*Francis McInerney.
FRANCIS McInerney is the only living Clare man to have captained the county to glory in the Munster senior football championship and he’d only love to have that title taken away from him this weekend.
On Clare football’s greatest day, Doonbeg native Francis was centre forward and captain as they defeated Kerry to win the 1992 Munster senior football championship. Back in 1917, corner back Jim Foran from Kilkee had the distinction of captaining the county to Munster glory.
Cillian Brennan of Clondegad leads Clare into battle for Sunday’s Munster final versus Kerry in Fitzgerald Stadium, Killarney.
To have some form of company in the history books would be most welcome, McInerney admitted. “You’d be hoping it would happen soon enough, we were hoping it would happen in the last twenty years, I was lucky enough to be captain because of Doonbeg’s dominance, I was lucky enough to be asked to hold the cup because we had plenty of leaders on the team, Noel Roche was an outstanding player for Clare and Ireland, he was a great example to all of us and a lot of the older players were a great example and they drove it into us that it was important to put our best foot forward and not to give up, keep fighting for the Clare jersey”.
Munster finals bring a level of excitement that only big occasions can do, Francis acknowledged but the task is made more difficult when you have to go to the lions den. “Last year when it was in Cusack Park it had a big buzz, we didn’t think it would come back so soon but going to Killarney or any pitch in Kerry is a big ask, it is a day to dig in and give it your all, we know we won’t be out of the championship but you want to put your best foot forward on the final day. Last year was a great performance, against Kerry you have to take all your chances when you can, the more confident Kerry get the more lethal they are, you have to be clinical in your chances and stay in the game as long as possible, it was a great performance last year in front of a big crowd in Ennis, maybe it hasn’t the same buzz as last year but it is a Munster final, you create your own motivation to do well”.
Back in 1992, the motivation was seizing the opportunity, not just the prospect for glory but maximising the chance created by Miltown Malbay’s Noel Walsh in having an open draw. “Noel Walsh had campaigned for the open draw as a proud Clare man, all of a sudden Clare were in a Munster final, it is so long ago now but I can remember we had a good league campaign, we played a lot of challenge games and competed well, we played well the year before but ran out of steam, we were a good bit fitter the following year, maybe Kerry weren’t at their highest level but we had confidence we were going to do well, if you don’t believe in yourself it definitely won’t happen, I won’t say we were cocky about it but we were hopeful we were going to do well and give it everything, we had a good solid league campaign behind us,” McInerney recalled.
This year’s crop which includes his son Mark at corner forward have reached three Munster finals in a row, a feat the team of the 1990s were not able to achieve. “I think I only played in two Munster finals ever, the following year Cork with Colin Corkery beat us in Ennis which was a big disappointment, we didn’t play well that day, after that it kind of fell away a bit, the core of the team was there but with Clare being such a small pick you need a while to get back into the routine. We competed well for a few years in the 1990s with Cork, we got to the final in 1997, we possibly could have beaten Kerry on another day but they went on to win the All-Ireland, there was no back door at the time, we competed well under John O’Keeffe in the 1990s. It goes in cycles in Clare with a relatively small pool of players to pick from, everyone has to peak together to make inroads into the championship”.
He continued, “John O’Keeffe came in after John Maughan, he was one of the all-time great full-backs, he was on the team of the millennium, he came in and he tried to improve Clare, I think he did that, we beat Cork, we were competitive with them in the 1990s, we were unlucky to lose in Páirc Uí Chaoimh on two occasions, it was a great day over in Cusack Park when Martin Daly got a last-minute winner, great scenes before that Munster final with Kerry who had a lot of stalwarts like Maurice Fitzgerald and Seamus Moynihan, they were great days looking back”.
Thirty three years on, the honour of getting to captain Clare to Munster success is savoured by Francis. “I was so lucky to lift the cup, Doonbeg had won the championship the year before and at that stage the county champions had the honour of nominating the captain, I was lucky enough that John (Maughan) asked me to be captain, in Doonbeg we had Pat Blake (RIP), Gerry Killeen, Kieran O’Mahoney, Padraig Conway, we had a good club team and I was lucky to be captain. Lifting the cup on behalf of the county and the club was a great honour, the whole year the camaraderie we had and we even have that now, we have a bond still to this day. Playing for Clare, looking back it might not be games or moments that stand out, it is the fun you had, the hard training sessions and the camaraderie built up with the lads, everyone had pride in the Clare jersey”.
Two of his teammates on that famous day, Dermot Coughlan and Brendan ‘Beano’ Rouine also have sons on the 2025 panel with Dermot Coughlan, Cillian Rouine and Brendy Rouine lining out alongside Mark. “When you start having children and if they are interested in the GAA you will meet the lads you played with, It is great that we have Dermot and Beano, they have done trojan work with Clare football and that Dermot, Cillian and Brendy have an involvement in Clare football, they are great lads, it would be nice if the three lads could do something together if not this year over the coming years”.
His own inter-county career lasted from 1986 to 1998, the call-up came following a senior club campaign with Doonbeg where they reached the semi-finals losing out to Éire Óg on a score of 2-6 0-11. “I went all the way until 1998 when we got beaten by Tipperary in the championship, we started out in Division 3 (South) which was Division 4 really, we went through the Divisions in the 1990s and up to Division 1 for one or two years, a lot of the lads I played with like Aiden Moloney, Gerry Killeen, Pat Blake, Martin Flynn, Noel Roche, Noel Normoyle who kept the squad together, I was delighted to be part of the 1992 set-up and that they got reward for their years, I won’t say there was no glory in playing football for Clare but it was a lonely road, it was nice to get something out of it, it was enjoyable, any of the lads I played with in the 80s or 90s when you’d meet you’d have a smile, a handshake and a few stories, we had great characters”.
There’s plenty character within the 2025 team, he noted. “They have great resilience, great pride in playing for the jersey, they want to do well, football has changed quite a good bit from my day with the level of fitness, tactics, analysis, strength and conditioning, the game itself has changed but this year it is coming back to what it was, back in our day you wouldn’t dream of turning around and kicking the ball backwards you’d be told what to do with it, it was more up and at them and more contests, it has gone back to that this year, the team itself are young, they have a good bond, they are very talented footballers, lots of them have played Sigerson and are used to playing at a high level, like all Clare teams in the past they have pride in the jersey, they will put up a good fight on Sunday”.
For Sunday, he is hopeful they receive a strong Clare support in Killarney. “To have a vocal support is very important, to know win, lose or draw you will have a core group of supporters going to support ye, any of the lads that put on the Clare jersey they have months given to training, you’d be hoping it would go well for them but it doesn’t go well for everybody, when I started off in Division 3 you had to be encouraged to keep going because eventually the good days will come, it would be very easy for people to throw in the towel, the more support you get the better, the hurlers are on a high as All-Ireland champions and rightly so, they get great support and the footballers deserve every bit of support because every county is putting in the same effort, the lads are minding themselves and it’s for the love of the jersey, they deserve all the support they can get”.
In the role of supportive parent, Francis is kept busy, not just with the Clare footballers but also on the rugby front where his daughter Alanna lines out with UL Bohs, Munster and the Irish sevens side. “She’s doing well with UL Bohs and the Irish 7s, it is great to be involved in sport, there’s good opportunities for girls as well, it is a nice contrast to see the different approaches from the parent in rugby to the parent in the GAA, they have different traditions. You don’t say too much on the rugby pitch, you keep your opinions to yourself and try be positive in everything, with the GAA you let your emotions out a bit more”.
Still when it comes to GAA, he’s not one for telling Mark how to play the game. “I’ve had my day and Mark can make his own decisions but it is hard sometimes to stay quiet, the lads will make their own mistakes, we’re there to support them, I like to go to the games and to be in the terrace so I can move away if I don’t like what is being said, you’d hope they go out and do their best, they have trained hard, they are following the regime and what is required, you’d be proud anytime your children put on the Clare jersey”.
Leading up to matches, he tends to say little by way of advice, “You stay quiet, they are well able to make their own decisions, I have my own opinions about this and that, it is trying to encourage them, I have my ideas and he has his, it is more to be there, tell them to do their best and we’ll be there to help along”.
There’s a different set of nerves experienced from his playing days to his parenting days. “Playing wise as you get older you begin to say ‘is today the day I’m going to get roasted’, when you’re younger you think you’re the bees knees and the man, as you get older you begin to worry that it might not go well and you hope there isn’t a big crowd watching it. You’d be nervous that they won’t be injured and they get to walk off the field with no bother and get to live to fight another day, injuries can set you back, that is the main concern and that for all the effort they put in if you are not confident then all of that work can go, go out with a bit of confidence and we can worry about ourselves afterwards”.
Seeing Mark back in attack after deputising as sub-goalkeeper during the Allianz National Football League is a welcome sight. “I don’t know what happens in training so it was a surprise to see him as a sub-goalkeeper, he just wants to be involved, he did whatever Peter asked of him, he wants to play as a forward which is where he plays for his club, when you get the chances you have to take them and as a forward you have to make the chances and take them”.
In 1989, he moved to Ennis with fellow Magpies, Kieran O’Mahoney and Padraig Conway. “I have been here ever since but I’m far from a Townie,” he quipped.
A Munster club winner with Doonbeg in 1998 and the holder of seven Clare SFC medals, Francis says the prospect of his son Mark a three-time Clare SFC winner with Éire Óg lining out with the Magpies in the future is unlikely. “You’d have to ask him that but I doubt it at this stage, a few of the championship games playing against the Magpies have been hairy enough. The record is 1-1 now, I’m hoping for the championship draw that they don’t come out against each other”.
Meetings between Doonbeg and Éire Óg brings an hour of mixed emotions, he admitted. “You’d be supporting your own lads and hoping they come out with it and play well, Éire Óg have been lucky, they’ve a few championships won and have a good squad, it’s enjoyable to watch the games, I was supporting the lads as best I can”.
Taking on Kerry is never easy, not to mention when it’s in their own backyard, McInerney said. “I don’t think you can ever go out and say you are sure Clare are going to beat Kerry in Killarney, you’d just hope for a good performance and see what happens, it would be a big ask in fairness, we live in hope but they are definitely underdogs, as long as they put up a good fight and a good performance I’d be happy”.
