Last week we looked back at the club’s first and only MacCurtain Cup victory – a cup named in honour of the former Lord Mayor Tomas MacCurtain. The City Division board also runs an equivalent competition for football – the McSwiney Cup. This is named, of course, in honour of Terence McSwiney, the other former Lord Mayor whose 100 year death anniversary took place this year. 

We have had a lot more success in this particular competition. We won our first ever McSwiney Cup in 2003 and started an incredible and unprecedented 10 in a row victories. In the quarter final we had a comfortable if not spectacular victory over St Vincents on a final score of 0-11 to 0-04. There was nothing comfortable about the remaining games however. It was notable that the final and semi-final that year were both won by one point with both games going to extra time. The semi-final was a home tie in White’s Cross against Passage who had a much tougher game coming in against Brian Dillons. Played on a blustery early November morning, the final score in this game was 1-13 to 2-09 with Colm Sheehan getting the goal. Conor Kelleher was in top form on frees while Donncha Murnane got two crucial points from play in the second half of normal time when the game could have gone either way.  

The final pitted us against the championship winners Mayfield; a team that we had a massive rivalry with at that time. The clubs respective B sides had met in the Seandun Cup final a few weeks previous with Mayfield winning by two points. Having also lost the junior A league final a week earlier against St. Finbarrs, the club was anxious not to end up on the losing side in a final for a third time that month.  Mayfied who themselves came into the game having lost their county junior A football championhip tie against Cill Na Marta  would have been strong favourites for that game and with seven minutes to go they were justifying that tag as they lead by five points.  It was going to take something special for White’s Cross to end their losing streak. This duly came. First of all Conor Kelleher, who would finish scorer in chief with a personal tally of 1-07, got his goal from a 13 metre free while it was our corner back Sean Murnane who scored two late points which pushed the game to extra time. Sean Murnane , the corner back, was our top scorer from play scoring three points in total. If that was unusual, the key score in the extra-time period came from our starting goal-keeper. Damien Keneally was a regular corner forward but filled in on the day as regular goalkeeper Billy Sheehan was unavailable. In extra time he reverted back to corner forward in a swap with his brother Jonathan who went into goal. This proved to be a master stroke as Kenneally latched onto a lose ball in the square to bury the ball to the Mayfield net. That gave the team a cushion and though they faced a late onslaught from Mayfield, White’s Cross managed to hold on for a deserved victory. 

Team: Damien Kenneally (1-0) Victor O’Sullivan, Paul Cashman, Sean Murnane (0-3), Donal Kelly, Alan Hurst, John O’Connell (0-1), Martin Kelleher, Eoin Murnane, Jason Kelly, Kevin Buckley, Edwin Buckley, Jonathan Kenneally(0-1), Conor Kelleher (1-07), Colm Sheehan.  

White’s Cross GAA congratulates Murt Kelleher on his selection to the Cork Under 21 football team.  Murt played at midfield for Cork in their Munster championship semi-final against Waterford at Walsh Park last month.  Murt has been involved with this side since last May but this was their first competitive outing and his first time playing championship football for the Rebels. 

It looked in the early stages as though it was going to be the stuff-of-dreams as this championship new-comer won an early Cork kick-out and was again at the end of the attack to score a brilliant opening goal for the Reds.  Murt’s fine goal, Cork’s opening score, was just the tonic the team needed and they raced into a 2-5 to 0-2 lead.

However soon after it started to go horribly wrong and Cork ended up losing the game by two points to the Deise.  While many saw this as a new low for Cork football, those in Walsh Park on that night knew instead that it was a watershed for Waterford football.  This was evidenced by their win over Kerry the following week in the Munster final, their first ever provincial title at this grade.  Well done Murt on representing your club and county with distinction!