‘I feel they haven’t fully reached their potential’

THERE’S a school, a hall and a church in the village of Tooreen.

“There isn’t much else!” remarks Pat Freyne, the Chairman of Tooreen Hurling Club.

Except it's not quite true.

But for its hurling club, few outside of East Mayo would be able to tell Tooreen apart from any other village in the county.

With the unprecedented success of recent years, Tooreen is not just associated with Mayo hurling; it has become the very beating heart of the game in the county.

“I feel they haven’t fully reached their potential yet,” opines Freyne in the hall made famous in 1954 when the devil reportedly danced with a local girl.

“They’ve got a taste of success in Connacht, and they want to go on,” continues Pat.

“They have serious ambition. They are a talented bunch, and they have the ambition to go along with it.”

Any club chairman will tell you how hard it can be to get volunteers to step up; stepping down can prove just as, if not more, difficult.

Not in Tooreen though, particularly when the club is carrying the county and provincial flags into battle.

“It’s definitely a big help,” says Freyne.

“There isn’t a whole pile else in the village to focus on. Hurling is our core and it’s what gives us our identity. When your senior team does go on a good run there’s huge energy not just to the senior team itself but to the club.

All parents in the area want their child to play hurling and maybe to get on the likes of the current senior team. It’s also from attracting coaches as well who want to get involved, they are very willing to help out.

“I suppose, some guys would have played hurling and other guys didn’t and want to learn a bit more about the sport. It gives great energy to the whole village and the whole community.

There’s great pride in a small rural team going well on a national stage. I think it’s empowered us all.”

The ongoing popularity of Gaelic football and soccer can make it difficult to coach youngsters to the degree that they would like.

While many fine hurlers juggle football with Aghamore, those that hail from Tooreen itself tend to focus their attention on the small ball.

“That’s the thing we have is that clubs in Mayo don’t have. We’ve that tradition that for most of our players, hurling is their number one sport. That certainly does help,” Freyne says.

Crowned county champions in six of the last seven seasons and Connacht champions in five of those, Tooreen have become well accustomed to expeditions west of the Shannon.

But getting beyond Connacht brings a sense of adventure, excitement and unknown that has this small parish simmering – not quite boiling – with excitement.

“It brings a whole new emotion,” says Freyne.

“Tullamore the next Saturday, you are playing a team you know absolutely nothing about. A team from one of the strongest counties that probably, in all honesty, won’t rate us. So I think that brings its own excitement and it’d be just great to get over the line in one of those big teams.”

  The desire to dance under the bright lights of Croker in early January is firmly in the back of their minds.

“Last year was a really special year for the club in that semi-final. Finally getting to Croke Park was an incredible feeling. I’d like to think we’re on that journey again and we’re at that stage this year,” adds Freyne.

“It’d be brilliant to think that we could get there but we’re under no illusions about the size of the challenge, and it is a big challenge ahead of us.

“There’s great excitement in the area and I would very much welcome eating the turkey on Christmas Day this year and looking forward to another day out in Croke Park. Here’s hoping.”

There’s not much in Tooreen.

But what it does have is a heart and a soul that beats to the rhythm of the game of hurling.

Tooreen take on Castlelyons of Cork in Glenisk O'Connor Park, Tullamore today (Saturday) at 1.30pm