*Clooney/Quin captain, Jimmy Corry. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
MEMBERS of the Corry family have already ended one sporting famine in the county, now they bid to turn their hand to terminating another drought.
The Clare Echo’s online coverage of the Clare SHC is with thanks to The Temple Gate Hotel.
Clooney/Quin’s senior hurlers are captained by Jimmy Corry who is looking to follow in the footsteps of Paddy McNamara in 1942 and captain the club to championship glory.
Just two weeks ago, his younger brother Mikey was part of the Shannon Golf Club side which won the Jimmy Bruen Shield and, in the process, celebrated the club’s first All-Ireland pennant in forty five years.
Shannon’s success happened on the weekend where Clooney/Quin defeated Ballyea to qualify for the county final. “It was a great weekend, Mikey was playing the golf, Mam and Dad were up at it. Shannon had a brilliant win, I played a few years previous but with living in Galway I just couldn’t commit to it with the hurling this year, I was absolutely delighted they won. There is an app you can follow it on, I kept refreshing the app on Friday and Saturday, hoping Mikey would do well and that the group would do well to see they won it, I played with a lot of the lads in previous years so it was excellent for them and to top it off with the win marked a good weekend for the Corrys,” Jimmy recalled.
On the hurling front, Jimmy made his first senior championship appearance for the club in 2013 against Clonlara and has been there ever-since including their run to the final in 2017. “I look back on 2017 as a great year, it was just a pity the way it came to an end, we’ve a good few lads still playing from that team like Cillian, Ryan, Peter, myself and lads on the panel like Bryan McInerney, Keith Hogan and Shane McNamara, it is great to be able to pull on those lads, they might see something that we did in the build-up but at the same time it is eight years ago, I can barely remember last week to be honest, you wouldn’t know if we could draw on something from it but it is a whole new test and the game of hurling has changed so much from then, it is nearly a totally new game and set-up, it is nice to be looking forward to it”.
For the club to be back in the decider eight years later brings with it a great opportunity, he acknowledged. “Not that we are trying to right the wrongs of 2017, this is a new year, a new group with only a third of the team still here from 2017, it is nice to be looking forward because these days don’t come around, you think when you’re there in 2017 that they do come around but they don’t come around every year, it is nice to be looking forward to it and it is great for the parish, everyone will be on high-do for the next few days, it will be good”.
Year one as captain “didn’t go to plan” with Clooney/Quin consolidating their senior status after beating O’Callaghans Mills in the relegation semi-final. “This year has gone better,” he observed. “It is no secret with all the underage success we’ve had with the groups over the last few years with the minors, that group has been coming and we’ve got another boost this year with six lads onto the panel this year from the minor team, they have really freshened it up, the whole team has changed in a matter of three or four years, that freshness of youth coming into the squad has given us a new perspective because the young lads not that they don’t care but they have no scar tissue from before and just really enjoy playing hurling and playing hurling for Clooney/Quin”.
Corry continued, “Like any team that starts out in January or February, every team has aspirations of getting to a big day, that is obviously the goal for most teams, we were in a very tough group last year, all three teams that were in it qualified for the quarter-finals this year. We had a few injuries, you can still end up where you deserve to end up but when we came back this year we got down to work and tried to put the best Clooney/Quin team on the field and hope that the performance would come. It is great the way it has turned compared to last year but hurling is a funny game, it can change year on year”.
An influx of young hurlers has not changed Jimmy’s standing within the squad. “People that know me know that I’m an outgoing fella and I’ll talk to the wall, I’d be no different with the young lads, they are very outgoing young lads and will chat to you about anything whether it is Liverpool at the weekend or the match that is coming up, my role hasn’t changed, I’m still the same happy-go-lucky fella”.
However, some of the subject matters he is discussing have altered drastically. “The conversation has changed for me because when I was their age I was going on about what was happening in school whereas now I’m chatting about mortgages and houses, I have a thing with the young lads that I’d ask them when they were born, some of them are Liverpool fans but some of them weren’t born when Liverpool won the Champions League final in Istanbul (2005), I get a good laugh out of that. There’s no real difference with the conversations, we all get on as well as we did”.
Liverpool may be a regular source of conversation but the teams supported are “a mixture of everything. There’s a few Man City fans in there, it’s good banter among the group, we get on very well as a group, there’s no person you wouldn’t want to sit down beside in the dressing room, we’re a very tight-knit group”.
From the hurling perspective, the Clooney/Quin young guns have brought a wave of confidence with them. “You don’t really know until you see them training with you on a Tuesday and Thursday night to really sense their ability till you see them up close. The pace and leadership they have brought as young lads of seventeen and eighteen, I know when I joined the panel I was twenty, I wouldn’t say I was more cagey but I was more nervous about making mistakes, these young lads have enough confidence to try the thing that I might not have dreamt of, they have really freshened it up, they are a pleasure to play with”.
Beating Ballyea in the semi-final was a highlight of Jimmy’s senior career with Clooney/Quin. “Ballyea are such a tough team, over the last ten years they are the benchmark of Clare hurling with the titles they have won and the achievements they’ve had outside of Clare, it was always going to be a big battle, we’re just so lucky to have come out on top, it was great”.
At midfield, Jimmy has been one of Clooney/Quin’s top performers in their run to the final and he popped up with assists for two of their four semi-final goals. Therefore it comes as no surprise that he is very much enjoying his hurling, this year. “I’m living in Galway so I drive down from Galway for training, lads would be saying to me ‘why do you not transfer to someone in Galway’ but with the group we have, it is so easy to come training with these lads, whether it is the lads I started with like Cillian, Ryan and Peter or the new lads like Pa Finnernan, the two McNamaras, Matthew Corbett, David Cahill and Jerry O’Connor, it is so enjoyable to come training”.
His father Mike has been an integral force in Clare GAA streaming games, both with Clare GAA TV and now Stream Sport. If he is behind the camera this weekend and it is somewhat shakier than normal, he could be forgiven as he watches his son lead Clooney/Quin into battle. “Dad has a very steady hand in fairness, he doesn’t get too excited about much things, he’s been doing the video for the last couple of years so I’d say he will be steady, there’s no fear of them”.
Family support has also extended from his cousins in Sixmilebridge including his first-cousin Brian, a five-time Clare SHC winner. “In fairness they are always so supportive of us. In 2017 when we were playing them in the final we were still texting each other in the build-up and post game, they all text me before and after the semi-final and for the quarter-final, they are always behind us, you know the Corrys well so you are dealing with them on the pitch as much as myself, they are great support and a great family”.
Based as a Garda in Mill Street, Galway, he has been a member of An Garda Síochána for the past seven years. The journey to and from training is used as time to catch-up with friends and family. “People ask me do I listen to podcasts but I don’t really, I’ll tell you what I do, I ring people in the car on the way up and down, I’m living with a few of the lads I work with up in Galway, I’d be on the phone to them chatting about what happened at work and what they are doing at training, I ring family to pass the journey and keep myself awake, it is grand, it’s fine, it is very easy drive down on weeks like this when you’re preparing for a county final”.
He added, “I’m living with two footballers, they play football for Moycullen and have had great success over the last few years, we train on the same nights but they train a bit later to me, we’re all back in the house at the same time, I’d be listening to what they are doing because different ideas work for different teams, it is handy”.
Their approach has been to take each game as it comes, the thirty two year old outlined. “You’re always getting ready for the first game and Broadford was a tough battle down in Shannon, we were lucky to come out on top, Darragh McNamara got a great goal to get us over the line, then it is game by game, you could be waiting around for six months or longer but once the draw is done it’s only a few months and once you get going it’s every two weeks, you get a bit of rest and recovery the first week and tailor on from there. I wouldn’t say we had any particular turning point only that we’ve been taken it game by game, thankfully the games have kept coming, it has been a great run”.
