Dingle holds fond memories for Sheehy
Cormac Sheehy believes that the disappointment against Glen at GAA headquarters two years ago had fuelled the players' desire to come back and set the record straight. Picture: INPHO/Laszlo Geczo
With a surname like Sheehy, it’s no surprise that there’s Kerry lineage in Cormac Sheehy’s family, and it doesn’t take long for the St. Brigid’s goalkeeper to reveal that his grandfather Pa Sheehy was on the last Dingle team to win the Kerry Senior Football Championship in 1948.
Soon afterwards, a teaching career in Brideswell National School came calling, but, predictably, the West Kerry town became a second home for Cormac and his family every summer.
“Me and my two brothers spent a lot of time down in Dingle. They played loads of football down there, sometimes under different names, and I played soccer. We worked the Fungi boats and all that type of stuff.
“The attitude to football down there is just completely different. Everyone goes up to the sports field, as they call it, every evening to watch matches.
“For the first few years playing senior championship with Brigid’s, I was bussing it back from Dingle to play games.
“It’s a cliché that football is a religion down there, but it really is. I remember Tommy Griffin and Dan Murphy, and they were superstars because they were on the Kerry panel,” he recalled.
Part of the panel that brought the Andy Merrigan Cup back to County Roscommon for the first time in 2013, having missed the 2011 decider against Crossmaglen, Sheehy highlights that the lifestyles embraced by club players nowadays are different to when he first came on the scene.
“The lads are more dedicated but the standards have changed. The group in 2011 and 2013 were very dedicated for a club team. But the club team now is where the county team was back then.
“I’m sure Dingle are the same. All these elite clubs that get to the top don’t get there by accident,” he explained.
Consequently, with no stone left unturned in pursuit of national glory, the age profile of the current squad suggests that St. Brigid’s are going to be around for a long time, especially if they get over the line on Sunday.
“Anyone coming down here believes that we’re going to win the final next Sunday. But this team have a far better age profile than the team in 2013 had. Outside of Senan (Kilbride), Brian (Stack) has been the oldest player starting in recent games, and he’s only 28. No one in their thirties has played a game since the Glaveys match — except Senan but he’s in his forties!
“I would have said that the team needed to find that bit of resolve and mental toughness. I think they have that now.
“The Moycullen game is one we would have lost in previous years. Ruaidhrí (Fallon) — a special player — popped up and got that goal. Brian Stack is an elite player. When you have players like that filtered among lads that are hugely dedicated and fit, this group of players has the potential to win loads of county titles over the next ten years.”
However, the defeat against Glen two years ago still rankles, fuelling the fire for Sheehy and his St. Brigid’s team-mates to set the record straight on Sunday.
“There are very few of us that don’t think about that game every day. That’s the nature of sport. You get to the pinnacle of where you want to go, and it sometimes doesn’t work out. Maybe you’re as well off getting hammered rather than getting beaten the way we did that day. But those are the fine margins. In 2013, we were lucky enough to get over the line by a point.
“I’ve never seen a group of lads as driven as these lads are. After a few years away, I didn’t know some of the lads coming back in a few years ago but all of them are driving it on. Alongside the management, we’re just very focussed on getting the best we can out of the season,” he concluded.
No wonder the ultimate reward could be just around the corner.
