Hurling back in the shop window at Commercials
Commercials celebrate after winning the Dublin Premier Intermediate Hurling Championship.
By John Harrington
Commercials Hurling and Camogie Club’s grounds in Rathcoole surely has the distinction of being the most driven past in Ireland.
As you approach Dublin on the N7 they’re just on your left shortly after you pass the Poitín Still on your right.
Back when this stretch of road was a dual carriageway in the 1980s it was literally a gauntlet that a generation of Rathcoole children had to run if they wanted to get from the village on one side of the road to the club on the other side.
There was no pedestrian crossing in those days. You looked left and right and if the coast was clear you sprinted for your life.
“In the early 80s as kids we used to meet at the shopping centre in Rathcoole and we'd all march down to the carriageway,” recalls Seán Power, who manages the Commercials team that will play Kilkenny champions Danesfort in the AIB Leinster Club SHC semi-final on Saturday.
“At the time there weren't even lights there and we used to have to run out to median, wait, and then run out to the to the far side.
“It's crazy when you think about it, but there was very little traffic then compared to now. From memory I did that for four or five years and then lights were put at that junction. But, yeah, it was regular thing.
“When were coming home then you'd have to wait for your coach to bring you back across the road.”
Commercials are one of the most historically significant hurling clubs in Dublin.
They sit third on the all-time senior championship honours list with nine titles thanks to a dominance of the Dublin hurling scene in the very early years of the Association.
Formed in 1886, five of those titles were won in successive years from 1895 to 1899, with their last Dublin championship coming in 1916.
They were named ‘Commericals’ because their club was formed by the bar and shop workers who had moved to Dublin, mainly from Tipperary.
What’s commonly regarded as the greatest painting ever depicting a GAA scene, ‘The Tipperary Hurler’, painted by Limerick born artist Seán Keating sometime between 1923 and 1925, depicts the Tipperary hurler John Joe Hayes wearing the jersey of the Commercials Hurling Club.
'The Tipperary Hurler' by artist Seán Keating depicts a hurler wearing the colours of Commercials Hurling Club.
Like many other clubs, Commericals were based in the Phoenix Park, and it was only in the 1970s that they moved out to Rathcoole. The hotelier Louis Fitzgerald, another Tipperary native, hurled for Commericals and was a key figure in the move.
At that stage the team was still largely made up of bar-workers from down the country, but eventually a generation of local players from Rathcoole came through the underage structures, including Power himself who went on to have a fine career with Dublin in the 1990s.
His generation of players won an U21 championship with Commericals in 1990 and the Dublin Intermediate championship the following year.
They went on from there to win a Senior ‘B’ Championship and were a solid club at Senior 'A' level for a good few years, but then came a period of decline.
“Unfortunately, there was just a lack of players coming through,” says Power. “It was mainly down to, I think, the lack of housing being built at Rathcoole around the time.
“We had a peak of a lot of people my age and a few years younger, but then below that young families weren't there and we drifted all the way down to Junior B.”
Commercials clubman, Diarmuid Ó Dúlaing, is a rising star with the Dublin hurlers.
Back in 2021 Commericials were still a Junior B club, but, incredibly, they’ve now won four promotions in just five years.
Promoted to Junior A for the 2022 season, they won that grade at the first attempt and then won the Dublin Intermediate Championship in 2024 and the Dublin Premier Intermediate Championship this year.
A talented generation of young players has come through at the same time together and really put the club back on the map.
“Kids were coming in to the club again and there was really good coaching put in place 10 or 15 years ago, and that coaching is still there,” says Power.
“We've got very good facilities down there. We've got an all-weather pitch, a very good ball wall, a gym. But it's the coaching done at U6 and U8 level that will generate the senior players in 10 years’ time.
“There's no magic beans, really, to it. It's a bigger population coming into the club, and good coaching.
“I have four nephews playing from U-6 to U10 and they’re all looking at Diarmuid Ó Dúlaing playing and they're kind of mesmerised by him. I'm saying to them, lads, in seven or eight years’ time, you could playing with him, he'll still be only in his 20s.
“We still are a very young team. There was a picture in the WhatsApp group of a team that lost to Skerries Harps in a Junior B semi-final five years. Six or seven lads who will be playing on Saturday against Danesfort were playing that day.
“We've got a good representation on Dublin teams now. We have Diarmuid on the senior team. Daniel O'Kelly was with the U20s last year. We had three lads this year on the extended on our 20 panel.
“Adam Drewett was on the senior panel for a few months last year. Conor Cleary was playing Fitzgibbon Cup with DCU, Diarmuid was playing Fitzgibbon with UCD. So, just the overall standards are starting to lift, but it all goes back to the quality of coaching.”
The late, great John Cullinane played a huge role in developing the talent of a generation of Commercials hurlers.
One of those Power believes can take a lot of credit for that quality of coaching was the late John Cullinane who sadly passed away in September.
He managed a lot of the current senior team to a Dublin minor title and was very influential too as a senior selector.
Donal Ó Dúlaing is another club stalwart who put huge effort into moulding their ability, and Power himself has been a very steady hand on the tiller as senior team manager for the past three years.
He played for a couple of decades himself and the club means an awful lot to him, so to be part of this sudden revival has been hugely satisfying.
“It has,” says Power. “Like, my family are heavily involved in the club. My Dad was Chairman, my mother was involved too, I have five brothers and we all played with Commercials and my sister did too and most of us are still involved. My sister is managing the U8s. My brother, Niall, is coaching the minor team.
“Another brother Eoin is looking after the U-15s. There's just a big family involvement. I moved out to Sallins so my kids are involved with the Sallins club, but it's great satisfaction for me going back to Commercials and particularly helping get them up to senior now.
“I wouldn't say I was the person to get them up because it was all the coaching that was done when the kids were younger. You know, you can only do so much, but when you've got quality players coming through, it makes life a lot easier.”
The Commercials team that will contest Saturday's AIB Leinster Intermediate Club Hurling semi-final against Danesfort of Kilkenny.
Their quality will be seriously tested on Saturday by Kilkenny champions Danesfort, but it’s a challenge they’re relishing rather than unnerved by.
“We're very realistic on the scale of the challenge that we're facing on Saturday," says Power.
“We watched Danesfort in the county final against James Stephens and they're a big, powerful physical unit with very good forwards.
“Paul Murphy with I think four All-Irelands is playing centre-back for them so they've got quality throughout their team. But, you know, we do think we're going to be competitive, and we're very much looking forward to the challenge.”
