Dublin's first Championship meeting with Offaly in 17 years this Sunday draws up some family ties in the All-Ireland champions’ camp with the midland county.
James McCarthy’s mother, Marian, hails from Clonbullogue, a small village close to the Offaly border with Kildare, while Ciaran Kilkenny’s mother, Mary, was born in Kilcormac and later lived in Mucklagh, just outside Tullamore.
Her father, Jarlath Corcorcan, worked locally for Bord na Mona and the family moved on again, to Portlaoise, when Mary was in her teens.
READ MORE:Ciarán Kilkenny: Dublin-Meath game should have been in Navan
“She used to say she played centrefield for Mucklagh back in the day,” says Kilkenny of his mother’s camogie exploits. “She said she was a great player but I don’t know about that!
“She would have been around Kilcormac direction and she’d often mention Mucklagh and Screggan and places like this and actually my granny, who’s 88, she was travelling through the area there recently and my auntie was with her and they knocked into one of the houses near enough where they used to live.
“There was an old man from Offaly and he remembered my grandfather, who had passed away.
“They had lived there for a good few years and then when my mam was 15/16 they moved to Portlaoise then after that.
“We’ve played a lot of matches in Portlaoise and always called into my granny afterwards but yeah, delighted, the opportunity to play Offaly, there’s a lot of people in my club, great Offalymen, Paul Mulvehill; James McCarthy’s mother is from Offaly as well so there’ll be great excitement and craic leading into the game so I’m looking forward to that.”
As if a few towns and villages in the midlands weren’t exotic enough, Kilkenny’s grandfather’s employment even took him to East Africa.
“When my Mam was in her mid to late-20s they lived in Burundi, he was working for Bord na Mona over there,” Kilkenny explained.
“My father actually had to fly over the first time he met my Granny and Grandad, he flew over from Burundi to ask for my Mam's hand in marriage.”
Offaly haven’t beaten Dublin in the Championship since the 1982 Leinster final and having struggled in the province and and failed to climb the divisions in the League since, their only meetings since the 2007 Leinster semi-final, which Dublin won by five points, have been in the O’Byrne Cup.
Although Offaly have reached successive provincial semi-finals for the first time since that last meeting with Dublin 17 years ago and enjoyed an encouraging win over Laois in the quarter-final, their chances of bridging the 42-year gap are extremely remote as 25/1 outsiders.
Regardless of the quality of opposition, Kilkenny won’t be resting on his laurels. Having lost his place in the starting team during last year’s Championship before regaining it for the All-Ireland final, he’s started each of their nine League and Championship games so far this year.
“I suppose I’m 30 years of age now, it’s my 13th or 14th year, I can’t remember exactly. I understand that I only have a limited time left playing at the highest level.
“I just want to enjoy it as much as possible, go out as if I’m 10 years old again, playing for my primary school, play the best football I possibly can, have absolutely no regrets after the season, be the best teammate I can, be the best player I can, and every year you’re trying to do the best you can as a player.
“Last year it was my first time in a good while not starting a game or two and I got injured at the wrong time of the season as well. I had to fight hard to get back into the team.
“This season I’m really looking forward to the season, very motivated, very driven, and just trying to tick every box I can from a preparation extras point of view, doing the best I can for the family, the team.
“I’m really excited about the season, I’m really enjoying it, I loved the League campaign, playing all the different games. So really enjoying my football at the moment, I’m loving it.
“The problem is that the season is gone very fast already, there’s not much weeks left and you just want to keep going. Because we have a great buzz around the team at the moment.”
A feature of the League campaign was how dominant Dublin were in many of their games while giving game time to less heralded players.
Kilkenny added: “The whole squad has nearly, unbeknownst to us, has nearly changed. We’ve a very young squad now and that’s a credit to Dessie and the management team.
“There’s a young squad in there and that’s great, the competition for places is great. Talking to some of the younger lads, mentoring them and imparting a bit of wisdom and you know, when the time does come to hang up the boots, it would be great to see some of those lads push on and wear the Dublin jersey for years to come.
“When I’m going in as an auld lad I’ll be able to watch them and see them doing their business out on the pitch.”
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