For thirteen years, David Reidy toiled with Éire Óg Ennis, through ten quarter-finals, two semi-finals, and a county final defeat.  On Sunday, he finally captained his club to the top of Clare hurling, ending a 35-year wait with victory over Clooney-Quin in the county final.

Speaking to Balls on the Monday morning after Éire Óg sit top of the pile, Reidy was still in high spirits, grinning from ear to ear and still processing the weight of what had happened as his group ushered in a new era of success for the club.

I’ve been on the Éire Óg senior panel for the last thirteen, fourteen years and we’ve gotten to ten quarter-finals, two semi-finals and now two finals and then to get over the line eventually.

We lost in 2022 and the difference between 2022 and yesterday was the subs we brought on. We built a panel.

None of us were born, I think Danny [Russell] was the only person who was born in 1990 when they won it. It’s just been stories being told about a senior county championship and as players that wasn’t the goal when we broke onto the senior team until the last three years.

It’s not built overnight, it’s come over the last twelve, thirteen years so it has been a long time coming and it’s a happy Monday today.

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David Reidy Thrilled To Bring Good Times Back To Éire Óg With Clare Title

Of course, this Clare title win does not just belong to the Éire Óg players. It is also for the volunteers and supporters that have contributed so much in the over three decades since the club last reached this milestone.

For the experienced Clare forward it was the reception back at the club that left the biggest mark.

We went and had a quick bite to eat, a couple of pints, nothing too major and then it was back to the club.

The crowds of old and young that greeted us at the club, it was like going back into Istanbul, Galatasaray, one of them places that just has flares going.

Myself and Danny got off the bus lifting the cup and we couldn’t breathe because of the smoke that was coming around us.

The amount of support we had, it was grown men crying. It’s hard to put into words and it probably won’t sink in for another couple of days.

5 October 2025; Éire Óg Ennis captain David Reidy lifts the Canon Hamilton Cup after his side’s victory in the Clare County Senior Club Hurling Championship final match between Clooney Quin and Éire Óg Ennis at Zimmer Biomet Páirc Chíosóg in Ennis, Clare. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

They did manage to find a bit of time for some celebrating and it appears after 35 years of not having the Canon Hamilton cup in their possession, the Ennis people were a bit too keen to get their hands on the trophy.

The cup kind of separated last night, we were celebrating hard last night but we found it early this morning. We’re in Aylmers now at the moment, you’re lucky you got me because if you left it another hour you might not have got me!

We’ll go down to PJ’s, there’s a couple of pubs in town, into The Diamond and back into Cruises tonight

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This might not be the end of the success for Éire Óg this season. The club will play in a Clare senior football decider this weekend, going for their fourth title in five seasons in that code.

There’s probably just a small bit more than half the squad there because there’s a football championship that some of the lads have to go compete in next weekend.

There’s 12 between the two panels and obviously if one side of the house is winning it brings something into the other side.

As for Reidy himself, this victory has also put a spanner in the works for his plans over the winter months. The Clare star had planned a holiday to Africa with his partner in November, a trip that will now have to be postponed as the club embark on what they hope will be a lengthy provincial campaign.

Not that he minds all that much.

I have to talk to my missus because we’re supposed to be going to Morocco in the middle of November so I’m going to have to cancel that! You can be sure I’ll be playing Munster championship and cancelling the trip.

If you told me at the start of the year that it was going to cost me a couple of grand out of the pocket and a trip gone to Morocco for the Canon Hamilton to stay in Ennis I would have bit your hand off, so that’s only a small sacrifice and it’s not just me sacrificing.

The biggest thing is we’ve five or six weeks before that one so we’ll enjoy this one first.

5 October 2025; Éire Óg Ennis celebrate after victory in the Clare County Senior Club Hurling Championship final match between Clooney Quin and Éire Óg Ennis at Zimmer Biomet Páirc Chíosóg in Ennis, Clare. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

Reidy also reflected on the emotional build-up to the final and how the events of the previous weeks shaped what he said when lifting the Canon Hamilton Cup.

Éire Óg player Darren O’Brien lost his brother in the buildup to Sunday’s final, something that added to the emotion around the occasion for everybody involved.

We had a media night on the Sunday and on the Monday I wrote the speech. I probably didn’t tell anybody that I wrote it but I had it on the computer.

On the Friday evening before the county final I wrote it out onto a page and I changed it slightly due to the circumstances of the last few weeks, the O’Brien family lost, and Darren especially, lost a brother during the week which was hard to take.

It was emotional for the Éire Óg community so there was a couple of bits and pieces added into it.

For David Reidy, it’s more than just a medal or a cup. It’s a moment thirteen years in the making and one that, flares and all, will never be forgotten.

You get the sense that not many people associated with the Éire Óg club will allow it to slip from their memory.

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