment when Tipp supporters held their breathes like the Irish supporters did for Dave O’Leary in world Cup 1990. When you think about it, the instinct to kick the ball and to steer into the net.

“Losing to Galway in the All-Ireland semi-final was huge disappointment. We were getting on top and Galway made a few positional switches in the forward line and I often wonder should we have followed our men. I was marking Brendan Lynskey and he moved to centre forward. They got three goals through Martin Naughton, Eanna Ryan and Noel Lane.”

Defeat to Galway in the 1988 final was another bump on the road but one year later Conor had reached the pinnacle of his career when Tipperary beat Antrim in the All-Ireland final. For Conor, that match against Antrim had completed the circle as he explains.

“It turned out to be very special in more than one way.

“First of all, it looked like I might not be able to play because in 1985 and ’86 I was hit by injury and didn’t get to play championship. Fortunately, in 1987 I was able to make the breakthrough in Munster and in 1988 we got to the All-Ireland final and lost and afterwards you are thinking, maybe it was the one and only chance to be able to play in an All-Ireland final.

“Fortunately, we did in 1989 but what was particularly nice about that was three of the Antrim players (Olcan McFetridge, Brian & Dessie Donnelly) were ones I had played against eleven years earlier in Croke Park in an All-Ireland school’s semi-final when I was playing for Charleville CBS and they were playing for Cross & Passion School, Ballycastle. I had a great chat with those boys the day after the All-Ireland final at a reception held in Kilmainham.

“As the years have gone by we had a forty-year reunion of that team, and I wrote to the three boys asking them about the memories of that particular game. We played St. Raphael’s of Loughrea in the final and I contacted Peter Murphy (former Galway goalkeeper) to rewrite his memories of the final.”

Having lost to Cork in the 1990 Munster final, Conor’s participation in the 1991 campaign ended with a knee injury in the drawn Munster final against Cork in Pairc Ui Chaoimh. As a result, his involvement in the replay and the subsequent All-Ireland semi-final and final against Galway and Kilkenny respectively was curtailed somewhat. However, his memories of his inter-county career were more positive than negative.

“You cannot put a price on how it feels to have won an All-Ireland medal,” he said.

“It is as simple as that. To win two All-Irelands in three years was great for that bunch of players. It was a great time for hurling and all our supporters.”

With his inter-county career over Conor O’Donovan concentrated on club hurling. He was a member of the Nenagh teams that played in the 1982 and 1984 North finals. He had Denis Finnerty playing alongside him, having marked Finnerty in the 1980 Munster minor final for Limerick.

The 1990s brought further success when Conor won three North Senior Hurling medals in 1992,’93 and ’98 culminating in him leading Nenagh Eire Og to victory over Boherlahan in the 1995 county senior hurling final. Conor’s senior career with Nenagh came to an end in 1998 after falling to Clonoulty/Rossmore in the county semi-final.

He continued hurling junior grade in 1999 and added a county medal in 1991 with victory over Thurles Fennelly’s making it four county honours with senior and two Under 21 mementoes already tucked away.

In switching clubs, Effin’s loss was Nenagh gain and joining Eire Og completed another circle as his uncle Terry Moloney had played for Nenagh and scored 2-5 in their North final success over Roscrea in 1964. Terry played for Solohead and later for Arravale Rovers. As a goalkeeper he won and All-Ireland Minor medal in 1957 as Tipp accounted for Kilkenny before he added a senior in 1958 following victory over Galway before gaining a runners-up medal in 1960.

Conor had two more uncles who played minor for Tipperary. Joe won a minor All-Ireland in 1949 when defeating Kilkenny. Three years later his uncle Paddy (still hale and hearty at ninety) won another after Tipp beat Dublin in the decider. He played in the semi-final win over Galway but was unable to line out in the final as he had entered the seminary. Belatedly he received his medal in 2003 at a specially organised event. The late Phil Hennessey, Nenagh replaced him that day in 1952. Phil’s son Philip Hennessey played with Conor in Nenagh’s success period of the 1980s and ‘90s.

Six degrees of separation.