'Sport has an irony that’s nearly funny, if not dark': Cork City's quest for a first title

Ireland News News

'Sport has an irony that’s nearly funny, if not dark': Cork City's quest for a first title
Ireland Latest News,Ireland Headlines
  • 📰 The42_ie
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 156 sec. here
  • 4 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 66%
  • Publisher: 86%

“Those defeats level you, but you do store it . . . When you lose, you’re so low, so that when you win, you’re up in the stratosphere somewhere.” The story of Cork City's first title win.

WHEN CORK CITY won the league in 1993, some of their fans were so thrilled that they decided to invade the pitch – from the second tier.In the boom-bust history of soccer in Cork, where an arduous climb is often followed by more rapid descent, this could have been the most dramatic fall from grace.

“It’s funny, I think when you’re in the actual moment at that time, all you’re trying to do is win all the time,” Declan Daly, the club captain at the time, says now. “You don’t really make huge analyses around, ‘Jesus is it ever going to be our time?’ You just start each season and hope you’re going to win trophies. You deal with them as you go along.”

“We were very lucky or very choosy,” says Daly, “I’m not sure which, but the people we brought across from the UK were brilliant additions. Phil Harrington, Gerry McCabe, Paul Bannon, Mick Conroy, they were top quality guys and players. “Ah, I think the frustration was we were at home,” says Caulfield. “There was a packed crowd. There was a lot of hype. Cork had won the double in the GAA, there was a lot of talk it was going to be Cork with the clean sweep. It was a just a bad game. We didn’t play well.”

“Those defeats level you,” says Daly, “but you do store it, you do bring it along and I always think that however low you feel on those defeats, it’s reciprocated on the other side when you win. When you lose, you’re so low, so that when you win, you’re up in the stratosphere somewhere.”City would have their moment in the stratosphere, at the end of a season which was as surreal as it was lengthy.

There was Morty McCarthy and a bunch of City fans climbing onto a minibus outside O’Flaherty’s in Parnell Place. McCarthy edited No More Plastic Pitches, a Cork City fanzine full of verve and wit, and was the drummer with the Sultans of Ping. Not that he would describe himself as any kind of rock star.Standing Room Only got in touch due to his profile with the band and sent a camera crew over to track the fans for the day, McCarthy says now from Stockholm, where he lives.

There was no such aggressive serenading with the BBC cameras in tow during the play-off, but the result left a desolate feeling for McCarthy and City fans. A 0-0 draw meant that if there was a winner in the Shels-Bohs game, they’d take the league. “It’s hard to explain to someone now, but you if you think about it, you’re in Cork and you’re going out by the train station and you’re going through Glanmire, Watergrasshill, Rathcormac – you go through Fermoy, you’ve gone through four towns,” he says.

All the mistakes happened in the build up to Anto Whelan’s equalizer – three, arguably four, errors in the box which culminated in their advantage being wiped out. The Sultans were on tour in Europe with a band called The Lunachicks. Michael McCarthy was at the game as always and left to find a phone box.City’s manager then, the late Noel O’Mahony, had soldiered for decades before this day, in many roles for different Cork outfits. The players were particularly glad that he would go out as a league champion.

O’Mahony wasn’t the only manager in the winning dressing room; Jack Charlton was there amid the happy chaos and posed for a picture with Daly. As things eventually calmed down, the captain began to feel the type of contentment that comes to those who have known the other side of the result.

We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

The42_ie /  🏆 5. in İE

Ireland Latest News, Ireland Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

Cork hospital has longest wait time for ED admissionCork hospital has longest wait time for ED admissionNew figures from the Health Service Executive show that the hospital with the longest wait for admission to an emergency department is Cork University Hospital at 26.1 hours | Read more:
Read more »

25-year-old Cork woman settles birth injuries case for total of €35.2 million25-year-old Cork woman settles birth injuries case for total of €35.2 millionA 25-year-old woman who sued the HSE over the circumstances of her birth has settled a case against the health service for €35.2 million
Read more »

German-registered fishing ship detained in Cork for breaches in Irish watersGerman-registered fishing ship detained in Cork for breaches in Irish watersThe Master of a German-registered fishing vessel detained in Irish waters has been charged with 25 offences
Read more »

Delay to sentencing of Cork man caught by vigilantes posing as teenage girl opposedDelay to sentencing of Cork man caught by vigilantes posing as teenage girl opposedTim Bowen pleaded guilty to attempting to meet 14-year-old in 2019 for purpose of child sexual exploitation
Read more »

Risk to €31m Cork social housing scheme because of volume clauseRisk to €31m Cork social housing scheme because of volume clauseCourt heard dispute has raised a possibility that the council will pull out of the whole project
Read more »

Locals and green group oppose whiskey warehouse planned near Co Cork villageLocals and green group oppose whiskey warehouse planned near Co Cork villagePlanning appeal puts brake on boom industry as residents of Tulliq, near Leap, seek to retain ‘agricultural character’
Read more »



Render Time: 2025-02-08 13:00:59