Eric Cantona once said 1966 was a great year for British football because he was born that year.
I’ll go with 1971 being a great year because that’s when the Féile (na nGael) was born!
We were lucky enough to qualify for a Leinster Féile in 1984 in Rosenallis and the National Finals in Ramsgrange the following year. The games were played on Saturday mornings. I still remember the sloped pitch in Rosenallis and the home side having a 3 and a 14 called Miley and Dinny – Glenroe was at the height of its popularity on RTÉ at the time!
The weekend away itself was a huge novelty. The host club put you up with families in their community and, later that year, we returned the favour when Rosenallis came to McGrath Park. That was also the day our near neighbours across the border, St Martin’s, won their only Kilkenny Senior Hurling Championship, defeating the Fennelly-inspired Ballyhale Shamrocks. Our great family friend, the late Paddy Lawler, and his teammates then followed it up by going all the way to All-Ireland glory against the Connollys of Castlegar.
Even at that age you’d keep an eye on players you had come up against. Declan Conroy and Seamus Dooley both went on to feature prominently with good Laois teams for many years.
The Wexford trip had everything. My good friend Niall Jordan was paired with me. A rickety teapot and a lovely dinner in County Chairman Simon Kennedy’s house – our hosts had been absent, a long story! – were among the off-field highlights.
On the field, after defeating our hosts, we faced Borris (Mount Leinster Rangers) in the knockout stages. The previous Monday we had beaten them in the U14 B Championship by six or seven points, but this meeting was much tighter. Our hearts were broken in the final attack when Tommy “Johnsie” Murphy found the net to give them a one-point victory.
Although we were over the age ourselves by then, we still got involved when Conahy Shamrocks came for the Leinster Féile in 1986. One Canice Brennan was our exchange student!
Fast forward to 2019 and it’s off to Cork and Kerry, this time as the responsible adults. Sonny and everyone in Crotta O’Neills (Kilflynn) made us feel like kings.
Our knockout game was against Eoin Kelly’s Passage in Mourneabbey on the Saturday afternoon. And guess what happened? Joe Comerford’s injury-time goal was our “Johnsie Murphy” moment. What goes around comes around.
Now we come to the present day. A combination, I’d imagine, of Covid, GDPR, Garda vetting and the change to U15 has transformed Féile into a one-day event.
Naomh Bríd hosted Knockbridge and six other clubs at The Blues’ pitch. The hosts lost the Cup final by the minimum margin to Longford Slashers, having drawn with them in the group stages, showing just how little separated the teams. Latton defeated Cootehill in the Shield final, with schoolmates finding themselves on opposite sides far from home.
My job for the day was car parking, which meant plenty of interaction with traffic and visitors alike. When two cars told me they were from Ballyhaunis, alarm bells rang immediately—they should have been in Fenagh! The occasional sliotar clearing the net meant dodging traffic was now officially part of the job description.
I also had a lovely chat with a man from Bunclody who was following their camogie team in Carlow Town Hurling Club. His family had previously hosted players from Slaughtneil and, all these years later, they were still in touch.
The games only last an hour, or just 24 minutes in Féile. But the memories, the friendships and the connections last a lifetime.
The Bunclody man agreed wholeheartedly.
