A Most Wonderful Time of the Year

IN ALL FAIRNESS

If you are from Upperchurch/Drombane, 2025 is a year you won’t want to end. However, they actually do as ten or eleven days into 2026, depending on the fixture, they will become just the fourth Tipperary club to play in an All-Ireland Club Hurling Final at Croke Park.

They will emulate Kilruane MacDonaghs (Senior 1986), Borris-Ileigh (Senior 1987 & 2020), and Moyle Rovers (Junior 2008). Cashel King Cormacs did play there in 1992 when their All-Ireland semi-final against Kiltormer required a second replay which was played on St Patrick’s Day along with the senior football final, from where the Galway side progressed to the final where they defeated an up and coming Birr side at Semple Stadium, who would themselves go onto become the first great club team winning four All-Ireland’s in an eight year period.

It’s incredible to think that just three Tipperary GAA clubs have played in All-Ireland Club finals on the hallowed turf of Croke Park since the finals were given an increased profile with the senior deciders moved to Croke Park for the first time in 1985 after being first established officially in 1971 with Roscrea as its first winner, defeating St Rynagh’s in Birr.

Then came the introduction of the intermediate and junior grades in 2005, with Kiladangan being the first intermediate hurling winners but that incredible late final victory over Carrickshock of Kilkenny played at Semple Stadium, with the finals moved to Croke Park permanently the following year.

It shows just how hard it is for clubs, even from a traditional hurling county such as Tipperary, to get to compete in the finals at the very highest level of any grade, and the recent demographics report produced by the GAA suggests that it will likely only get harder unless there is a societal shift in the mean-time and that would mean a dramatic shift in government policy with regard to rural Ireland and the building of one-off homes and taking the pressure off of urban areas in terms of being job hubs.

Hopefully Upperchurch/Drombane’s progression to the Intermediate final will be the start of a new trend for Tipperary clubs as it is one of the aspects that has grated over the years that while the county is regularly successful at inter-county and schools’ level, our clubs haven’t enjoyed the same level of success when they compete outside of the county boundary.

It’s hard to know the reasons why. Some put it down to the competitive nature of the Tipperary championships and that winning a county title is the Everest in a given year. Is it that Tipperary clubs are smaller in size than many other counties in that they just don’t have the numbers and depth when it comes to the crunch. I’ve always felt it was an element of softness when it comes to our county champions, that being a Tipperary champion makes it somewhat of an entitlement and that we don’t give other county champions the respect they deserve. The lack of victories over the years speak for itself.

It has been an incredible run for Upperchurch/Drombane as club PRO Martin Bourke said in their club notes in the GAA round-up page this week, their hurling championship campaign starting in low-key fashion with defeat in a Mid semi-final to Moyne-Templetuohy in July. The group stages of the county championship were a slow burner too, starting out with a draw against Moneygall and victory over Burgess but in the final game against Ballina, trailing by two points deep in added time, they were facing an exit from the championship, needing a goal from a free dropped into the square, and that’s just what happened when Gavin Ryan’s 75-yard free went all the way to the net. If Upperchurch/Drombane go on to win the All-Ireland title, and it will be no easy task against a seasoned Tooreen side from Mayo, they will look back on that September Saturday in Kilcommon when their season could have been ended and the run to county, provincial and All-Ireland finals wouldn’t have gotten off the ground.

To some it grates that the All-Ireland Club finals aren’t completed before Christmas so all involved can enjoy the festivities to its fullest but for the clubs still involved, what a special time it must be. Would anyone in Ballygunner, Loughrea, Upperchurch/Drombane, Tooreen, Kilbrittain, and Easkey trade what they can look forward to in the New Year for the ability to have a few extra drinks, chocolates and what not over Christmas? As Upperchurch/Drombane manager Liam Dunphy said after their victory over Danesfort last Sunday “it is just one Christmas out of your lifetime and we have to mind ourselves.”

No one is suggesting the players can’t enjoy the festivities but over-indulgence can be sacrificed for one Christmas and New Year period. For most clubs, getting to an All-Ireland final is a once in a lifetime experience, so what a very Merry (not too merry) Christmas it will be in the hills, valleys, and everyone associated with Upperchurch and Drombane.