Tipperary Hurling Press Evening
My Club and I: Brendan Maher - Borris-Ileigh
By Brian Murphy
In this week's My Club and I, we speak to Tipperary captain Brendan Maher about his club Borris-Ileigh.
Borris-Ileigh are a senior hurling team with a proud tradition and rich history based in the town of Borrisoleigh in the centre of Tipperary, midway between the bigger towns of Thurles and Nenagh.
Borrisoleigh GAA Club was founded in 1886 and competed in the first-ever Tipperary SHC the following year, but the club in its current guise, Borris-Ileigh GAA, came into existence in 1948 following an amalgamation with Ileigh Hurling Club.
In that time, the club has won six Tipperary SHC titles, 14 North Tipperary titles (one of them coming as Borrisoleigh in 1947) and, famously, the Munster and All-Ireland club titles in 1986-87.
Located deep in the heartland of Tipperary hurling, Borrisoleigh is situated on the dividing line between the North and Mid Tipperary divisions. In fact, in the early days Borrisoleigh competed in the Mid-Tipperary Championship and won the title back in 1949.
Within minutes of Borris-Ileigh are many of the powerhouses of the Tipperary club scene, including Mid-Tipperary sides Drom and Inch, Upperchurch Drombane and JK Brackens, and their great rivals in the North Tipperary Championship, Toomevara and Templederry Kenyons.
Although it is now 29 years since their last senior county title, and eight years since they won the North Tipperary title, there is a great tradition of Borris-Ileigh men wearing the blue and gold of Tipperary. Indeed, three Borris men have captained Tipperary to All-Ireland titles - Seán Kenny in 1950, Jimmy Finn in 1951 and Bobby Ryan in 1989, all of whom are depicted in a mural on the wall of Stapleton's pub in the town.
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Maher captained Tipperary to the All-Ireland minor title in 2007 and, as captain of the county's senior hurling team, is hoping to follow in the footsteps of his storied clubmates by becoming the fourth Borris man to lead the county to All-Ireland glory.
Maher, along with Paddy Stapleton and Conor Kenny, is one of three Borris-Ileigh players on the county panel at the moment, while Philip Maher was on the 2001 All-Ireland winning side.
Older brothers Declan, Seán and Martin all played for the club in the recent past, but all three have now retired from club duty and 26-year-old Brendan is the only one of the four Maher boys still regularly pulling on the maroon and white jersey.
For more, visit www.borris-ileighgaa.com
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The location of Borrisoleigh, right in the hurling heartland of North Tipperary
Q: Can you tell us a little about Borrisoleigh itself and where it is located within the county?
A: Borrisoleigh is located fairly centrally geographically in Tipperary. The way I always describe it to people is that we are between Thurles and Nenagh - we're on the main road between Thurles and Nenagh about 10 minutes out from Thurles. It's a big village or a small town. The population is usually around the 1,500 mark, but I couldn't be sure exactly what it is at the moment. We would be known for Tipperary Water, and they have a big factory in the town, which provides an awful lot of employment.
Q: The club is located in the middle of an area where club hurling is particularly strong. Who are your rivals and what other big clubs are near Borrisoleigh?
A: We're surrounded by a lot of senior clubs - Upperchurch, Toomevara, Templederry, Templemore and Drom and Inch. There's great rivalry amongst all those clubs and we are at the edge because we play in the North Tipperary and the likes of JK Brackens (Templemore), Upperchurch and Drom and Inch would be in Mid-Tipperary. We are at the dividing line between the two.
There's a proud tradition of hurling in Borrisoleigh and we have won North Tipperary and County titles. We're privileged to have also won the All-Ireland club title in the 1986-87 season. Unfortunately over the past 20-odd years we haven't been as successful. Since I started we have had a couple of North Tipperary final wins and got to a county semi-final a couple of years ago but we are a bit away from that level at present.
Q: There is a huge history in the club, dating back to the 19th century. Is that something you are aware of when you pull on the jersey and are you reminded of that when you are in the town or even in the clubhouse?
BM: Yes. There have been an awful lot of players who have come out of Borrisoleigh and represented Tipperary. We've had three All-Ireland winning captains from Borrisoleigh so from my own point of view, to follow in those footsteps would be something I would strive to do. We've always had representation on Tipperary panels at all levels. Although we haven't as much success at senior level as we would have liked, we always seem to have two or three players involved with the county. We have myself, Paddy Stapleton and Conor Kenny at present and before us there was Martin and Philip Maher, fellas like that, so there was always someone around to look up to.
Q: When you were made captain of the Tipperary senior team last year, were you aware of the fact that there were three All-Ireland winning captains from the club before you and would that make it extra special if you did manage to follow in their footsteps?
A: Yes, When I was made captain it was my dream to lift the Liam MacCarthy Cup. I imagined being held in the same regard as those three winning captains because the respect for those three men - Jimmy Finn, Seán Kenny and Bobby Ryan - within the club is huge. It would be a dream to have my name beside them in a roll of honour in the club. There's a mural of the three winning captains in Stapleton's pub in the town and I'm up there as a minor winning captain but I would love to be up there as a senior winning captain to be honest.
(Bobby Ryan, a Borris-Ileigh and Tipperary icon
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Q: As a three-time All Star and the last clubman to captain Tipperary to an All-Ireland title in 1989, Bobby Ryan must be revered in Borrisoleigh?
A: Bobby was a great player, but he's a very busy man farming at the moment and we don't see him down in the park as much as he would like to be because he is so busy. But he would come and speak to us whenever he can. Whenever you meet him, he'd always be asking you how you are doing. He's someone I would always have looked up to and still look up to. You'd have to have huge respect for a man like Bobby and for what he has achieved.
Q: You family has a massive connection with the club. Can you tell us about some of the other Mahers who have played for Borris-Ileigh?
A: I have three older brothers. Martin would have been the only one of the three to play for Tipp at senior level. Seán and Declan would have played minor and U21 for the county and Declan played Intermediate for Tipp, qualifying to play at that level because he had been away for a year.
They are a good bit older than me and they are all actually retired from the club this year so I am the only one left now flying the flag, unfortunately. They'll move on and do a bit of coaching and Martin is already involved with Thurles CBS and they are looking forward to a Harty Cup final on Saturday. Seán is involved with the club's minors and Declan is involved with various teams as well so they will still be heavily involved.
Q: Were your parents involved in the club before you?
A: We're all natives of Borrisoleigh so we would have had a big involvement. My father was treasurer of the club for 14 or 15 years and stepped down a few years ago. My mother washes four or five sets of jerseys every year and still does that. We're all from Borrisoleigh where my parents grew up and we have all stayed there.
Q: What are your memories from your early days playing with the club? Did you enjoy much success as an underage player?
A: I can remember my first game - I was five and I played an U10 game. With a small place like Boris, numbers tend to be a problem so I was drafted in as a five-year-old to play in goals for an U10 game. We had success to a degree and I have county titles at U14 and U16 level and a few football medals as well - even though we are predominantly a hurling club, we do play a bit of football as well. I had reasonable success but not as much as you would like. I played in a few finals we were beaten in as well. But, since I started playing senior hurling, I played a North Tipperary final in 2005 and two years later I won another, so I thought I was set with the club. But unfortunately we have failed to bring home some silverware since so it's something that is highly motivating for us as a club - to try and bring some silverware back.
A view from the stand at Borris-Ileigh GAA
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Q: Did you make your full senior debut for the club in the 2005 North Tipperary final?
A: Yes, my full debut was in a North final against Nenagh Éire Óg. I think I came on as a sub for a few minutes in the quarter-final, but being only 16 I was away on holidays for the semi-final and wasn't around. But I came back for the final and I was hurling quite well for the minors at the time and so they decided to start me in the North final, which was a daunting experience but it was a great one to look back on after.
Q: Things must have gone well for you because you scored three points from play that day...
A: Yeah, it worked out well for. We'll describe that as a good day at the office and it was nice for my full debut to work out so well.
Q: The last major title the club won was the 2007 North Tipperary final. Can you explain the lack of success in the last few years at senior level?
A: We've been very close. We lost out in semi-finals four out of the last five years and we contested a North Tipperary final in 2010 - that was the last final we contested. If you are looking at producing players, you have to look to the juvenile structure and it's something we are working on heavily at the moment and hopefully that will bring success with it further down the line.
If you look at any successful teams, you can nearly always trace it back to strong and successful underage teams. You have to get coaches into the schools and the right coaches in working with juvenile teams in the club, and all the right structures in place. That's something we have worked very hard on in the last few years and this year we are doing up a new plan for the juvenile club. Hopefully we will reap the rewards of that in years to come.
Q: There has been a lot of redevelopment work done at the club in recent years. Where is that work at now and what are the facilities like?
A: We have a new pitch right beside the existing pitch and we have a walking track around it, which is great and all members of the community are welcome to use it. It has created a great buzz around the place and we have had to do an awful lot of fundraising, and have had great support from the local community and outside of Borrisoleigh, which has been a great help. At the moment, we are trying to fundraise for a new complex for the club and if that did go ahead it would be great for the club.
Borris-Ileigh duo Paddy Stapleton and Brendan Maher celebrate Tipperary's 2014 All-Ireland semi-final win over Cork
