White’s Cross GAA is following the national organisation’s directive which states that all club grounds must remain closed for all activity.
This was issued two weeks and our club acted quickly in closing access and informing the community of the same. Thanks to Pat O’Callaghan, Seamus McCarthy and Conor Kelleher for their work here.
The decision to close the ground is based on public health advice following the Government directive. No pleasure is derived from closing the grounds at a time of the year when normally we would expect activity to be increasing now that the long evenings are upon us. But these are not normal times.
For the benefit of public health, we urge people to please adhere to this essential guidance. All of us has a duty to obey what has been set out for us. Unfortunately, there has been some activity with people gathering to kick a ball about. This is not acceptable or sanctioned by the club.
If anybody is passing our grounds and notices activity, please report to a committee member. When this ends we look forward to reopening the grounds and getting back training and playing.
For now, we just hope that everyone is safe and well!
List of Volunteers
White’s Cross GAA wants to acknowledge some of the extremely generous, indeed heroic, deeds being done within our community at this time of national crisis to help family, neighbours and friends. We also recognise that there may be people within the community that may possibly be isolated or may need assistance in some aspect of their daily lives.
If there’s some way in which our club can help, please feel free to contact any of the following: Linda Cashman 087-8597533; Dermot Brosnan 087-6632094; Martin Flynn 086-3944872; Dominic Cahill 086-8835283; Fiona Sneddon 087-9690428; Suzanne Quinlan 087-7733483; Max Philpott 086-2315619; Valérie O’Connor 087-9774535; Marion Delaney 086-3220968; Brian Harte 087-8095414; Ciara Cashman 087-6022845; Seán Coughlan 087-2903121; Finbarr Pyne 086-8200771; Kevin O’Callaghan 086- 8564009; Katie Flynn 085-8063077; Paul O’ Donovan 083-8103069 or Mike O’Flynn 087-2410943. We will be glad to help or find someone that can. Stay safe!
Congratulations Michael Meade
The club would also like to congratulate Micheal Meade and his wife Karen on the birth of their first child, Emily, recently. It is nice to have some good news to report on and there is none better than the arrival of a newborn. Emily has been born into a strong sporting family.
Michael played hurling and football, along with his brothers, with the club for many years. His wife’s family are also involved with Nemo Rangers. Emily may take after her aunt, Fiona (Meade), however, who is a distinguished international cyclist.
Anyway, for now we hope that both parents are happy getting to know their new child. Congratulations again!
Underage Success early 1990s
It is fair to say that underage GAA in White’s Cross has come in many different guises through the decades. In the beginning, players in the parish would have played with neighbouring clubs such as Glanmire, Watergrasshill and Carraig na bhFear as we did not enter teams of our own. At various points since we have formed teams with both Carraig and Whitechurch; spending several years with both clubs.
There have also been periods where we fielded teams on our own solely or fielded teams on our own at some grades while amalgamated with other clubs at different grades depending on playing numbers. The early 90s was a time where our underage flourished and number of championships were won.
An U16 county final was reached in 1990, a minor championship was won the same year and was followed up with a second such title two years later. Over the next few weeks, with a lull in current playing activity due to Covid-19, we may spend some time reflecting on these and other past successes.
For today we will focus on one, perhaps forgotten, victory; that being the 1994 U15 football championship. In general, the club would have been amalgamated with Whitechurch at this time.
However, backed by some large class sizes and dedicated school teachers – Pat McCarthy (headmaster) and Donal O’Sullivan (both Kerrymen), Upper Glanmire enjoyed some considerable success at Sciath na Scol in the early 1990s.
While some of those teams inevitably found their way to Glanmire, many were available to White’s Cross. The availability of such a large population of football playing boys, meant that, for a number of years, we were able to field teams separately. One of those teams won that particular championship in 1994.
The was the pinnacle, though the same team also had a controversial hurling league final v Mayfield that year too. The success story first, however. The draw for the first round saw the team play Passage in the Lough Rovers’ pitch on the straight road. Both clubs had a big rivalry in those days. The sides had met earlier in the year in an U15 league game and, like many of the junior games of the time, it was feisty encounter.
Passage narrowly won that match in their home pitch and probably would have fancied themselves to win again in the championship. The championship encounter was closely fought all through. Anthony Walsh (Coole East) at full forward, was the star player scoring 1-4.
As the game entered the dying moments, the sides were tied on a score of 2-8 each with White’s Cross attacking with centre forward Paul O’Donovan (Dublin Pike). He was fouled and was informed by the referee that his kick would be the last kick of the game. It would be great to say that the attempt at a point sailed over the bar. In reality, the attempt at the point fell a little short.
What then should have been a routine catch on the line for the Passage midfielder was fumbled and the ball dropped into the goal. The Passage goalkeeper then kicked the ball out and the referee blew the final whistle much to the delight of the White’s Cross lads who had won a cracking game.
Confidence boost
The football season had been average up to that point. we had lost to Passage, Whitechurch and Delanys in the earlier rounds of the league, though Ballyphehane (league winners), Lough Rovers and Rathpeacon had been beaten. The victory over Passage had given the side a confidence boost. The semi-final was against Brian Dillons in Kilcully.
Though Dillons played their football in the league above us, White’s Cross would have felt confident that we would beat them; that we were better than them. Though that was probably the case, the game played on an extremely wet Saturday afternoon in Kilcully was not going at all to plan.
Perhaps, it was over confidence after the victory over Passage, but Dillons were the better side for most of the game. It, again, took another fortuitous goal from Paul O’Donovan to secure victory. A high, lobbing, greasy ball was not dealt with by the Dillons goalkeeper and it slipped into the net. This was the decisive score in a 3-4 to 1-8 victory.
Again there were rapturous scenes as we had secured another narrow, thrilling championship victory. It is a pity that the trophy was not handed out on that day as the final turned out to be very anticlimactic. The opposition were St Finbarrs and the venue was St Annes Hospital pitch. Again, the team were extremely confident going into the game.
This time there would be no wobbles. A completely dominant display saw White’s Cross win on a scoreline of 5-5 to no score. Nonetheless, it was very satisfying to have landed a championship and it was a fitting reward for Ger Mitchell (Dublin Pike), Billy Meade and Tom Harte who had looked after the team.
The controversial league final
This officially was the first and only trophy that was won by the side that year. However, as mentioned above there was a controversial league final played in Delanys pitch earlier in the summer against Mayfield.
Mayfield had beaten a fancied Delanys side and would have been favourites to win. Paul Noonan scored an early goal to put us a few points ahead and set us up for one of the best underage hurling performances by any White’s Cross side ever.
Our backs including Patrick McEvoy (corner back), Colm Kelleher (fullback) and John O’Callaghan were outstanding. Behind them, John Meade, who would have been one of the stars of the team and only played in goal as he was recovering from a leg break sustained earlier in the year, was commanding.
In the second half, goals from Michael Kiely and Padraig Murnane were crucial scores and should have put us over the line. With time almost up, we were two points to the good and White’s Cross were awarded a free in. A minor altercation developed with White’s Cross wingback Kieran Lynch and a Mayfield player. Had it been any other player, it would quickly have died out, we would have taken the free and won the game.
Unfortunately, the circumstances were altered by the fact that Kieran Lynch had an operation the day prior to the game and should not have played. He had stitches in his mouth following a dental procedure and Ger Mitchell, not wanting him to get injured in the scrap, stepped in to protect him. Unfortunately, this escalated matters and soon a minor set-to turned into a mass brawl.
Regrettably, the referee Donal Kickham (Delanys) abandoned the game. The game was never replayed. Perhaps a replay may not have suited anyway as we had put our all into the final and had almost crossed the line but for an unfortunate set of circumstances.
The panels that played these finals were: Stephen Ryan, Edwin Buckley, John Paul Allen (all Templeuisce), Fionn Greogor, Conor Forde, Padraig Murnane, Sean Murnane, Brian O’Flynn, Patrick McEvoy (Ballynoe), John Meade, Paul Noonan, Colm Kelleher, Eoghan Kelleher, Michael Kiely (all Ballyphillip) John O’Callaghan, Barry Linehan, Brian Walsh and Anthony Walsh (Coole East), Paul O’Donovan (Dublin Pike), James Manley (Kilcully), Peter Manning, Kieran Lynch (Rathcooney) and Gary O’Flaherty (Ballyvolane).
