Oughterard’s influx before the mass exodus!

There mustn’t have been a sinner left in Oughterard last Saturday week, as what looked like the entire parish – and more besides – invaded the pitch in Kilmallock in their hundreds to celebrate a famous All-Ireland intermediate semi-final win over hot favourites, Kerry and Munster champions Templenoe.

Anyone who wasn’t there, who were tuning in on Galway Bay fm or following online on social media, was on the blower to manager Tommy Finnerty and squad members soon after the final whistle. The congratulatory messages poured-in – and so too did the pledges they’d be there for the final at Croke Park this Saturday against Monaghan’s Magheracloone, the club’s finest hour.

Finnerty, who transformed the team since taking the reins in 2018, has been blown away by the support of well-wishers. “It’s huge and how it has spread out,” he said.

“The amount of Oughterard people I have met and I wouldn’t have seen for quite a while. Even Oughterard people who live in Galway that wouldn’t have gone to Oughterard games in the past but they’re Oughterard men and they’re Oughterard women and they just come back. The night in Castlebar after winning the Connacht final (versus The Neale), the amount of Oughterard people I met on the pitch who are no longer living in Oughterard, who have moved away, was absolutely huge.

“They’re coming basically from the four corners of Ireland. As soon as the final whistle went in Kilmallock and we were just getting on the bus heading back home, a great friend of mine, Alan O’Connor, texted me and he is travelling back from Boston for the final. Alan played in the All-Ireland U21 final with me for Galway against Cork in 1989. That’s what it means to him as an Oughterard man and as an ex-player.

“Another friend of mine Gerard Geoghegan is coming from San Francisco. The Healy brothers, the McGauleys are coming from Chicago. There are people coming from all over the world. My own daughter, she’s teaching in Brighton in England and she’s coming back. They’re coming from everywhere,” he said.

See full story and match preview in this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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