From The Avondhu October 19th 2020
The year 2020 was to see the Cork City Division GAA board give special attention to the MacCurtain and MacSwiney Cup competitions given that this year marks the centenary of the passing of the two former Lord Mayors of the City of whom the trophies are named after. White’s Cross GAA , who entered the City Division board in 1981 have had success in winning both trophies. We won MacCurtain Cup in 1992 while we won the MacSwiney Cup on 10 occasions. Remarkably, all these wins came in an historic and unprecedented 10 in a row of successes – an unbeaten sequence stretching from 2003 to 2012. Given the week that is in it, this week’s article starts the looks back on our victories in those competitions. We will start, not with one of the final victories themselves but rather the time where we met the MacSwiney family themselves.
We were extremely fortunate in 2005, as part of Cork’s European City of Culture celebrations to be given the opportunity to bring the MacSwiney Cup to Dublin and meet descendants of Terence MacSwiney, including his daughter Máire Nic Suibhne Brugha, his grandson Cathal Brugha and great-grandson Cathal Óg Brugha. The latter plays with the Kilmacud Crokes club in the capital therefore a game was arranged between the MacSwiney Cup champions (ourselves) and the club with whom the MacSwiney family are involved with.
Here follows a report of this trip in 2005 from our own archives:
White’s Cross (Cork) 1-12
Kilmacud Crokes (Dublin) 2-6
An early rise Saturday morning, had the White’s Cross lads on the road at 7 o’ clock and in Dublin before 11:30. Players, mentors and club officials then checked into their Bewley’s Hotel base in Leopardsatown before making the short trek over to the Kilmacud Grounds.
White’s Cross, showing no signs of the long bus journey, started the game well and raced into an early lead with Murt Kelleher and Kevin Buckley slotting over early scores. A great move from the middle of the field saw John Drummy, Rick Burke and Pat Hennessy all combine to send Conor Kelleher through for the game’s opening goal, after 14 minutes. The Dublin side responded with a couple of points before Eoghan Kelleher slotted over a fine long range effort. Billy Sheahan pulled off an excellent save form the Crokes full-froward to deny them a goal on twenty minutes. The half time score saw White’s Cross lead 1-6 to 0-3.
The Dublin lads upped the tempo early in the second half to reduce the deficit to four points. White’s Cross again responded from a free slotted over, after a foul on Conor Buckley. Strong defence play by John O’ Connell, Padraig and Eoin Murnane, Barry O’ Brien and John Meade soaked up constant pressure. However the midfield partnership of John Drummy and Murt Kelleher again regained the initiative and saw the Cork lads add further points.
However after 47 minutes the Crokes boys scored their first goal of the day and this was followed soon after by a dubious penalty decision favouring the Dublin side. The initial kick was saved well by Sheahan only for the referee to give the Crokes centre-forward a second chance, by ruling a re-kick. This second effort was converted to leave White’s Cross holding a slender two point advantage. Dave Buckley, fresh on the field, then fisted over brilliantly to alleviate the pressure, after Paul Noonan had seen his effort go just wide.
The last five minutes saw four points being exchaged equally by both sides for the Cork lads to win out by three.