By John Harrington

The famed poet Patrick Kavanagh might have thought Monaghan soil was stony and grey, but it’s certainly fertile ground for hurling in Castleblayney.

On Sunday they’ll bid to win a sixth Monaghan SHC title in a row when they play Carrickmacross. Even more impressively, if they come out on top it’ll be their 20th championship success in just 24 seasons.

They’ve been utterly dominant in Monaghan for over two decades now and it hasn’t happened by accident.

Huge work has been done to grow the game at underage level and make hurling a vibrant part of the sporting culture in Castleblayney and its hinterland.

That was very obvious last month when they held a first ever three-day Hurling Summer Camp attended by around 100 children between the ages of 5 and 13.

“It was the first one we've done,” says Castleblayney Hurling Club secretary, Sheila Forde.

“We've been talking about doing it for a number of years but then with Covid coming we couldn't do anything. We decided then this year to just go for it because a lot of kids hadn't much of an outlet during the summer for the past couple of years.

“We're very lucky in that we have a lot of coaches who are school-teachers so they had time available and did it on a voluntary basis. We had great help too from the Ulster GAA Hurling Development Officer, Oisin MacManus. He helped us out for a few days.

“Over 100 kids turned up for it which was brilliant considering it was the first time we ever did it. A lot of them were new kids that never played hurling before which was very encouraging, especially where we're from, Monaghan isn't a big hurling county.”

The genesis for the summer camp came from Castleblayney’s run to the All-Ireland Junior Club Final in 2019.

Reaching a national final in Croke Park was a PR coup for the club and really captured the imagination of the sporting youth of the town. The summer camp was a way of keeping that flame lit.

‘Blayney went into that All-Ireland Final against Kilkenny and Leinster champions Dunnamaggin as huge outsiders, but for much of the match they threatened to cause a massive upset before a late fade-out saw them lose by four points.

“It was just fantastic,” says Forde of their All-Ireland Final adventure.

“It was a great boost for everyone and a great boost for the town and all the die-hards who have been supporting us for years. We managed to get more people to follow us and it was a great old boost for the whole community.

“We came very close on the day too. We were four players short that year - my own son was abroad in Thailand and another lad was teaching abroad that year. We had two other lads who took a year out.

“I'd safely say if we had those four lads to maybe come on that would have been a big help for us because we just ran out of firepower in the last 10 minutes of the match.

“We were so disappointed we lost that because we knew we could win it because of the work we'd put in. Our manager at the time, Jimmy Leacy, said at the start of the year that we were going to get to the All-Ireland Final and we were just driven that year.

“But the overwhelming feeling was pride. We were just so very proud of how the team performed on the day.”

The pride they felt was understandable, because it’s taken a huge effort from a relatively small group of people to make Castleblayney Hurling club such a vibrant sporting outlet.

Hurling as a sport can be a hard sell in a football county like Monaghan, so it’s taken considerable hard work as well as plenty of imagination from a small knot of die-hards to keep the show so impressively on the road.

“There's a number of us who have been involved with the club the last number of years,” says Forde. “The same people who have been there from Day 1, sort of a thing.

“How I actually got involved was my husband played. I used to go to a lot of the matches and one day he came home from the club AGM and said, 'Oh, by the way, you're Secretary of the club now!'

“So, I did that for six years and now I'm back as secretary again now for the last four years. In between I had a few different jobs. It's really the same circle of people that have been doing the same jobs over and over again in a roundabout way.

“It started off years ago in the school. We had a school-teacher there, a local man, Frank McQuaid. He was the one who drove it on at that stage in secondary school. He would have got a lot of the kids out playing and started coaching it in the school and got people involved.

“Noel McGuigan then was another one of our prominent members. Jarlath Denny too, his father was from Mullinahone. The Bolgers come from down around there too. Our chairperson, Jimmy Leacy, is from Kilkenny.

“But most of the people who founded the club originally were all local 'Blayney people who just had a passion for hurling.”

Forde estimates that the ‘Blayney hurlers draw their players from “eight or nine” football only clubs in their catchment area.

Making that work can be a serious logistical challenge and requires a lot of planning, but everyone involved does it with a heart and a half.

“It's very rewarding,” she says. “I love going out to the matches. There's no better buzz than going to the games because everyone knows everyone.

“The hurling in 'Blaney, we're more like a family. A lot of other football clubs would envy us because they see how well we get on together even though we'd have no other connection if it wasn't for hurling.

“Even though we're all from different clubs, and these lads all play football against each other, when they play hurling together they're one team and one family. We all go out together at the end of the championship and the banter is great, everyone gets on really well together.

“They could kick football against each other the next day and be enemies, but once it comes to hurling they're the best of friends and a real team and they all stick together and stand up for one another.

“My local club is actually Blackhill football club. I coach the nursery in there as well. I have lots of wee boys I'd coach in Blackhill who I'd encourage to play hurling too so we all feed off each other and try to work together as best we can. It isn't always easy but we try to work together with managers and encourage everyone.

“It's all sport and you're just trying to get kids playing sport at the end of the day. We don't really care as long as they're playing some sort of sport, but they love their hurling so it's just about giving them the opportunity to play it.”

Perhaps that’s a lesson for other clubs in counties where the soil hasn’t always been deemed fertile ground for hurling.

If you make the effort, there’s no reason why you can’t grow the game and enrich your sporting environment.

Saturday, August 27

Monaghan Senior Hurling Championship Final

Castleblayney Hurling v Carrickmacross Hurling Club, Truagh, 3.30pm