A COUPLE OF days out from his Leaving Cert Irish oral exam in 2010, Cillian O’Connor was sitting in a car heading up to Croke Park.
As captain of the Mayo minors, he had been invited up to attend the launch of the championship. His manager, and Ballintubber clubmate, Tony Duffy, reassured him that their attendance wasn’t mandatory, particularly with a major part of his Leaving Cert on the way. He would also be missing a whole day of school to be at the event.
But by 7am on the morning of the launch, O’Connor was in the passenger seat of Duffy’s car, his head dipped low, pouring over his notes on how to converse as Gaeilge.
“For the three-hour journey up to Croke Park, Cillian studied his oral Irish,” Duffy tells The 42 about his memory of that day about a man who would go on to become the all-time top scorer in the history of the football championship, passing Colm Cooper’s mark of 352 points in 2019.
Duffy has watched Cillian grow up, managing him again at U21 and senior level, always while watching him mature into one of Mayo’s all-time greats.
“We went into Croke Park for a few hours to do what we had to do, and then for the three-hour journey back to Ballintubber, he studied his Irish again. That’s how mature the lad was. He fulfilled the commitment that we had to fulfill and yet he ticked all the boxes of studying his Irish as well.
“So he was a very, very clued in guy, even from that age. Very few people do this but he went straight from the Mayo minors to the seniors in the following year. James Horan was in at this stage.
“What was obvious about him was his maturity. He was always way more mature for his age and much more mature than the people around him.
“He got it at a young age, what it takes.”
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Ballintubber GAA is a rural club in West Mayo, roughly a 10-minute drive from Castlebar and Ballinrobe. A number of parishes come under its remit including the Carnacon Ladies Football team, which is home to the great Cora Staunton. Paddy Prendergast, who was full-back on the Mayo team who won the 1951 All-Ireland, is another famous local son. Alan Dillon. James Horan. And now it’s the O’Connor brothers, Cillian and Diarmuid, who are keeping the fire going.
Their family is part of the Ballintubber fabric. Father Tony played for club and county while the two other O’Connor brothers, Pádraic and Ruaidhri, have worn the Ballintubber colours.
Cillian and Diarmuid are instantly recognisable. It’s their most distinctive feature, and it all derives from their movement of their hips and knees. It’s all athletic swings and swivels with the O’Connors. Look at a picture of either brother with the head cropped out and you won’t be scratching your chin for long trying to figure out who’s in the frame. They’re that easy to spot. It’s an unusual quality that would be comparable with Kerry’s David Clifford who has legs that can reach the stars at full stretch. But not many others can fit into that category.
And yet, even with that similarity, the O’Connors don’t exactly play alike.
“Diarmuid would be far more athletic than Cillian,” says Duffy. “Cillian’s off the ball movement would be better. His positional sense is probably a bit stronger but Diarmuid’s workrate and agility… his ability to run at speed for a prolonged period of time is unbelievable. The ground he covers is off the charts, even in club games. He’s up and down, up and down, up and down.
“It’s like having two or three players on the pitch.”
Despite their countryside location, rural depopulation is not a major issue for Ballintubber and its surrounding area. “It’s an attractive place to live,” says Duffy. Property is difficult to purchase there, but playing numbers for the club are still a challenge; underage panels average out at about 25 players. That can be a tricky number to work with when trying to retain as many as possible through the grades up to senior.
“Thousands of clubs in Ireland are in the same position,” Duffy reasons.
But whatever struggles Ballintubber might face, the best of what they’ve got has still managed to deliver five Mayo SFC crowns since winning their maiden county title in 2010. Cillian O’Connor was into his second year on the senior squad when they defeated local rivals Castlebar Mitchels after a drab county final that mustered a measly 0-8 to 0-5 scoreline. James Horan was the Ballintubber manager who masterminded their historic win.
“It was the back end of the year,” Duffy recalls. “A horrible enough day, defensive football. Two bitter rivals slugging it out and it wasn’t pretty. They weren’t about entertainment that day, it was about getting their hands on the cup.”
The final was also played in the backdrop of a local tragedy which affected both clubs. Ger Feeney, father of Mitchels players Alan and team Richie, died following a boating accident at Inishbofin in the weeks before the county final. Mitchels clubman Donal McEllin also died in the tragedy, the uncle of Mitchels defender Tom Cunniffe.
Ballintubber captain John Feeney was a nephew of Ger’s. Mitchels selector Tommy O’Malley also suffered a family bereavement in the run-up to the final as his twin brother passed away.
“Ger Feeney played with Ballintubber in the 70s and 80s,” says Duffy. “And an outstanding player for Mayo as well. He played for Ballintubber all his life, and then in his mid 30s, he lived in Castlebar and had a family so he played a couple of season with Castlebar.
“It probably did put a bit of a dampener on things because he was so synonymous with both clubs.”
O’Connor honoured those club members who died before that final in a piece with the GAA website entitled “My Club & I.” Their memories will forever be linked with Ballintubber’s breakthrough.
And once they won their first, the glorious floods followed. They defended their title the following year, and reached an additional five county finals after that. They have won five championship titles to date, including another back-to-back triumph in 2018 and 2019.
In all of those deciders, O’Connor’s name is up at the top, or near the top, of the scoring charts. In the 2011 decider, when they beat Mitchels again, O’Connor kicked 1-4. The sides met again in the 2014 showpiece where O’Connor pocketed 1-3. He added a combined 0-14 in the 2018 and 2019 finals.
“Once you win one, everything changes in terms of your mentality,” says Duffy, who was at the helm for the 2014 victory, a season which carried on all the way to the Connacht final where Ballintubber were defeated by Galway giants Corofin.
“There’s no inferiority complex about it then and you know you can do it and if you have the players and the commitment, the chances are that you’ll win more.
”There was nothing flukey about winning the first one. It was just hard graft. We wanted it more and we played better on the day.
“It brought massive belief to Ballintubber that still exists, and hopefully will remain in the club. I was not surprised at all when we went on to win a few more. We contested several finals, a lot of them against Castlebar. We won a few and they won a few. It has been a great rivalry over the last number of years.”
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O’Connor has been frequently visited by injuries. His most recent wounds have kept him out for lengthy spells which, in turn, has caused a knock-on effect on his playing time with Mayo.
Coming on to kick a point in their victory over Galway last weekend indicated a freshness about him that is coming at a crucial time for Kevin McStay’s side. But before considering what kind of role he might play when Mayo renew their rivalry with Dublin in this weekend’s All-Ireland quarter-final, let’s recall the pothotle-ridden road that O’Connor has traversed to get to this point.
His knee is responsible for much of his injury heartache: surgery in 2018, a flare-up while he was on club duty in 2022, and again earlier this year it was a knee injury that sidelined him. He’s also had a run-in with his Achilles which ended his 2021 championship, while his shoulder has posed major problems for him too.
But, even after all those knocks and visits to the infirmary, he’s still a core part of Mayo’s engine room.
“He’s so mentally strong and determined, he’ll do whatever he has to do to get back,” says Duffy.
“And he always thinks of the teams when he gets back. He’s not complaining if it’s not starting or, you know, he just gets on with it.
“He didn’t start last Sunday but made a phenomenal difference when he came on. I know people do question about how you can keep coming back but he is so mentally strong and determined to land that Celtic Cross that he’s going to keep coming back and do whatever he can to get back.
“I firmly believe that they’re a better team when he’s playing. Even if he’s not firing on all cylinders, the calmness and composure and control that he brings is massive, especially the really big games when people are losing their heads and getting excited. Cillian doesn’t get excited.
“If Mayo win big, he doesn’t get over excited. If they lose a big game, he doesn’t get overly down on himself. He does everything at an even keel, and that’s a massive help as well.”
And so, to Dublin. Their tormentors.
And to the hunt for Sam Maguire: their long hunger.
If helping Ballintubber to end that wait for a first senior Mayo title was a monkey off the back, then winning a first All-Ireland since 1951 is surely a gorilla on their neck. So many heartbreaks in Croke Park. So many bizarre, inexplicable events rooted in those heartbreaks. The frees scored. The frees missed. The GPS trackers thrown in desperation. The curse. The famine. And the cruel, seemingly unanswerable question of why? Why? Why? Why?
Of course, it had to be Mayo who would end Dublin’s unbeaten championship streak of 45 games in the 2021 All-Ireland semi-final. In the rain. In Croke Park. And since then, Dessie Farrell’s side haven’t been the same. They haven’t looked truly convincing this year either, while Mayo are Division 1 champions and also come into this All-Ireland quarter-final after dumping the Connacht champions, and rival neighbours, Galway out of the championship.
These steps though, are where it gets really tricky for Mayo. But Cillian will have something to say about their progression on Sunday.
“I’m sure Cillian can’t wait,” says Duffy about what awaits Mayo on Sunday. “He loves playing Dublin, he plays so well against them. I’m sure there’s a few Dublin players who will admit they don’t like him and I’m sure he’ll admit that he doesn’t like them.
“But he loves the challenge of going up to Croke Park. A packed stadium, the Hill giving out to him, he’ll rise to that big time.”
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