Ballincollig GAA Club is a club in the Town of Ballincollig, Co. Cork.

History 1887 - 1903

Perhaps no one has portrayed the unique position of hurling in the Irish psyche with greater perception and empathy than P.J. Devlin (Celt) when he penned these immortal lines: “The grip of native ash draws impressionable young hearts back to the soil and atmosphere of Gaeldom; fortifies them against national submission and recial perversion. It imparts a spirit of self-reliance and a yearing for a deeper intimacy with native glories and history”. The birth of the Gaelic Athletic Association heralding the dawn of a hurling renaissance also brought into being one of the chief architects of cultural nationalism which began to blossom in late nineteenth century Ireland. It was, moreover, the first modern example of a great democratic structure replete with constituent clubs and county boards under solely Irish control. Founded by Clareman Michael Cusack in 1884, the GAA not alone sought to preserve and cultivate the national pastimes of hurling, football and athletics but was likewise determined to stem the growth of Anglicisation then threatening to submerge what remained of native traditions. The Irish people for long had struggled to extricate themselves from the moral and physical apathy, which had engulfed much on the country following the haemorrhage of the Great Famine and resultant emigration. The resurgent nation now aspired to a legitimate pride of race as it endeavoured to rediscover the all but forgotten glories of its Gaelic heritage. Cusack and a handful of idealists acted as the catalyst for this long awaited revival of the Irish spirit and identity. At grassroot level, the very heartbeat of the movement was largely dictated from the outset by the keen rivalry engendered by the rising tide of parish and county loyalties. Significantly not alone was the GAA destined to become one of the greatest amateur sporting bodies in the world but one which also provided and unfailing reservoir for any national movement requiring the enlistment of loyal and active men. Such an organisation so closely interwoven with the national struggle for independence was certain to be buffeted by the stormy political waters that ebbed and flowed for much of its early voyage.

Carrigrohane Hurling Club – 1887

There is evidence to support the contention that the political and social upheaval of this era - the evils of landlordiam, the campaign for Home Rule, the Parnellite split and its aftermath – re-echoed throughout the parish of Ballincollig in tandem with the rest of the country. Against this daunting backdrop the GAA “toddler” took its first faltering steps, not in the village heartland, garrisoned by H.M. troops but rather in the eastern extremity of the parish under the banner of the “Carrigrohane Hurling Club”.

Affiliating to the Cork County GAA Board in May 1887 but too late to be included in the inaugural county senior hurling championship for that year the club compensated by playing a friendly match with Greenmount at the old Cork Race Park on the Marina. In the following year, availing of the Muskerry tram, then in its first year of commission, an extremely large crowd journeyed to Cloghroe to witness Carrigrohane’s first – and last – appearance in a Co. Championship tie on 5 March, 1988. Inniscara captured the honours in this battle of neighbours on a shoreline of 2 goals 5 points to a solitary point. The Cork Examiner report of the game, however, was sharply critical of the performance stating both teams “displayed a lamentable want of practice with the Carrigrohane men in particular, more often missing the leather than hitting it”. Hardly the spectacular Championship debut they would have wished for yet the 21-man team on duty that March day had unwittingly chartered a course that would be steadfastly pursued down all the years by men of courage and conviction embracing every town land in the parish. A century later their legacy reposes in the secure custody of those dedicated hands which today guide its destiny from the club’s magnificent new pavilion and grounds in ‘Blancotown’. Back in 1887/1888 the men from the east who signpost the way forward were: Tim O’Connell (Capt.), Patrick Dooley, E. Aherne, T. Murphy, P. O’Connell, M. O’Halloran,Tim Buckley, J. Jones, d. Cronin, Jerh. Cronin, Jas. O’Mahony, P. Walsh, E. Mahony, D. O’Donovan, P. Carey, P. Bradley, J. Leary, Mce. O’Halloran, D. Carey, Maurice Galvin, and Richard Kennedy. Club Officers: President D. Flynn, Vice President J. O’Connel, Hon. Secretary/Hon. Treasurer Patrick Dooley. Co. Convention Delegates: Michael O’Mahony and Patrick Dooley. Sadly, the Carrigrohane club’s sojourn in the ranks of the GAA appears to haven been short-lived as there is no further reference to its playing activities after 1888. Possibly, the club’s abrupt departure from the Gaelic stage was attributable to the political turmoil which spawned rival county boards in 1989 or also was due to the current migration to the city in search of improved employment opportunities. The local employment situation had been adversely affected by the closure of the Carrigrohane Flour Mills some years earlier and the continuing decline of the Royal Gunpowder Mills by now no longer underpinning the district economy to the same extent as heretofore.

Ballincollig Gladstonians – 1890

While the Cork County Board as then constituted retained its loyalty to the Central Council of the GAA and thus operated under the banner of legality a rival breakaway group formed the ‘City ‘or’ Cork Board’ under the presidency of Rev. Francis O’Connor, C.C. St. Finbarr’s South. Ever since the infiltration of the Association by the extreme nationalist members of the IRB at the Annual GAA Congress of 1887 there had been a general driftaway from its ranks by the clergy, stout defenders of the constitutional path sponsored by the Parnell/Gladstone Alliance. The attainment of Home Rule – a limited measure of independence from Britain – was then the aspiration of the overwhelming majority of Irish nationalists. Whatever political hue (if any) attached itself to the colours of the Carrigrohane Hurling Club, there can be no doubting the allegiance of its successor titling itself ‘Ballincollig Gladstonians’ which affiliated to the Fr. O’Connor Board early in 1890. Filling the dual role of team captain and club secretary was goalkeeper Harry Coffey, Short Range, Powder Mills. Harry, who was employed as a cooper in the gunpowder mills, is perhaps best known to later generations of village dwellers as the proprietor of a newsagency and grocery shop located in the Square. Having failed to contest the opening round of the County S.H. Championship in which they were drawn against St. Finbarr’s the club responded by entering teams in the inaugural County Juvenile Hurling and Football Championships. The correct interpretation of what constituted a juvenile player appears to have posed problems for both Gladstonians and rivals, Bride Valley, as the Cork Examiner report of the game, chided both hurling sides for fielding “many young men of twenty” on their respective lineouts. Despite perhaps having the dubious distinction of being one of the first teams in GAA history to commit the cardinal sin of playing overage players Gladstonians could proudly boast of recording the very first Ballincollig success Board to restrict its selection to legitimate juveniles, if at all possible, no doubt contributed to subsequent defeats at the hands of Blackpool Rovers in hurling and famed in Nils in football.

Gladstone and the GAA

Lest anyone should think that because of the ‘Gladstonian’ label the local club was somewhat at variance with the official policy of the GAA attention in drawn to an event which took place in Swansea just three years earlier. On that occasion the then President of the Cork County Board, Ald. Daniel Horgan, presented an illuminated address on behalf the Gaels of Cork to Mr. Wm. Gladstone – then a former and future Prime Minister of England. It was accompanied by a sliothar and a genuine caman of polished Irish ash grown in the vicinity of nearby Blarney Castle. Whether in fact the ‘Grand Old Man’ of English politics ever put time aside to master the mystique of caman-craft must remain one of the great imponderables of Anglo-Irish relations.
Hurling takes a back seat

Even if the homegrown variety of hurling was about to ungergo another period of cold storage, the following four years were to see significant developments in the social and political sphere. In December 1890, Rev. Denis McCarthy P.P. president at a local branch meeting of the Home Rule Party which passed a vote of no confidence in the nationalists leader Charles Stewart Parnell, suddenly discredited by his role in the O’Shea divorce case. An organised refusal by tenant farmers to pay the exhorbitant rents demanded by landlords led to the establishment of a local defence fund designed to alleviate the hardship of the evicted. The ratepayers of Ballincollig and Ballinora, on foot of a loan from the Board of Works, installed a public water utility, drawn from a source in Ballyshoneen, to service the village and military barracks. Despite the improved sanitary conditions, however, overcrowding in the village continued to pose problems as there is reference to the ‘poor people – some of them victims of landlordism, others the windows and families of once decent mechanics – forced to live in miserable conditions’. The contracting labour force engaged at the Powdermills was likewise depicted as ‘enduring persecution, starvation and low wages’. All the while on the other side of the barrack wall the social and sporting proclivities of the Royal Hussars then in occupation of a recently refurbished cavalry barracks – regimental sports, polo, cricket, fox – hunting and farewell functions for departing troops – can have had little relevance to the indigenous population.

Hurling Revival – 1894

Happily, the coming to maturity Harry Coffey’s ‘juveniles’ coincided with the return of the clash of the ash to the leafy glades of the Powder Mills in 1894. Back in the bosom of the GAA after a four year absence the club had its first taste of 17-a-side-competition – introduced by the Annual Congress of 1892 – ‘to encourage more scientific play and to diminish the incidence of bodily injuries.’ Whatever its impact on the casualty admissions to the South Infirmary, then and later revered as the ‘home of the injured Gael’, problems of organisation continued to bedevil the fledgling association as so vividly portrayed in contemporary press reports. As a test of endurance for both players and spectators the long running saga involving Ballincollig and Blarney in a first-round championship tie played in Cork Park must have set a new record. The Cork Examiner of 21st May, 1894, reported: ‘About fifteen minutes from the end of the hour the crowd invaded the field. Instead of finishing the contest in an hour, three hours had elapsed before the full-time whistle was blown. The referee together with members of the County Board did all in their power to get a clear field but to no avail. Finally, the referee ordered the teams to play the ball whenever it chanced to stray amongst the spectators – which they did’. At the end of a long day the Blarney boys had garnered the spoils of toil. Ballincollig: Daniel Leahy, Charlie Forde (Capt.), J. Walsh, Jim Coughlan, D. Horgan, T. O’Neill, J. Walsh, M. Healy, W. Healy, T. O’Sullivan, Pat Radley, J. O’Leary, J. Hallissey, C. Murphy, D. Kinsella, and P. Rourke. Beset by recurring defeat during 1894 the sunshine of success shone brightly throughout the 1895 season as evidenced by comprehensive victories over St. Finbarr’s, Cloughduv and Bride Valley. In fact, the only blemish on fright on the approach of the 3rd round County Championship outing versus the ultimate winners, Blackrock. Nevertheless buoyed by this upturn in their fortunes the club entered two teams – senior and junior – in the 1896 County Championship as well as the following club tournaments: Bride Valley, Cloughduv, Coachford and Gaelic League. The growth of the GAA in the hurling strong hold of Muskerry as indicated by the emerging club tournaments was, of course