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*Éire Óg’s Darren Moroney. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
CHANNELLING the hurt of exiting in the senior semi-finals has strengthened Darren Moroney’s determination to end the year with silverware for Éire Óg’s senior footballers.
Éire Óg’s double success of 2025 also marked the breakthrough year for Darren in what was the debut season of dreams. Very few players have as seamlessly adapted to senior in both codes in the one year with Moroney offering a constant hub of energy and scoring threat for both sides from his role in the middle third.
Bowing out to Inagh/Kilnamona in the Clare SHC semi-finals has Éire Óg’s dual players itching to retain the Jack Daly. “Losing the semi-final of the hurling woke us up a small bit that we won’t win a final every year, everything was going well and you get the shock of losing a semi-final so you have to appreciate when it is here, make the moment and relish the moment. It is probably the same for all dual players, we remember the feeling of losing the semi-final and being so close to getting back to the final and where we were last year, it will definitely motivate us the next day and motivated us last Sunday”.
Describing the hurling loss as “disappointing,” he added, “we have to focus on the football now and try bring some silverware back to Éire Óg. The hurlers have a while off but for football you could look forward to something else, there’s no real time to think about the loss and it is good thing if anything to get straight back into it”.
On the lessons learned from their seven point loss to Inagh/Kilnamona, he said, “We were going well, we didn’t turn up for fifteen minutes and that is how competitive Clare hurling is, if you don’t turn up for fifteen minutes of a game then it could be gone, we were always trying to claw our way back and never got going, that is how competitive it is, I don’t think we were missing anything just on the day Inagh/Kilnamona were the better team”.
Such margins have yet to be encountered by Éire Óg’s senior footballers and Darren doesn’t want a taste of trying to chip away at a lead on Sunday. “In some aspects the football is not as fast of a game. In the hurling we got caught out but in the football thankfully we haven’t got caught out by a slow start or anything, we’ve been lucky to get a few scores early and settle into the game, we never really had to be trailing and claw back a lead, we know it could always come but hopefully we’ll never have to fight back a lead if everything is going well”.
A first year business and PE student at TUS, nineteen year old Darren hopes to go down the path of teaching.
So far as his adult sporting career is concerned, it is definitely tús maith leath na-hoibre, in two seasons with Éire Óg’s seniors he will have played in three of a potential four finals. “It’s not a bad start,” he acknowledged. “I’m enjoying it, I enjoy every time I get on the pitch, it is good to be back in the final for another year so it’s exciting”.
Realising that the grass wasn’t always as green for Éire Óg, Darren is making the most of the fruitful period. He told The Clare Echo, “I’m lucky to win both in my first year, I know from the older lads Fitz and Ciaran how many years they had when they weren’t even looking near finals. Growing up, watching matches there wouldn’t have been too much to cheer for or celebrate on the hurling side so you always knew that, I was lucky with the year I came in”.
Dual players have been managed well which aided his senior breakthrough, Darren felt. “I always kept up both, at the start I wasn’t sure if I could maintain playing both but I always trust myself and both managements worked together so well, all the dual players are well looked after and rested in between sessions, if we had a tough session or a match then we would have an easy session on the Tuesday to get us right, when I was younger I always enjoyed playing both, I didn’t have a favourite, I kept playing them up along”. There’s no favourite sport that he is willing to admit, “No I can’t say that, I don’t think either management would be happy if I picked one”.
Joining the senior squads last season brought an element of nerves for the teenager. “There’s always nerves, I was with the U20s at the time so I was coming back but all the lads were very welcoming and helped me settle in, it is a great place to be when we have leaders and good people off the pitch that were helping me, they were coaching me when I was younger because they are big club people, it was grand then settling in”.
Current dual teammate, David McNamara managed him at minor level while hurling defender Liam Corry is another former coach. “We had the U21s too and they all helped out on the hurling and football side so I would have known them, they’d have gone out of their way to make you feel welcome”.
Members of the Moroney family are proud supporters of Éire Óg’s exploits including former CEO of Munster GAA, Simon. “They have always been supportive of me, my uncles, my parents, their support has been a big part in me playing senior in both codes, they have been so helpful with anything I need. Mam is a Monaghan woman, she is big into the club now and is one of my biggest supporters, the same for my Dad, he was with Éire Óg his whole life so it is big for them to see any Moroney in an Éire Óg jersey”.
Sunday will be Darren’s first time facing Kilmurry Ibrickane at senior level. “I played them a few times up along but not in senior yet. We know how well they have gone this year, how tough a game it will be and what they will bring, we have to plan and hope we can turn up, work on a few things that went wrong and try tidy up the fundamentals, hope for the best on the day as long as we perform we’re hoping we can get a performance to match them because we know if we don’t turn up how good of a team they are and they will take their chances”.
Who lifts the Jack Daly come Sunday evening will be dictated by work ethic, he said. “Hard work is the number one thing we go for when we’re on the field, work hard and the result will do the rest, whoever wants it more and whoever works harder will get the result on the day”.
Part of the victorious Clare U20 panel to lift All-Ireland and Munster titles, Darren featured from the bench in both final victories. The 4-20 2-16 win over Galway at the end of May “has gone quick. It feels like yesterday that I wasn’t even with Éire Óg and I was with Clare, it was a special day winning an All-Ireland, I had never won one before, it has gone awful quick”.
Whether it will be a Munster club or returning to the Clare U20’s pre-season, there won’t be much of an off-season for Darren. “Last year I don’t think I had much downtime, maybe a bit over Christmas but that was it, not a bad complaint to be kept going all year, if you’re not kept going all year then you’re not doing well in that, in the moment you might have been tired, looking back now you were only happy to be playing all year round”.
