Hurling at Home

CON HOULIHAN hated hurling snobs.

The ‘traditionalists’ who believed that it took several generations to produce a hurler – that there was some kind of mythical gene passed from generation to generation without which all effort was doomed to fail – were ‘amusing mystics’ according to the great Kerry writer.

Giving typical lyrical form to his thoughts following the 1995 Leinster final in which Offaly skelped Kilkenny on their way to hurling’s yearly September showpiece, Con wrote that the myth of the ‘born hurler’ should be “buried at a crossroads with a stake driven through its silly heart”.

The heroes of that piece, Offaly, have twelve hurling teams competing in their senior club championship. This summer, with the addition of Eoghan Rua and Na Magha to the ranks, Derry’s number will be just four less.

In years to come, Paddy Henry hopes there will be a ninth name on the list.

As he patiently demonstrates the mechanics of free taking to a captive youth – an art for which he is widely renowned – all thoughts of nature over nurture are dispelled as quickly as the leather is dispatched by the ash.

“We’ll chat for half an hour now,” he says.

“And if he’s still striking those balls when we’re finished, we’ll know he’s dedicated.”

Castledawson wouldn’t exactly be known as a hotbed of hurling. However, four years on from their first training session in which nine youngsters took part, Paddy Henry along with his brothers Christopher and Peter, and Mick O’Kane, are preparing a squad for the weekend’s National Féile finals.

“This evening as an example, we had thirty-seven out. Twenty-five of them are part of the panel for the hurling Féile, albeit we will have a very young team with a lot of under 10s and under 12s,” explains Henry.

Keen to stress that the current upsurge of interest in hurling along Moyola’s grassy banks is not part of ‘any master plan’, Paddy Henry reveals the rather more incidental nature of its origins:

“This was started with a random phone call from one of the girls in the camogie club. A few of the parents had said that their sons were ‘kinda half interested in playing hurling’ and with Peter and Christopher, my two brothers, and myself having an interest, would we start up a hurling team.”

“It has grown very dramatically. We’re very fortunate that we have a solid camogie club that help us out. So, for example if there was only one or two of us available for an evening, one of their coaches would maybe take an age group and train them with their own teams. They put the idea to us basically.”

“It seemed like a good idea at the time!” he laughs.

Finding the Level

The hurling year began for the St Malachy’s boys with a trip to Gulladuff, a journey Henry knows only too well as the current Lavey senior club captain:

“I hurled around the house for two or three years before I went to Lavey. My da was from Lavey and they were the closest hurling club so it just made sense to go there. I started hurling for Lavey around nine or ten but I’d been playing football for Castledawson for maybe two or three years before that, so I’d always say I’m from Castledawson.

“Of course when I’m hurling for Lavey, I’m 100% a Lavey man! It’s a family thing and a location thing.”

Although admitting there is no masterplan in place, it is crystal clear that Paddy Henry has thought long and hard about the development of hurling in Castledawson, and that he continues to do so.

“At the start of the year we went up to play Lavey in a friendly and didn’t score. So our next thing was, right, let’s get a score in a match. Then the next step was: ‘let’s get a score in each half of the match’,” he explains calmly and logically.

“We are very fortunate that we have a group of boys who keep coming back. They haven’t won a game all year, the closest we got was when we played Coleraine. Our numbers are getting bigger though. At the start of the Féile we had 19 and struggled a bit. Now we have 25 and we actually had two new faces there this evening that I had never seen before – lads who are 13. It’s really a testament to all those young fellas that we are competing and that they’re still playing with a smile on their face. It’s not as if they’re dreading togging out.

“At the end of the day we’re not putting any pressure on them. We’re not stupid. We’re not expecting them to go out and beat other teams in Derry straight away. If we were able to get maybe one win during the Féile weekend I would deem this year to be a really massive success. It would be great for the fellas to end their year like that.”

Castledawson are not alone in the situation in which they find themselves. Others such as Eoghan Rua and Na Magha have travelled the same road in recent times and face similar challenges. If not handled in the right fashion, defeats can deflate. In normal circumstances, gradings would take care of such anomalies and cater for clubs along different stages of their development.

Numbers of clubs and grades are the key to the future, although current reality is something which can’t be ignored by people like Paddy Henry, and others, seeking to grow the game on new ground. The Castledawson effort has illustrated what is possible and also points the way to the future. Twelve clubs, like Offaly, could see a situation where new growth becomes sustainable. Because it offers a greater diversity of teams at different levels, Féile, Henry believes, has a massive role to play:

“They won’t be hurling in the Derry league or the championship. There isn’t really any point. During the Féile, bar the exception of one or two teams, everyone else has beaten us by twenty points. It’s not right on those fellas to put them through all that again.

“However, they’re happy enough in the knowledge that they are in the Féile now, against teams in a similar situation, close to where we are at. So, we’re going to get a great test as to just how far we have come on since that first game against Lavey. Will we get those wins? Can we maybe sneak into a Shield final or are we not at that level?” he proffers.

“It’ll be a great opportunity to find out.”

The plan for now is fully focused on Féile for the Castledawson fledgling project. With somewhere in the region of six of the starting team for the competition expected to be made up of players who are still entitled to play under 10 hurling, those who have ‘started at the right age’ are the indicator that Henry will look to once the final visitors have left next Sunday evening.

“What I want to see later in the year, once they return to u10, is how far away are we at that level. We’ll be going up to Owenbeg meeting the Slaughtneils and the Laveys. The last day we were up there with the u10s we beat Ballinascreen, and to beat someone like that, a great hurling club, was a massive lift for everyone.

“It’s all well and good maybe beating the Dungiven ‘C’ team but when you’re beating someone’s ‘A’ team like we did, the young fellas are coming away with the real sense that they have achieved something.

A Féile Future

With Sligo’s Drumcliffe-Rosses Point set to arrive at the Broagh on Friday, excitement is building ahead of what is expected to be a weekend to remember for parents and children alike. The scenes will be repeated in Lavey, Banagher, Slaughtneil, Dungiven, Coleraine, Ballinascreen, Swatragh and the City’s Ballyarnet area, all of which will buzz with anticipation.

“They’ll be going out on Saturday now, if not expecting to win, then at the very least to give a good account of themselves and that’s a good thing.

“Ok we were beat by 20 points by Slaughtneil but I would simply tell them ‘lads, we weren’t expecting to win that. We’re preparing for the All-Ireland Féile.’

“It’ll keep coming back to that. For the next two years we’ll play everyone that we need to play in Derry but at the end of the day I’ll be focusing on the middle of June and Féile to see where we are at.”

2014 may be new territory for Paddy Henry the coach but for Paddy Henry the hurler, Féiles are not new:

“I played in two Féiles for Lavey; one when it was in Derry and we hosted Ballyboden and Castlefin, and then the year after when we were down in Westmeath.

“Speaking of Westmeath, we played them in a Christy Ring game there a couple of years ago and it was only at the end of the game that I realised that the fella I had been marking, when he took off the helmet, was from the same family that hosted us all those years ago.”

Consistent performances that have seen Paddy Henry amass huge scoring totals have given the valuation surveyor recognition in hurling communities from West Kerry to the Ards peninsula. Absent from the red and white in 2014, his loss has been keenly felt.

Will we see him back in the Oak Leaf jersey, though?

“Absolutely,” he declares.

“I would fully expect that at some point, whether it’s next year or the year after I’ll be back hurling with Derry. Given that this is our first year in Féile, it wouldn’t be fair to the wanes to push them into Féile and not be there to help them through it, and to prepare them properly.

“We have a chairman in Castledawson [Noel McKenna] who is exceptionally good to everyone. He gives everyone their fair share. We’re also very fortunate to have Kevin Hinphey who has done wonders for me here in terms of getting extra coaches down to help out – the likes of Colm Dillon from Lavey has been excellent.

“But Derry hurling is something I love and I fully intend to be back.”

For 2014, however, hurling’s loss is hurling’s gain.

[Nine Derry clubs will take part in Féile na nGael which is being held throughout Ulster on 20-22 June. See DerryGAA.ie for team profiles.]