*Amy Colleran with her husband Tadhg Nagle during the Munster SHC meeting of Clare and Cork.
QUIN’s Amy Colleran has experience of winning All-Ireland titles with Clare in Croke Park but she has had to become accustomed to cheering on her beloved county surrounded by a sea of red.
For the past fifteen years, Amy has lived in Cork and resides in the city with her husband Tadhg and three daughters Ellen, Anna and Lucy.
She was part of the Clare panel crowned All-Ireland junior camogie champions in 2008. At the time, this was the county’s first team and their success came twelve months after a heartbreaking loss to Derry when Amy was corner back, along with defeats to Dublin (2005) and Galway (2003).
Now working as a Director with Johnson & Johnson, Amy admitted one of the most frequent text messages she is receiving in advance of Sunday’s hurling final is to see what jersey her three daughters will be wearing. “They said they’d shout for both, they are equal enough in fairness, my husband is saying otherwise though”.
Although Cork reached the All-Ireland final three years ago when they lost out to Limerick 3-32 1-22, there is a growing confidence down by the banks of the River Lee that the Rebels can win a first All-Ireland SHC title since 2005. “There seems to be a great excitement, they are looking forward to it based on the last performance vs Limerick, they are saying they know they can do it but they have to give the same level of performance, there is a confidence there but they know they need to give a good performance, remember when they played Clare in Páirc Uí Chaoimh and Clare narrowly won, it will be a fair enough battle,” Amy outlined.
Outside of Cork, it has been remarked that ‘Corkness has gone into overdrive’ which translates as their confidence has gone through the roof and they fully expect to wipe the floor with Clare. This is not necessarily an accurate picture according to Amy. “It depends who you are hanging out with it I guess but the people I’m with are modest, the bunting is gone up all over the place and the signage is out from local businesses, they are very good supporters, I don’t see an air of confidence to be honest. They would be fair enough asking if I think Clare will do it, they see it as fifty fifty battle and the view is that the best team will come out on top”.
At club level, Amy won intermediate championships with Clooney/Quin forming a vital part of their defence as they challenged for honours in the top tier but lost three senior finals in a row in 2012, 2013 and 2014.
Given the Colleran family is such a vast network, the strong links to the parish remain and she is particularly proud to see two of her club members Peter Duggan and Ryan Taylor line out in an All-Ireland final while the promising Jack O’Neill has recently been added to the senior squad.
“When I was at the Clare and Cork game in Páirc Uí Chaoimh I was surrounded by Cork supporters because it was my husband that got the tickets, I was one Clare jersey in a sea of red. Peter had a great game that day catching balls everywhere and the last day Ryan Taylor made a great impact, you’d hope they will play the best that they can, if they do and each of the Clare team do then Clare have a winning chance. You’d be seeing them (Peter and Ryan) when they were smaller, Peter’s cousin Mike trained us for years in the camogie and you’d be shouting them on as loud as you can even though I was surrounded by Cork supporters, I noticed the children with those trumpets got louder to try match me as the game was going on”.
Having been nine years involved with Clare camogie, Amy is able to recall many fond memories and “great times” while her teammates will be able to point out that there are few better carrot cakes to be had than those whipped up in the Colleran household, modern day inter-county set-ups may be stricter on such gifts.
Now she is kept busy as Ellen and Anna’s camogie and ladies football careers take flight with St Finbarr’s with youngest Lucy on course to join them in the coming years. “It is great for making the friends, having the confidence playing and being part of a team, they both play football and camogie with the Barrs, it is a fantastic club who really look after their players and they get to play a good lot of matches, I was stuck at two blitzes on Sunday, one for the U9s and the U11s but I’m hoping the girls will keep it up and continue to enjoy it”.
Turning focus back to Sunday’s All-Ireland final, Amy believes if Clare deliver the performance they are capable of then Tony Kelly will be lifting the Liam McCarthy. “I think Clare have won all the way through without everyone playing well in the one match, I think Cork had their big match against Limerick, I hope Clare can bring the performance they are due, they have been coming and coming, Ryan Taylor is back but we really need to be getting the right type of ball into Shane O’Donnell, if we can have Peter continuing to make the big catches, Eibhear has been fantastic and I really think if we get the ball into O’Donnell I’d be very hopeful. It will be a very close match and I hope that it is because I don’t want any of the teams to under-perform which can happen in a final. I’d be hoping Clare by two, my husband has the same prediction for Cork but if we get the performance that we need from Clare then I think they can do it”.
