Everybody on board. This isn’t a team going up the road, it is a family.
Once Ballymacelligott finally succeeded in negotiating Kerry’s junior championship, there was need for a matchday bus. Saturday and Sunday venues were no longer just a short spin into Austin Stack Park or Castleisland.
Transportation was required to carry the collective beyond county bounds and onto Clonmel, Mallow, Rathkeale, and now further up again.
Dan O’Shea is the Ballymacelligott full-back. He’s 35, shortly going on 36. He’s 18 seasons pulling on the blue shirt, shortly going on 19.
Dan has three kids. Clodagh is 11, Rían is five, and Dylan is two. The older two occupied a pair of seats on the team bus throughout the Munster journey and onto last weekend’s All-Ireland semi-final. No game is of such importance that family can’t be prioritised and space found.
“The five-year-old, Rían, is hugely immersed in it. He’s down at training with me most nights,” Dan explains.
“Clodagh and Rían, have come on the bus to all the away trips since we got out of Kerry. They’re very much a part of it, and it is great to have them involved. The mentors and players have embraced them and are so good to them. Great, great memories, and special to be able to share those memories with them.”
As a father of three, Dan has a deep appreciation for the incorporation of those closest on this Ballymac journey. The importance of family within a local community such as theirs was cruelly reinforced last May when Luke Silles, the teenage son of team selector Tony, tragically lost his life.
“This run has been absolutely massive for the whole community, it has really given the parish a lift. After the games, to have people coming up to you celebrating and tears in their eyes, the joy it is bringing to people has been amazing,” he continued.
“And then the year it has been, as well, with the devastating tragedy and very sad passing of Luke. Luke and his parents, Tony and Paula, his siblings, Oran and Aimee, they are always at the forefront of our thoughts. It’s such a difficult time and I hope that it’s brought some comfort to them, that it’s maybe somewhat of a distraction for them, if that’s the right word to use.
“They’re an incredible family, incredible people, just how they’ve picked up the pieces and are dealing with such a devastating loss because I just don’t know how they’re doing it.”
The full-back made his junior championship debut against Listowel back in 2008. It was 2022 before he was part of a Ballymac team that went as deep into the local championship as the last four.
The odd quarter-final appearance had been the highlight and sustenance of his first 14 years service. The late-season involvement of recent years is thus unrecognisable from the decade-and-a-half of early exit irrelevance that preceded it.
And so, there’s a genuine gratitude at having hung around long enough to be part of the turnaround and not watching it from outside the fence.
Those younger than him inside the fence might say the turnaround wouldn’t have happened but for the guiding hand of himself, Aidan Breen, and other experienced cast members.
“We often joke with the young lads, the Mairtín McKivergans, the Jack Joys, and Eoin Moriartys of the world that are coming through at 18 and 19 years of age, that all they’ve seen is success with the club, with the division St Kieran’s at minor level, and with the schools.
“It hadn’t obviously been that way. But all the while, you wouldn’t stay involved unless you were enjoying it. Personally, I’ve always loved it and always enjoyed it.
“We always had great people involved, but we would have been struggling for numbers and we might have been going through a bit of a transition. I’d be thinking about lads I soldiered with for years who have just missed this spell on account of retiring over the last few years, guys who gave huge service to the jersey but never made the breakthrough.
“I’m just trying to enjoy every moment of it, really, because I know there aren’t going to be too many more of these days ahead of me at this stage of my career.”
And with that, off they all go on the team bus bound for Croke Park. Up to four years ago, Dan had never played in a Kerry junior semi-final. Now he’ll wear No.3 in an All-Ireland final.
Eleven Kerry clubs went before them and succeeded in taking the final step. That is the group they want to join, not the misfortunate Kingdom four who came back down the road with nothing at the front of the bus.
“It would be massive. It’ll be the pinnacle of my career for sure playing with my club in Croke Park. I’d be hoping for some of our younger lads that it won’t be their last time, but for the likes of myself and Aidan Breen, this will be our one and only chance.”
For perseverance and punctuality, Sunday is a chance they’ve earned.