Some years ago, the famous Round Towers club from Dublin ventured into deepest county Antrim to play a local club in a hurling challenge, recalls An Fear Rua…

The village they were headed for was Ahoghill. Not being entirely familiar with the geography of the area the bus driver stopped in the main street to ask a local for directions to the GAA pitch. ‘What GAA pitch?’ the man replied in a surly manner. ‘I know of no GAA pitch. And if I did know, I wouldn’t fuckin’ tell yiz!’

Ah yes. That’s the kind of place Ahoghill was and, largely, still is. Not an easy place to be seen walking home after dark with a hurley under your oxter. It was also the place that Northern Primer Minister of the early Sixties, Cap’n Terence O’Neill hailed from. It was in a Bannside election at that time that Ian Paisley first burst onto the electoral stage when he almost unseated the good Cap’n. Paisley amassed over four thousand votes by the simple stratagem of pointing out that although O'Neill had ‘represented’ the area for many years of uncontested elections, most of the citizenry of Ahoghill and thereabouts – irrespective of their politics or religion – had nothing better than an outside toilet and no running water in their houses.

Now the local club, Clooney Gaels, step proudly onto Croke Park to face the more fancied Danesfort of Kilkenny in the All Ireland Junior Club hurling final. John Friel is the club secretary. He’s also wing back on the team. John says the Croker thing has really gripped their players and supporters.

Clooney Gaels are a remarkable club. Their registered membership last year was less than 80, and 35 of those were players. Yet they own their own grounds, clubrooms with four dressing rooms and they are thinking of building a major extension. They are literally surrounded by people whose loyalty would most certainly not be to Gaelic games, nor the GAA. Club members dare not go to the nearest town and wave their colours, in victory or at any other time. In the Republic it is difficult to imagine the challenges they on a daily basis.

They have been fire bombed, though thankfully not for a few years past. The club started with a set of sky blue jerseys donated by Ballymena United football club. Then in 1947, for the princely sum of £300, they bought land, thus becoming the first club in Antrim to purchase their own grounds and vest them in the GAA.

Clooney Gaels will bring three busloads of supporters to Dublin, including a double-decker. The team will travel down on Saturday night, as they did for the semi-final, because it would be too much to do the journey on the day of the game. The team includes seven Grahams, three brothers, a second set of two brothers and two first cousins, all of whom are related. There are also two Friels, Malachy and John, three Kellys, Brian, Gerard and John and two Neesons, Dominic and Francis. The team manager is Brendan Kelly, brother of the others. "Our current team is the first product of a major coaching scheme launched a few years ago," John Friel explained. "Sunday is going to be a huge day for us."

The GAA President, Nickey Brennan, himself a proud Kilkenny man, said no club had overcome greater obstacles to get to play in Croke Park: ‘You talk about fairy tales. This is the ultimate in fairy tales. This is the ultimate GAA in action. I mean Patrick’s Day is great as well… but this is the ultimate GAA in action. Yes, there will be a much smaller crowd. But as far as I’m concerned. It is as important that Croke Park is open to these people as it is to any other body inside or outside the GAA.'

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