*Fr Harry Bohan. Photograph: Eamon Ward.
TRADITION has hurling on par with religion in the village of Feakle according to Fr Harry Bohan.
Fr Harry is regarded as one of the leading sociologists and social commentators in Ireland. His thinking and philosophy is shaped from his native Feakle and he is eagerly looking forward to their appearance in Sunday’s Clare SHC final, their first senior county final since 1988.
On Monday evening, he was released from the stroke section of University Hospital Limerick, having suffered a stroke. Speaking to The Clare Echo at his home in Shannon on Tuesday, he said, “When I was in the hospital for the last fortnight, all I used to be saying to the doctors and nurses was ‘if ye can at all can ye try get me out for the county final’. Tommy (Guilfoyle) and Val (Donnellan) would be in touch with me, it means a fierce amount to us at home”.
He added, “I couldn’t have got a better service, they were excellent in there, doctors, nurses, porters, I was delighted with them and I met a lot of hurling people in there, the girl that is going to marry Jason Forde was one of the nurses with me, herself and a nurse called Nora offered to bring me to the match on Sunday”.
Tuesday’s Irish Times is to the left of Fr Harry while an encyclopedia on geography lays on the floor but the topic of conversation he is most interested on is centered around Sunday.
Six senior championships have been won by Feakle but reaching the 2024 decider is significant, Harry said. “There’s a serious tradition of hurling in Feakle, the best way I can put it, when I was growing up in Feakle as a young lad, I didn’t have to look to Liverpool or Manchester for my heroes because I had the Feakle team of the time won five championships, it started when a man called Sean Harrington came in 1934 he was a teacher in the Brothers in Ennis and he got the principal job in the primary school in Feakle, he was a great hurler from Tipperary, he got the hurling organised and he saw they played it well, they won the 1935 championship, they won three in a row in 1938, 1939 and 1940, they won in 1944 and lost to Scariff in 1946. Hurling was everything to us at home, we had the hurley in our hand all the time, we hurled at school and everywhere. Even though I had the Clare team and they were huge to me, we aimed to win the All-Ireland, we were a small bit unlucky especially in the 1987 Munster final against Cork but otherwise Feakle winning again and getting to this final means a lot to me”.
“Val Donnellan and Tommy Guilfoyle would be onto me the whole time to tell me how things are going. Evan McMahon, the full-back who is going to miss the game, my heart is broken for him to miss it, I trained the Feakle time after leaving Clare and his father Harry was with me, a great hurler, I’m so sorry for Harry and Evan that Evan is missing the game and he is a huge loss,” he added.
Former county board secretary, Pat Fitzgerald has driven Harry to the majority of championship games he has attended this season. Following Feakle’s only loss this year, a one point defeat to Kilmaley, “I said to Pat coming down the road ‘if Feakle can stay in the group they won’t be far away’, I was very happy with them. I saw them against Crusheen which didn’t go so well for Crusheen. They are in the final and getting into the final means a huge amount to the people, hurling is everything in Feakle, there is a huge tradition of hurling going back in Feakle, they might say there’s tradition in Kilkenny but we grew up with hurling, there was nothing else in Feakle only hurling. We had Eibhear Quilligan, Adam Hogan and Conn Smyth involved with Clare, I was very proud that they were on the team”.
He added, “Feakle because of population will only come now and again when you get a bunch of young lads to come together, first of all they will only come if they are interested, this crop is the same as the crop in the 80s. I remember Val saying he had great confidence in them and I said ‘God they could come’, I definitely would feel from what I’ve seen and what I’m hearing that they will be there or thereabouts, I think so”.
Hurling gives places like Feakle its identity, he explained. “I’ve dreamt my whole life, that is why I started the housing for rural Ireland, rural villages, rural communities, they are the key, I’ve studied this, if Ireland loses its small rural communities we’re in trouble, hurling wherever hurling is in a place like Clare, it is a crucial part of those communities, the big thing is they will only have the population now and again, Newmarket and Clarecastle would be up and down for different reasons. We always because of the team of the 40s, the tradition was there always in Feakle, we always aspired, we’d be a very proud community, I’d be fierce proud of Feakle, I love going back to meet people there, going back there on the night of Up for the Match and having three lads on the panel meant a fierce lot to us, I met Adam Hogan’s parents. People who have no interest in hurling wouldn’t know what I’m talking about but hurling people do, Willie Walsh has the same interest, he wouldn’t have it for his own place but he has the love for the game. Hurling is one of the great games, we’ve always said it is the fastest field game in the world, there isn’t much better, you put on a soccer match and I watch the Irish teams, I’ve an interest in any sport but there is an awful difference between a good hurling match and a good soccer match, I would be wishing the Irish teams well”.
Sunday’s opponents for his native Feakle are Sixmilebridge, an area he has great affection for having been parish priest there for sixteen years. “I loved it, I got involved in a lot of things like when the Mart was closing, it’s a great GAA club, they won five championships during that time with Paddy Meehan, Tim Crowe, Davy Fitzgerald and John O’Meara, I love The Bridge, it is growing probably too fast. I love The Bridge, I will always say I loved my time there but from the day I was born my heart has been in Feakle and in the hurling part of it.
When comparing the areas, he points out that in terms of population, “There’s no more than 800 in Feakle, there’s nearly 8,000 in The Bridge now”. Even when people leave the East Clare village, they stay proud of their roots, “There was a story about a Feakle man going to work in London, the Cockneys were making fun of him so he put down his bag and said ‘Feakle whilst I live and Feakle while I die, I’ll take on the whole lot of ye’”.
Parallels are drawn between hurling and religion by Harry, something which was brought to his attention by the late Jackie O’Gorman of Cratloe. “People say sport is religion and I can say it was for us, Jackie O’Gorman said Sunday was about mass and the match”. He continued, “I would have always said people don’t appreciate what the game of hurling means, I don’t know much about gaelic football but I know it was anathema in The Bridge. We used to cut our own hurleys, there was a whole way of life attached to it. I’d always be hoping for Feakle whether it was juvenile or intermediate or senior that Feakle would get into finals and be fierce happy when they won. When they won the semi-final against Cratloe, even though I wasn’t feeling great it was better than any tonic”.
Demonstrating the bonds that are formed from sport, our interview is interrupted as Harry receives a call from Seamus Durack, goalkeeper on the two-time National League winning Clare side of the 1970s managed by Bohan, another proud son of Feakle. “We were a close team, even to this day they ring me which is great which says a lot about hurling, there is more to hurling than just playing the game, I’ve friends for life from it, Seamus Durack came in on Sunday night and stayed for two hours with me in the hospital”.
Sport is also huge for personal development and learning, he highlighted. “The school system in Finland is regarded as one of the best in the western world, they don’t go to primary school until they are seven, we go at four, the reason is that they have a huge emphasis on playing, they say playing is about learning, you can learn so much from sport and from playing a game, you can learn from playing, we over emphasise the formal side of education, in Finland they go out and when they go to school they go playing very often in the day. When I think back, I spent half my young life in the hurling field and I learned more in the hurling field than I did anywhere else.
“What I bring sport down to, Joe Schmidt coached the Irish rugby team, Ireland were playing the All Blacks and he got a letter from his mother that morning, she wasn’t well, she said in the letter ‘I’m very proud of all you have achieved but what makes me really proud is the person you became’. Sport can shape character because you’re in competition with other people, it can shape character, that is why I think Finland got their education system right and it is regarded as the best education system in the western world, I often wonder did some people underestimate the importance of sport, I do believe that hurling is special because you are wielding a hurley, it was very much part of the place in Feakle”.
Places like Feakle are made by the people, he said. “There is an old saying, ‘it’s the few who make things happen, the many who watch things happen and the majority who don’t know what’s happening. If you look at every parish and club, you will find the few who are making things happen and great credit is due to them”.
