Written by TJ Flynn

ON one of those roundabouts outside Ennis and heading for Limerick, stood a sign painted in Kilmurry green and red. Do It For Callinan, it read.
The sentiment was simple yet clear. One of the club’s stalwarts had been hard done by and the west Clare club would use this as yet another reason to push past Portlaoise, favourites to emerge from the semi-final at the Gaelic Grounds having won their provincial championship for the seventh time earlier this season.
In the middle of last week manager Micheál McDermott was asked for his opinion on Declan Callinan’s suspension. On that occasion, McDermott also spoke of the binding and uniting affect the suspension of Declan Callinan would have on Kilmurry.
While McDermott was right to try and muster some positives from Callinan’s controversial suspension (remember, the GAA authorities only suspended Callinan on TV evidence, having received a letter from Tír Chonaill Gaels which pointed out that the Kilmurry Ibrickane man did not strike a player from the London club) the spark he aimed to find from the suspension wasn’t entirely necessary.
Kilmurry, simply, did not require further motivation for getting to an All-Ireland Club Final and making it to the hallowed soil of Croke Park.
When they went down to Drom Broadford in last year’s Munster Final, they re-grouped and set their sights on not Clare, but the province. Not too many clubs would be in the position to hit such a target and few, if any, would openly admit as such. But Kilmurry have had the courage to shoot for the top and not make any apologies for doing so.
It was that desire and drive that pushed them over the line on Sunday in Limerick. It wasn’t the early sending off of Brian Mulligan and any suggestion that the referee, this sending off or the subsequent dismissal of Brian McCormack helped Kilmurry over the line is pure wind.
On the television screens and on the radio waves, Michael Duffy, the referee, made the news for the treatment he received from a tiny sector of the Portlaoise crowd. Kilmurry will live with this.
If anything, should this incident continue to deflect from the utterly sparkling football they played, then there’s no harm in that. They came into this semi-final under the radar and if either the Ulster or the Connaught champions take Kilmurry for granted on March 17, then let them.
But back to the reasons why they didn’t just win on Sunday, but why they steam-rolled past Portlaoise.
This was one of the best examples of applied football anybody is likely to see. Each player knew his role. Each gave their utmost. It was a unified performance.
At half-time, you could sense this. Kilmurry lead by five but considering the possession and the territory they enjoyed, they should have been ahead by more.
Beneath the stand at Limerick two Kilmurry men stood outside the tearoom. Both had sons on the team. One slapped the back of the other.
“It’s there for us, horse. It’s there for us.”
That reaction to the first-half said it all. They were ahead, yet they would take nothing for granted. Croke Park and March 17 would never be taken for granted.
Had Portlaoise come out strongly at the start of the second-half, they could have asked questions of Kilmurry. That they didn’t was, once more, down to the determination of the Clare champions. Inside the opening six minutes they had stretched that five point lead to seven and the gulf was opening.
By the time Odran O’Dwyer stepped onto the grass, the game was done and when the final whistle went - just before the club support lined the perimeter of the field in anticipation of a moment they had waited and waited for – some of the most jubilant scenes in club football exploded over the Gaelic Grounds.
When they reached Ennis and nosed west past that roundabout once more, Kilmurry knew that they might have won for Callinan, but they didn’t win because of him.
They won because of their hunger, speed, sharpness, dedication, commitment to every ball. They won, because true to form, they never relented.

Written by Joe Ó Muircheartaigh

Kilmurry Ibrickane 1-14  - Portlaoise 0-8 at The Gaelic Grounds, Limerick

IT wasn’t supposed to be like this.
It was supposed to be like this: The St Paddy’s Day parade was down for March 21, just so as all the good folk of Portlaoise would have a free run to be Croke Park on March 17 to support the town’s footballers in the All-Ireland final.
Thing is, Kilmurry Ibrickane were armed with this knowledge on the flight back from London after they’d beaten Tír Chonaill Gaels - at once they resolved to bring Portlaoise to ground.
However, in their wildest imaginations, they couldn’t have imagined the dramatic circumstances in which it would happen.
Winners by nine points after racking up 1-14 - that’s more that their combined total in the Munster final and All-Ireland quarter-final games.
Factor in Portlaoise being down to 14 men after 40 seconds and down to 13 after 38 minutes; the referee getting a Garda escort off the field afterwards, just before the suspended Declan Callinan was chaired off the same field and you have a melting pot of events on a remarkable football day.
Kilmurry Ibrickane’s day. It’s true that the red cards given to Brian Mulligan and Brian McCormack had a huge bearing on the game, but such was the driven nature of Kilmurry’s display over the hour, it’s hard to see even a 15-man Portlaoise team being able to live with them.
Of course, we’ll never know, but there’s no denying that Kilmurry Ibrickane were a different class on this day - something that manifested itself in the forwards, that much-maligned group who produced the goods thanks to explosive performances from Michael O’Dwyer, Noel Downes and Stephen Moloney.
They fired as Kilmurry fired themselves into the dreamland of an All-Ireland final.
The stuff of dreams yes, but dreams that came true spectacularly for Kilmurry, just as they blew up in the faces of a Portlaoise side that seemed shell-shocked from the second that Michael Duffy sensationally red-carded Brian Mulligan after a close-line tackle on Shane Hickey in the opening minute.
The Kilmurry Kop who had laid claim to most of the Mackey Stand roared and within seconds the team roared too and hit three points inside eight minutes to make early hay with their numerical advantage.
They’d been here before though - back in the ‘05 semi-final against Ballina Stephenites they led by the same margin after a fast start, but then lost their way.
Second time around it was very different, even though there was a lull when Paul Cahillane and Brian McCormack pegged back points after Michael O’Dwyer, Enda Coughlan and Ian McInerney had got Kilmurry off to a flier.
It was a temporary lull, however, as a booming 53-yard free from McInerney and then a brilliantly worked score finished over the bar by Noel Downes in the 18th minute had Kilmurry back on track.
And from there they never lost sight of the finishing line as they cut through a porous Portlaoise defence to build up a healthy 0-9 to 0-4 interval lead.
It was impressive stuff, with the displays of Downes and O’Dwyer especially catching the eye, while the selfless work of Moloney was at the core of their success.
Only Portlaoise captain Brian McCormack and centre-back Cahir Healy seemed to be taking the fight - Healy dominated his sector while McCormack’s second point in the 24th minute pegged it back to a 0-7 to 0-3 game.
However, the point scored by his marker Peter O’Dwyer two minutes later was way more significant in the overall scheme of things. The strong man of the Kilmurry team rode three tackles as he bulldozed his way towards goal, but at the end of it all still had the class and composure to drive over a great point from 30 yards off his left.
Portlaoise didn’t have the same drive and determination; they didn’t have the same class either, especially once their trump card in the forwards, Paul Cahillane, was mastered by Martin McMahon.
McMahon’s performance on Cahillane was the contest between the Clare backs and the Portlaoise forwards in microcosm - the space they were afforded in Laois and in Leinster wasn’t there against a set of backs who hounded them time and time again into cul-de-sacs and laterally across the field before they coughed up possession or kicked the ball wide.
It was the same by Kilmurry in the Munster championship and All-Ireland quarter-final - it’s never any other way with these backs, but the difference was with the forward display that subsequently pounded Portlaoise into submission long before the final whistle.
Michael O’Dwyer’s point one minute after half-time was nearly as significant as his older brother’s - he took a heavy shoulder that left his marker Eoin Bland on the deck and then flashed the ball over the bar to extend Kilmurry’s lead to six.
When Johnny Daly pointed a free five minutes later Portlaoise looked beaten, even though a Paul Cahillane point in the 38th minute gave them hope. It came just after Kevin Fitzpatrick’s speculative shot from 50 yards that ended up in the net was ruled out for a square ball infringement against Cahillane.
But before Portlaoise could mount another attack Brian McCormack was red carded after picking up a second yellow and all Portlaoise hope extinguished.
All that remained was for Kilmurry to apply the killer blow and it came with the next score of the game, Noel Downes’ goal  as he coolly sidefooted the ball home past the advancing Michael Nolan after a perceptive through ball from Mark McCarthy.
There were still 16 minutes on the clock, but this game had run it’s course long before the final whistle as Kilmurry slapped into cruise control for Croke Park long before the end.
 

Written by Joe Ó Muircheartaigh

All-Ireland Club finalists in plea to the Clare County Board for a run free from local club fixtures ahead of date with destiny in Croke Park on St Patrick’s Day

KILMURRY Ibrickane manager Micheál McDermott has appealed to the Clare County Board to accede to a request to call off their Cusack Cup game against Doonbeg this Saturday as they begin their countdown to the All-Ireland Club Final against either St Gall’s or Corofin.
However, the appeal has fallen on deaf ears, with the county board resolving on Monday night to press ahead with the game that’s scheduled to take place in Shanahan McNamara Memorial Park at 3pm on Saturday.
However, McDermott, who doubles as Clare manager has told The Clare People that he’s hopeful that some arrangement can be brokered in the coming days so as to give Kilmurry every advantage ahead of the most important day in Clare club football history.
“We would hope that something could be done,” McDermott said on Monday night. “I know there are rules and regulations there and that if a game is called off it has to be played within seven days, but the fact that we’re in an All-Ireland Final we’d hope that there’d be some manoeuvre.
“It’s not that we’re looking for special treatment, but the fact that there’s a six week break in the Cusack Cup after this weekend, there’d be plenty of time to re-fix the Doonbeg game.
“This week is important for us because it’s all about recovery from Sunday before we started building it up again for the final on March 17. If the county board are determined that the fixture goes ahead, we’ll fulfill it, but we’d have to put out a weakened team.”
After Sunday’s victory, McDermott told The Clare People that nothing can come in the way of Kilmurry’s All-Ireland Final preparations.
“You get a once in a lifetime opportunity to get to an All-Ireland Club Final; you get a once in a lifetime opportunity to win an All-Ireland Club Final. For players and for management you can’t let that opportunity pass,” he said.
“It’s no use going up for the occasion to enjoy the day – that’s bullshit as far as I’m concerned. We’re all about winning and that’s what we’re going to be like on March 17,” he added.