![\"Paul](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4924496_316_articleinlinemobile_Ballinhassig_20v_20Upperchurch_20in_20the_20Munster_20IHC_202.jpg\" "\\"Paul")
Paul Ryan, Upperchurch Drombane, clearing the Sliotar against Kevin Maguire, Ballinhassig in the AIB Munster GAA Hurling Intermediate Club Championship Semi Final in Semple Stadium<\/p>\nA cloud hung low this week over Upperchurch-Drombane\u2019s idyllic winter. A central figure in the community, Niamh Kinnane, has died. A publican \u2014 Paddy Kinnane\u2019s famed place that draws them from all over \u2014 but so much more.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a beautiful tribute on Tipp FM, John G O\u2019Dwyer put it like this: \u201cA light has gone out in all our lives. She got so many things done for Upperchurch. Made it a model of how communities should develop.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Keith Ryan has captained the club\u2019s hurlers to a historic visit to Croke Park for Saturday\u2019s All-Ireland club intermediate final with Mayo\u2019s Tooreen, but at Wednesday\u2019s preliminaries his mind was on Niamh\u2019s funeral. \u201cThere will be a huge crowd. A great woman. She was fierce well-known around the place. Kinnane\u2019s is at the heart of the village. We were back there after a few of the wins. It\u2019s very tough on everyone.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Upperchurch-Drombane is a rural parish in Mid Tipp\u2019s Slieve Felim hills. Small places rely on big ambition and Niamh Kinnane was stuck deep in nearly every local mission.<\/p>\n
A Macra na Feirme stalwart, kingpin of the district development. The historical society, the walking festival, the active retired, housing for elderly, the IT centre, the community fitness hub.<\/p>\n
Besides all of that, a noted storyteller and all-round gas woman.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The pub, opened by her father Paddy in 1927, who died when Niamh was three, is renowned for its welcome and her sister Siobh\u00e1n\u2019s cooking. She and Siobh\u00e1n were honoured earlier this year at a council civic reception for services to Tipperary.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Upperchurch, you found all the best of rural Ireland,\u201d said John G O\u2019Dwyer.<\/p>\n
In a lovely interview with Tipp FM a few years ago, Niamh Kinnane explained the spirit of the hills.<\/p>\n
\u201cHill people have always had to rely on each other. Because we\u2019re proud to be hill people and we\u2019ve supported each other. In our development, our logo has been, ‘Ar sc\u00e1th a ch\u00e9ile a mhaireann na daoine’. Under the shadow of people we live.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Keith Ryan took up that theme.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a real sense of community within the parish. If anything ever goes wrong, everyone rows in behind each other. Everyone is there with open arms if you are ever in need. And it\u2019s no different on the hurling field.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there\u2019s fundraisers or anything that needs to be done down in the hurling field, there\u2019s numerous people showing up to give a hand out. There\u2019s a state-of-the-art clubhouse now, a second pitch. We have been so grateful for the support.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
A call to back the All-Ireland final mission brought generous response on GoFundMe. \u201cI\u2019d expect it from a place like Upperchurch. Everyone rows in behind each other. We\u2019re a very good club that way.\u201c\u00a0<\/p>\n
Paul Ryan, Upperchurch Drombane, clearing the Sliotar against Kevin Maguire, Ballinhassig in the AIB Munster GAA Hurling Intermediate Club Championship Semi Final in Semple Stadium<\/p>\n
On the field, the club has mirrored wider progress, enjoying the best run in its history \u2014 across hurling and football \u2014 over the past decade or so. The double tilt in 2022, beaten senior finalists in football, semi-finalists in hurling, was arguably its best season. Though the following year brought shock relegation for the hurlers from Tipp\u2019s top flight.<\/p>\n
A setback you could now recast as a springboard?\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could look at it that way,” accepts Keith. “At the time when we were relegated we didn\u2019t see it that way at all. We were hugely devastated.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
A semi-final defeat by Cashel prevented instant rebound. But in 2025, Carrick Swans were beaten in the Tipperary Premier Intermediate final. \u201cThat was our main goal at the start of the year, to get back to senior hurling where we think we belong.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Since has come a first ever Munster title and now a first Croke Park trip.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe journey we\u2019ve been on has been unbelievable since the end of July. You can see the savage support we\u2019re getting from everyone in Upperchurch and Drombane. Young lads of five or six going to matches in full Upperchurch kit, putting smiles on their faces is a privilege for us.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
But in the highest profile week the club has ever enjoyed, the parish has been still. The Lotto draw was postponed. The Ireland Lights Up community walk was put back. The 45 game in the hall didn\u2019t go ahead. Instead they came together for Niamh on Wednesday and Thursday.<\/p>\n
And they will come together again on Saturday. The whole place will be in Croke Park.<\/p>\n
Keith rewinds to that first day, five or six himself, carrying a hurley through the gates of the Drombane pitch. “You love it straight away. And to think 20 years or so later you\u2019re going out on an All-Ireland final day with your club with some of your best friends, your brother, your cousins, it\u2019s unreal. It’s the stuff of dreams. You have to take it in your stride and enjoy every minute of it because you don\u2019t know if this opportunity will come again.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
They will travel proudly in the shadow of hill people.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A cloud hung low this week over Upperchurch-Drombane\u2019s idyllic winter. A central figure in the community, Niamh Kinnane,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[18,22,129,19,17,119,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-274878","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-hurling","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-sport","14":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274878","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=274878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}