FOR DECADES, THE famous yellow monument on Hill 16 was the ‘John 3:7’ sign carried by GAA super-fan Frank Hogan. Now, a Cork city suburb has its own new landmark: ‘Amy 3:7’.
When Amy O’Connor blasted her whirlwind two-minute hat-trick past Waterford during last year’s All-Ireland final, the moment had to be immortalised in her native Knocknaheeny.
The mural is around the corner from O’Connor’s house and while she’d shy away from the spotlight, she loved being honoured in the community she loves.
Her St Vincent’s clubmates will turn out for her in their busloads on Sunday as they do every weekend she plays at venues across Ireland. They have ‘Amy’s Army’ posters to carry with them and their own ‘Amy’s on Fire’ chant, sampled from ‘Freed From Desire’.
She gave the club its greatest-ever night last year when returning home with the O’Duffy Cup as All-Ireland-winning captain, while the Rebel squad celebrated together at Hollymount House.
It’s no wonder she’s revered in her community. Knocknaheeny can get a bad rap but O’Connor and Denise O’Sullivan have shown the area in a vibrant and positive light.
“She’s loved in our club and rightly so. I don’t know will we ever have anyone like her again. She’s a special type of player,” says Michelle Gould, a lifelong club volunteer who was tasked with pucking the sliotar out to O’Connor for many years.
“It’s brilliant because I’m from Knocknaheeny myself and I know too well what it’s like. There is prejudice out there and there is prejudice on the playing field as well. It can be hard not to react to it.
“That’s starting to diminish a little bit. Like, we’ve a mural of Amy around the corner from her house. It’s synonymous with the area. You see this is where Amy O’Connor lives and it showcases how we have fierce talent up there. Really good decent people.
“I love being from there. Amy loves being from there. She’s always broadcast that that’s where she’s from and why not? It lets other people realise that there are really good decent people up there and people in our club who are volunteers and have given their life to the GAA and to be so proud.
“Last year, when we were up in Croke Park, members of our club were so emotional. Like grown men crying. It was unbelievable scenes because we were just so proud of her and we knew what it’d do for the area.
“People would say it’s a disadvantaged area. She’s a UCC graduate so it just goes to show that you can’t tar everyone with the one brush.
“She’s a very positive image for the area and it’s brilliant because she’s been very outspoken when she’s asked. She doesn’t hide where she’s from.
“Before you’d say, I’m from St Vincent’s and people would look at you. Now, you’d say I’m from St Vincent’s and they’d say that’s where Amy O’Connor plays. If she was a thing, she’d be a landmark.”
St Vincent’s are a junior club but O’Connor never wavered when people on the outside suggested transferring to a senior club. She was St Vincent’s and St Vincent’s was her.
Her dedication is a constant inspiration to all those girls thinking they could be the next Amy O’Connor.
“We’re not senior and we haven’t won loads of championships but years ago, Cork lost an All-Ireland semi-final against Galway on a Saturday,” says Gould.
“The following morning, I went up the field and I couldn’t believe Amy O’Connor was out on the pitch already warming up to come to junior training with us. And she’d just lost an All-Ireland semi the night before.
“It just goes to show the person she is and the club player she is.
“Not many people would know but Amy would always go up Vincent’s field and she’d be practicing taking her frees because it’s home to her. We’ll always open up the gates for Amy.
“But she goes to a lot of pitches around Cork practicing her frees so she has every angle covered, every surface covered, every wind covered. She’s that meticulous about her approach to the game.
“Players will understand this and not everyone will realise it; Amy has never missed a championship match for her club. Ever.
“There she is training all year with Cork and the sacrifice that is and just when you think you can have a bit of a lull, she’s straight back in it with the club.”
Her long-time boyfriend Danny was even drafted in to coach Vincent’s one year.
When Gould kept goal for the club until she hung up the boots two years ago, the tactic was simple: find Amy.
“You knew she was being double- and triple-marked but we’d our own signals and our own code, just the two of us. She’d do a point or a finger or a hurley flick, whatever. And I’d different nicknames for her so you’re not going to make it too obvious shouting ‘Amy’ every time you’re pucking out a ball.
“If you were launching a ball down to Amy with three on her, you knew she was still going to get the ball.
“It was a pleasure to be on the same team. You’d see her driving people on up in the forward line and I mean we’re a junior club. And as she said herself, she has no intentions of going anywhere and that’s brilliant for us.
“You’d hear a pin drop in the dressing room when she spoke. For someone so small in stature, she has great presence.”
She has given the club plenty of great days too. Gould recalls a last-gasp point from 50 yards out on the sideline. She slung it over her shoulder and between the posts from a position that was basically in the dugout.
Gould reckons she was always destined for the top. She was an Ireland soccer international alongside Katie McCabe and Megan Connolly on the team that made the Euro U19 semi-finals. But camogie was her first love.
“I remember her first training session stepping up to the junior team. I was an outfield player at the time. I would’ve been a bit physical to put it that way,” chuckles Gould.
“We were going down by the corner and the ball broke. Normally, if I’m going into a corner, you’re going putting someone into the corner basically.
“I remember saying I’d better stand off now she’s only young and coming up the ranks. To be honest, I was left in that corner looking for the ball. She was just gone.
“She was so well able at such a young age and she’s a whippet.”
When the club celebrated O’Connor’s first All-Star in 2019, it was one of her career highlights.
“She should have more All-Stars than what she has at the moment,” adds Gould. “Definitely one more if not two more.
“And probably a bit harsh not to win the Player of the Year last year considering the season she had and she clocked up unbelievable scores. And not just in the All-Ireland final, throughout the campaign itself.”
She struck 3-7 from 10 shots in last year’s final. A perfect 10 out of 10 performance. This year, she has 4-28 to her name so far.
If she keeps up the landmark performances, it’ll be a statue needed next time.