Online Club Hurling Championship coverage brought to you by the Temple Gate Hotel—home to Chapter 24 Gastropub and Gate 96 Restaurant.
*Darren Cullinan is congratulated at the final whistle. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
IT MAY require more examination than the curse of Biddy Earley and might miss out on inclusion in the annals of history but Inagh/Kilnamona’s success in capturing the Canon Hamilton for the first time could well be attributed to the ‘lucky’ moustache sported by wing-back Darren Cullinan.
To win a championship takes sacrifice, commitment, talent and hard work. Inamona’s Cullinan has brought these characteristics and more including getting spurred on to grow a moustache for the more superstitious members of the club.
When they reached their first Clare SHC final in 2021, topping the ‘Group of Death’ and winning every game en route to the decider, the move of Darren to grow a moustache was noted as a lucky omen. These observations became even stronger when he shaved it off for the 2022 run which saw them lose two games as they exited at the quarter-finals.
Like the time it took to grow the moustache again, so too did Inagh/Kilnamona’s return to another county final where they claimed the ultimate prize with a 2-18 1-14 victory against neighbours Kilmaley.
Explaining the background to the distinctive facial hair, Darren recalled, “In 2021 I grew it out and we had won all our championship games so I had to keep it. Then when we lost I got rid of it, we started losing the next year so I grew it back, it has been a hallmark since, I don’t recognise myself without it, I’ll have to keep it now”.
Among the older members of the squad, Cullinan’s moustache has been a bit of an inside joke. “It is a bit of a craic with some of the older lads, a lot of them actually aren’t hurling much anymore so when the young lads come up they’re kind of like what is going on, this guy is a bit of a weirdo with his moustache but now they might appreciate it”.
Post celebrations this week, the risk analyst will decide whether or not it’s time to purchase some Gillette. “We’ll see, we’ll see how the celebrations go and I’ll decide then,” he told The Clare Echo.
As he marked a decade as an Inagh/Kilnamona senior hurler, Darren picked up the ultimate prize when featuring for the full hour as they were crowned Clare SHC champions for the first time. An unused substitute for his first year on the panel, he said, “I’ve been slowly building into it”. He continued, “since I came in we’ve been told we’d be winning all this and all that but I’ve been waiting a long time to get one, it has been a relief”.
At the helm of Inagh/Kilnamona’s success was Darren’s father Eugene. The family dynamic has been tricky, the industrious wing-back admitted. “Truthfully it is a disaster around the house the week of a game because you can’t look at him, you can’t ask him for nothing or discuss X and Y, he is really able to step away from it and view me as a player not a son, I’m sure some days I hear about it like when I’m bad in training but he is very good to step away from it. He values everyone’s thoughts on it, even my mother like and she wouldn’t know much about hurling but he would still be asking, he is very good to step away and get the views to go from there. We have had fights over the dinner table but look sometimes that happens and that is how it works”.
His younger brother Jack was also part of the panel and was one of the standout players for the club’s second team when they qualified for the Clare IHC after overcoming Kilmaley on Friday night. “My brother has been there with us training with us the last couple of years, he is able to put them over when it is his day, we’d be tearing strips off each other at training, then you’d come home and you’d be looking at him saying you could have done more today, it is unique but I’m used to it at this stage because it is the third year of my ten years, we’ve got the result now and there’s very little niggling at me now”.
According to the twenty seven year old, the Cullinan household will be very happy for the winter. “There won’t be a sod of work done all winter, he takes it too seriously nearly some days, it takes over his life, it is nice for him to get just reward for all the time he puts into it, I never realised the amount of time that goes into it until he took over teams, it is a full-time job these days, ringing X, Y and Z, it is a full-time gig so fair play to him but keep me out of it”.
