By John Harrington

In the GAA, nicknames have a habit of being hereditary.

Sometimes the same nickname is handed down from one generation to another, but occasionally it’s a more imaginative derivative which is passed on.

Eddie Byrne is the star forward on the Mount Leinster Rangers team that will contest Sunday’s AIB Leinster Club SHC semi-final, but down in Borris he’s more commonly known as ‘Feathers’.

Where did that come from? His father, one of the club’s founding members and also named Eddie Byrne, is known to all and sundry as ‘Big Bird’.

“Yeah, that’s it,” laughs Byrne. “I have to give (team-mate) Gary Doyle the credit for my nickname anyway.

“Yeah, everyone calls me that, pretty much. it's after sticking anyway, that's for sure.”

Eddie ‘Big Bird’ Byrne didn’t just pass on a family flair for nicknames to the next generation, he also ensured they grew up as immersed in Gaelic Games as he was.

“The auld lad was very involved so he's happy enough to see us all progressing with the club,” says Eddie Jnr.

“My brother Diarmuid is playing in the middle of the field for us now as well, so whatever about winning stuff with your team-mates, it's nice to win something with your family as well.

“Even from a young age you'd be going around to matches. I had four sisters and three of them were older than me and they would have been all training and I would have been at all of those trainings as well because mam would have been heavily involved in the camogie as well.

“Yeah, I basically sent six nights a week in the pitch. It's great to have that, like. There's other children around the country who don't have that situation to be in, and it was just nice to have it.”

As you might have guessed with a nickname like ‘Big Bird’, Eddie Byrne Snr was a fairly strapping specimen and his son is something similar.

At this time of the year a big man with a pair of hands as soft as Feathers' is worth his weight in gold, because he tends to be a more effective performer than the nippy player who likes a fast ball and a hard track.

“It's a totally different story to hurling in June and July. The ball is a lot slower, the ground is heavier, it probably suits us big lads a bit more than the little lads,” said Byrne.

“Yeah, it's a bit different alright. It's a new challenge and you have to expect that and look forward to it, I suppose. It's the complete hurler who can hurl all year around. It's a good challenge to have, yeah.”

Byrne was one of the young bucks on the team when Mount Leinster Rangers caused a stir by winning the AIB Leinster SHC back in 2013.

He turned 27 this week though so is now very much one of the established leaders in the team, and it’s a role that he’s enjoying.

“I'm in a different place, is right. I suppose I feel a bit more important in the dressing-groom now. I'd go around and give teh younger lads little nuggets of information on what to do in this situation or another. Cover this man here or something like that.

“It is different, in fairness, but I enjoy it. It's nice to be giving them a hand because when he I was their age I was getting a hand off the likes of Edward Coady and Frank Foley.

“It goes in circles I suppose. The lads that I'm giving the information to nowadays will be passing it on to the next generation. It's a nice position to be in.”

Mount Leinster Rangers will go into Sunday’s match against Offaly champions Kilcormac-Killoughey as slight underdogs, but their track-record of high achievement means they’re always confident no matter who they play.

"I suppose that's what 2013 gave everyone," said Byrne. "The fact that we were able to go and compete with household teams like Oulart The Ballagh.

“In fairness they (Kilcormac-Killoughey) are a big, strong team. They have very skilful hurlers to complement that too, the likes of Daniel Currams and Ciaran Slevin in the middle of the field, they're very good and would probably make any county team around Ireland.

“Yeah, it's going to be a tough battle of very similarly matched teams. We'll see what will happen on the day, I suppose.”