{"id":138423,"date":"2025-10-22T14:23:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T14:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/138423\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T14:23:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T14:23:12","slug":"carraig-na-bhfear-fifty-years-chasing-and-one-more-step-to-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/138423\/","title":{"rendered":"Carraig na bhFear fifty years chasing \u2013 and one more step to history"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carraig na bhFear are always there or thereabouts in both codes, but in recent years, more often than not, success has come with the small ball.<\/p>\n

Their hurlers were pipped by Cobh for a place in the East Cork Junior A Hurling Championship final, but the footballers struck back in style \u2013 edging last year\u2019s runners-up Carrigtwohill by a single point to book their spot in Monday\u2019s decider.<\/p>\n

For defender Rory McCarthy, those closing minutes felt endless.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were under serious pressure there towards the end,\u201d he begins. \u201cI mean, Carrigtwohill are always going to be a good team when we come up against them, so it was a great battle.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe game kind of switched in the second half. We were still trying to push on, but the scores weren’t coming our way, and they were really bringing the game to us.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"RonanRonan Blackton, Erin’s Own and Rory McCarthy Carraig na bhFear with the Jim Ryan Cup at the launch of the East Cork Junior A Football Championship final in Ballinacurra. Picture: Denis O’Flynn<\/p>\n

Even getting that far was no easy path. They\u2019d already dethroned the reigning champions Castlemartyr in the quarter-final \u2013 a result that showed how badly this group want to win it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’d be huge, to be honest. Personally, it’d mean the world to me,\u201d Rory explains. \u201cAll I want to do is go out and win the east Cork football.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know the lads as well, everyone on the team wants it. We were driving for it all year. From the start of the year, that was the aim. And we’ll give everything to try and get that win.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a long wait. Half a century since Carraig na bhFear last tasted Junior A Football success \u2013 fifty years of near-misses, restarts and rebuilds.<\/p>\n

\"Erin'sErin’s Own captain Ronan Blackton and Carraig na bhFear captain Tadhg O’Donoghue before the East Cork JAFC group game in Glenville, with referee Willie Wallace.<\/p>\n

Manager Liam Ryan has lived most of it, and he knows exactly what an East Cork title would mean.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh look, it would be unreal,\u201d Ryan remarks. \u201cI’ve been trying myself since early on, trying to win it as a player. I came back as a manager then three years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got to the final, disappointing that day. So hopefully we’ll take that back, the disappointment out of that, and put it into this year. Hopefully, 50 years on is on the cards!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

They mightn\u2019t have made it this far without a moment of sheer instinct from Timmy Geaney \u2013 the \u201chand of God\u201d save to stop a goal that preserved their lead in the dying seconds.<\/p>\n

\u201cVery good first half,\u201d Ryan said. \u201c We played good football. I suppose we had a lead and just tried to protect that lead and they came back at us. But some last-ditch defending at the end. The hand of God, Timmy Geaney saved us, last kick of the game!”<\/p>\n

Now, standing between Carraig na bhFear and history is a familiar foe. Erin\u2019s Own edged them by a single point, 0-10 to 0-9, when they met earlier in the campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe played Erin’s Own and they beat us by a point. Deservedly so, I suppose.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut look, they’re a senior club. You have that mentality with senior players. They\u2019ll be probably favourites going into the final, but I wouldn’t write us off.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carraig na bhFear are always there or thereabouts in both codes, but in recent years, more often than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138424,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[1263,10417,24,18,19,17,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-138423","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-cork-sport","9":"tag-gaelic-football","10":"tag-cork-gaa","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}